Made a cheap $50 lathe for brass prep tools.

[pugnado]

I got tired of running my hand-held drill for spinning brass prep tools and running the Lithium batteries down.

I bought some cheap chinese-ium electronics for $50 from Amazon:

18V power supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079NJ63SQ
DC motor speed controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073Z7PB5G

I found an 18V NiCD drill that was on the junk pile and pulled the guts out of it.

Put them all together with some wire and wood and now I have a spinner for my trimming tools.
I can mount it horizontally or vertically in the vise. It's got some good torque and works well.

Better than spending $175 on this, maybe: https://www.blackwidowshooters.com/product-page/case-prep-station
Or $500 on this: https://www.creedmoorsports.com/product/GIRAUD-POWER-CASE-TRIMMER

 

[Nodakplowboy]

Good idea. Saving money in this game is always a win.

 

[MarinePMI]

Methinks the Giruard is in a different class, but still, you have a nice looking home build that meets your needs, right? Great ingenuity and design!

 

[pugnado]

Methinks the Giruard is in a different class, but still, you have a nice looking home build that meets your needs, right? Great ingenuity and design!

Oh yeah, seeing videos of that thing run from what looks like a 1/2 or 1/4 HP AC motor, it's smooth and powerful.

I was seriously considering one, but for some reason, Giraud doesn't make 6.5 Creedmoor dies for it.

I've made about 175 rounds on this guy and so far so good. It's noisy (planetary drive) and the runout on the drill is atrocious, but that doesn't matter.
I suspect after continued use one of the parts will eventually die but it's a $20 fix. The power supply and controller can do 18V/15A so if I find a badass DC motor I can always upgrade. I'm also able to run it off of battery or solar panel.

The way I do my reloading, for first fired new brass I uniform the primer pocket and deburr it with the cutting implements on that rotary block.
Then I clean a bit of crap out of the neck with the bore brush and clean primer pocket and into the tumbler it goes. I do this all horizontally so the crap falls on to some tissue in-front of it. After case resizing, I put the trimmer on and put it all vertical so the trimmed brass doesn't collect inside the case or around the cutting bit.

 

[spife7980]

I was seriously considering one, but for some reason, Giraud doesn't make 6.5 Creedmoor dies for it.

Yes they do. They just dont make the drill mountable triway for it. The benchtop machine has creed case holders available. Just an fyi

I do wish that the giraud had a way to mount a primer pocket uniformer among the other tools like yours does. But the ability to easily swap out holders and cutters with perfect return-to setting made the giraud worth it in my book.

 

[Mr.Kirk]

Have had one for five years. Great for AR brass. Still like doing good stuff by hand, but I have a family to hide from. I found a big rheostat to adjust speed.