Trim-It II Brass Trimmer Feedback

[treillw]

Need a trimmer for about 4000 pieces of 5.56 brass. Also have the oddball lots of a 100 cases for various calibers - .243, 6.5 CM, 300 win, etc.

I definitely want something that trims, chamfers and deburrs all in one operation for the 4000 pieces of 5.56, as it will save me a lot of time. The two options I've come across are the Trim-It II and the Giraurd Triway. The Trim-It can be modified to trim multiple calibers and the Triway is specific to one caliber.

Curious how hard it is to setup the Trim-It. Is is worth fussing with for 100 pieces of brass once every 5 years? I'll probably mess up 5 cases before I get things set right.

It might be worth it to buy a dedicated trimmer for the 5.56 and then just get something else to trim the random calibers and chamfer and deburr them by hand.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[db2000]

Giraud will do all 3 nicely for the 5.56 but you may get carpal tunnel in the process. Also, you can mail it off in large postal boxes and have someone else do it. 4000. That’s what I did. Actually 5k
I didn’t like the trim it. The motor was too slow and I didn’t feel the 3 way blade did a good job. Either takes a little bit to set up but with Giraud you just get an extra cutting head and it stays set up with a one screw swap out.

 

[treillw]

Giraud will do all 3 nicely for the 5.56 but you may get carpal tunnel in the process. Also, you can mail it off in large postal boxes and have someone else do it. 4000. That’s what I did. Actually 5k

To who? Cost?

 

[treillw]

Giraud will do all 3 nicely for the 5.56 but you may get carpal tunnel in the process. Also, you can mail it off in large postal boxes and have someone else do it. 4000. That’s what I did. Actually 5k
I didn’t like the trim it. The motor was too slow and I didn’t feel the 3 way blade did a good job. Either takes a little bit to set up but with Giraud you just get an extra cutting head and it stays set up with a one screw swap out.

Any better alternatives?

 

[straightshooter1]

Need a trimmer for about 4000 pieces of 5.56 brass. Also have the oddball lots of a 100 cases for various calibers - .243, 6.5 CM, 300 win, etc.

I definitely want something that trims, chamfers and deburrs all in one operation for the 4000 pieces of 5.56, as it will save me a lot of time. The two options I've come across are the Trim-It II and the Giraurd Triway. The Trim-It can be modified to trim multiple calibers and the Triway is specific to one caliber.

Curious how hard it is to setup the Trim-It. Is is worth fussing with for 100 pieces of brass once every 5 years? I'll probably mess up 5 cases before I get things set right.

It might be worth it to buy a dedicated trimmer for the 5.56 and then just get something else to trim the random calibers and chamfer and deburr them by hand.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

I have both the Trim-It II and the Tri-Way trimmers and I like both of them. However, the Trim-It is much easier to adjust and set up than the Tri-Way. Each of the trimmers is dedicated to just one of my cartridge size that I reload and will still have to make minor adjustments whenever is use a case with a different neck wall thickness. Obviously, with the Trim-It you have various dies available for the various cartridge sizes you're trimming and the Tri-way doesn't and Tri-Way not a good choice for that situation. Giraud does have their Power Trimmer with various dies for various cartridge sizes and a good choice when you're trimming several cartridges sizes. Also, an excellent trimmer for multiple cartridge sizes is the Henderson trimmer and uses different trimming heads for different calibers. The Henderson and Giraud's Power Trimmer are a bit pricy they make fast work of 3-way trimming.

 

[CK1.0]

The thing with processing brass (especially a lot of it) is that even if you spend more money up front to get the best/fastest tools... that still doesn't make it so it's completely painless, you can only make it slightly less annoying.

A Giraud Power Trimmer, if just for those 4K of 5.56 would probably not be a bad idea, but it's only helpful for moving fast once you've learned how to get it dialed in and if you keep it that way (might as well order a spare cutter or 3). Still might get carpel tunnel lol.

IMHO there's no replacement for displacement, so I like the drill-mounted trimmers better because a decent DeWalt/Milwaukee will zip through cases as fast as you can feed it. Tedious, yes, but the results are great, and if you just roll up your sleeves and put your head down, you can power through a whole bunch in no time. I've used and like the World's Finest Trimmers, but I think the Frankford Arsenal Precision Trimmer has it beat due to how easy it is to set up and I think it comes ready to work for everything out of the box IIRC.

After trimming, I use a Hornady Case Prep Duo for most of my chamfer/deburr duties, IMHO it's just a streamlined down version of any of the other case prep centers on the market, just with only the two tools we all actually use right next to each other for easy access and none of the other crap. It's good for 100-400 rounds or so, but for thousands, I'd just get a couple of cheap standoffs so I could chuck up the chamfer and deburr heads into a DeWalt/Milwaukee again and would just do two passes through them.

I figure there's no way around processing brass being a pain in the ass, so I just choose to use the simplest, fast, and reliable tools for each specific job and just embrace the suck until it's done. For me, a lot of times, using the simple stuff and elbow grease works out better than dicking around with the fancy-pants stuff. YMMV.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I use 3 case trimmers. I use the Lee for straight wall only. It‘s ok, but not great. Adjustment really sucks….actually basically not adjustable.

Wilson lathe type trimmer. It really works smooth and easily with bottleneck rounds. Kind of sucks to do more than 100 or so.

Trim It II. This thing does take a few min to setup, but once setup, it can trim 1000’s and no need to deburr!

 

[cstumpf750]

I have a Trim-it 2 and while the concept is great, the execution is poor. The adjustment screw to align the cutter has way too much slop. I have a lathe, so I made a new screw to eliminate the slop. That was when I discovered the collar adjustment setup was crap, even if the tolerances were OK, mine were not, it still was crap and the body would cock, ruining the alignment of the cutter with the case mouth. So I made a sleeve from some half inch round stock and threaded it with 40 tpi threads. I used the original set screw with a brass chip in the hole to protect the threads. then I drilled and tapped the base plate to match. The sleeve I attached with loctite. Now it is easy to adjust because it’s not wobbling around it four directions. I went through all this because I have a lathe and I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a new solution.

I would recommend the Giraud if you only have one caliber to do, the one you put in a drill. If you have a bunch of calibers and money is no object then the Henderson is the way to go. If anyone is interested I can post photos of what I did to my Trim-it 2.

 

[nksmfamjp]

If anyone is interested I can post photos of what I did to my Trim-it 2.

There are always going to be people who cannot setup the Trim It 2. It‘s ok.

 

[cstumpf750]

There are always going to be people who cannot setup the Trim It 2. It‘s ok.

Not quite sure how to take your comment. So would you clarify what exactly you mean by it?

 

[nksmfamjp]

It takes more adjustment than any Trimmer i have ever used. Once adjusted, it can be too far out of balance. Once adjusted and balance is close, it is a great trimmer. The Giraud gets better publicity, but mostly because it is less flexible.

In reality, they are quite similar. Once you get the hang of it,it is quite easy. That said, there are many threads which complain about the Trim It 2 while praising the quite similar Giraud.

 

[cstumpf750]

It takes more adjustment than any Trimmer i have ever used. Once adjusted, it can be too far out of balance. Once adjusted and balance is close, it is a great trimmer. The Giraud gets better publicity, but mostly because it is less flexible.

In reality, they are quite similar. Once you get the hang of it,it is quite easy. That said, there are many threads which complain about the Trim It 2 while praising the quite similar Giraud.

I agree it is very adjustable, but there are QC/tolerance issues as well as a design flaw. The loose tolerance on the screw to adjust the cutter to the case mouth was an easy fix, but that just highlighted that the real problem was with both the design of the barrel base interface as well as too loose tolerances On the threads and the barrel to base. So I locked that down and made the adjustmen in the shaft with the threaded sleeve. see the attached photos.

I looked to see if there is an inexpensive way to dupl what I did without a lathe. It will take $120 for tap and die in 1/2”-40, but if you drop to 20 tpi, you could buy a 2” bolt in 1/2”-20 and cut and drill it to make the sleeve. You will still need the tap, but that size can be had for less than $20. The screw for cutter side to side is another story as I had to custom fit it to mine. But like I said, the barrel adjustment is the biggest issue.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I agree about the looseness. I wonder if Teflon tape could tighten things up. I may try that!

 

[cstumpf750]

I agree about the looseness. I wonder if Teflon tape could tighten things up. I may try that!

I think that the tolerances vary greatly depending on when you bought it. If yours is not too loose the Teflon tape may help. I got mine around Christmas time when they were located in an industrial zone south of Los Angeles. They have since moved to Corona, CA. I actually thought they had gone out of business due to Covid as their website went off line during that time. Hopefully they have fixed the tolerances on current products.

 

[Augi]

Has anyone bought a Trimit II lately?

I placed an order on their website a couple weeks ago and I immediately received an automated email with a tracking number but the product never shipped. I emailed them a week later and eventually someone replied that their mailbox was broken into and the outgoing package stolen? They said they would ship another but I haven't seen it and they are now no longer responding to emails.

There is no phone number for me to call either.

I don't know what else to do but wait a few more days and call the credit card company to cancel the charge... What a pain in the ass and waste of my time.

I guess then I will buy a couple of tri-ways in different calibers. This talk of loose thread fit and concentricity problems with the Trimit are kind of souring me to it anyway. On paper it seems like a better trimmer.

Does anyone have any other thoughts?

Augi