unaversally adjustable case trimmer motorized

[BUTCH HAIRFIELD]

ok all you bullet swagers out there.   what would you all say to a motorized cup trimmer that you could trim your cups from .5 inches long to 2 inches long and from 458 caliber and down regardless of the wall thickness.    
the cost on the unit would be about 200 dollars plus the collet holders.    

what i had in mind was figuring out some way to mount a dillan case trimmer on its side them set up a sleave that a 3c collet cluld be slipped through holding a cup and run the cup up aggenst the cutter blade to trim off the excess.    this will leave a burr but that can be taken care of vary easly.

i have already done something like this using a gracey motorized case trimmer and it works ok but i think a little pricey and slow.   the total investment i have in this is not firm but it is between 2 and 3 houndred dollars also.

chew on the idea and lets talk.

butch

[talon]

Butch, what are your thoughts about making this item also able to cut rigid copper tube into "jacket blanks". Also, any comments about the blade's capability of lasting a long time cutting thru at least .020 cup walls. As I've said before I use a band saw to cut tubing, but this is really dangerous when it come to cutting a 1" long cup to .950" (for instance). Also, others on this board have pointed out the problems of getting good quality blades for small cut-off saws.  

[BUTCH HAIRFIELD]

the dillion case trimmer uses a carbide insert to do the work with and will eat up copper almost as fast as you can fead it into it.   the over cut on the copper tubing is no problem you just stick the tube in the collet and set the length and cut away.  if you do it on the bottom rather than on the mouth this makes it even better because that end gets rolled over in the die anyway and you do not have to debure it again.  

now on the gracey trimmer uint i mentioned.   this is a little differant anamal.  it not only can trim to length but deburs the inside and outside of the cup or peace of copper tubing as well all in one stroke.  it has two steal blades that can be easly resharpened and have to be reset for each caliber and wall thickness.   weither the cup is a finished cup or a peace of tubing just after you choped it off the stick it makes no differance.

the best part about both of these is you can take the unit and still use it as a powered case trimmer.   not bad two thing for the price of one.


something you might want to think about for cutting off copper tubing on your band saw is a enco 5c collet holder L bracket.   if you send me an email i will copy the catalog page to you in pdf format to show you what i am talking about.   all you would have to do is mount a key on the bottom of it to match the one in your band saw table and then set up a slide stop to stop the copper tubing at the length you want to cut off.   if you were real tool orentated you could set up a deburing tool in a moto tool or something similar and after setting the length debure the mouth and then slide it through the blade to cut it off.

like i said lets put our heads togeather and see if we can come up with some better ways to skin this cat.  

by the way i nock off .5 to 1 cent each on my cup prices if i do not have to bother with the trimming of them.

butch