Frankford Arsenal case trimmer upgrades

[Gtar]

I've messed around with different case trimmers and really like the shoulder referenced setup. A Henderson trimmer costs an arm and a leg by the time you get it to Australia. I bought one of the Frankford Arsenal drill mounted cutters a while back and it worked great, it was just a bit fiddly with the plastic collets and washers and needed a separate chamfer tool. I was going to make a motor driven setup for the cutter and chamfer tools but then I saw the FA powered case trimmer for sale on Amazon for a good price and bought it. I made a few upgrades straight away. I machined the case holder setup to fit the "ugly trimmer" steel case specific pilots (that gets rid of the plastic collet and washer) and fitted a carbide cutter and inside chamfer tool to it. I've got pilots for pretty much everything I shoot and machined some blank ones for the oddball cases (6.5 SAUM and 223 Ackley).

I also designed and printed a chip catcher basket for it and replaced the little toolbox on top with a storage block for the pilots and different cutters. (The chip basket is on Thingiverse if anyone wants to print themself one).

This is actually a really good bit of gear now after a night's work machining bits and printing the parts. It's repeatable to within .001" or so and very quick.

 

[wcberry]

The chip catcher is a cool add on. Found the files on Thingiverse. Thanks.

 

[wcberry]

Works Great.

 

[Gtar]

With the carbide cutters they're a really quick little machine:

 

[wavebywave]

I've messed around with different case trimmers and really like the shoulder referenced setup. A Henderson trimmer costs an arm and a leg by the time you get it to Australia. I bought one of the Frankford Arsenal drill mounted cutters a while back and it worked great, it was just a bit fiddly with the plastic collets and washers and needed a separate chamfer tool. I was going to make a motor driven setup for the cutter and chamfer tools but then I saw the FA powered case trimmer for sale on Amazon for a good price and bought it. I made a few upgrades straight away. I machined the case holder setup to fit the "ugly trimmer" steel case specific pilots (that gets rid of the plastic collet and washer) and fitted a carbide cutter and inside chamfer tool to it. I've got pilots for pretty much everything I shoot and machined some blank ones for the oddball cases (6.5 SAUM and 223 Ackley).

I also designed and printed a chip catcher basket for it and replaced the little toolbox on top with a storage block for the pilots and different cutters. (The chip basket is on Thingiverse if anyone wants to print themself one).

This is actually a really good bit of gear now after a night's work machining bits and printing the parts. It's repeatable to within .001" or so and very quick.

Thanks so much for such a detailed post + video! I just picked up my FA prep center and I'm in the process of upgrading it myself (now shooting to replicate exactly what you did). I have the RCBS carbide cutter and carbide chamfer tool on order, and last night, I printed your chip catcher (awesome design and thanks for sharing!)

Moving forward, I'd really like to have my case holder machined like yours so it accepts "ugly trimmer" caliber specific steel pilots - any recommendation on how best to have this done? Local machinist (in Oregon)? Any advice/guidance you can share would be much appreciated. Also, have you uploaded your STL file somewhere for for the top mounted storage block that holds your ugly pilots and other various tools/cutters?

Thanks in advance for your time/help - appreciate you!

 

[Gtar]

Thanks so much for such a detailed post + video! I just picked up my FA prep center and I'm in the process of upgrading it myself (now shooting to replicate exactly what you did). I have the RCBS carbide cutter and carbide chamfer tool on order, and last night, I printed your chip catcher (awesome design and thanks for sharing!)

Moving forward, I'd really like to have my case holder machined like yours so it accepts "ugly trimmer" caliber specific steel pilots - any recommendation on how best to have this done? Local machinist (in Oregon)? Any advice/guidance you can share would be much appreciated. Also, have you uploaded your STL file somewhere for for the top mounted storage block that holds your ugly pilots and other various tools/cutters?

Thanks in advance for your time/help - appreciate you!

No problem, from memory it's a quick lathe job to remove the taper on the inside of the case holder to allow the ugly pilots to slide in, I think I took a little off the OD threaded end as well so the case mouth sits close enough to the trimmer blade, the flange on the pilot moves the case a bit futher away. It's probably a job where you need to have everything sitting there so you can machine it and test fit.

I just added the pilot tray to the design on Thingiverse. I was going to pull the machine apart to fit it but ended up just levering the original bit out with a screwdrived and popped this one in.

 

[wavebywave]

No problem, from memory it's a quick lathe job to remove the taper on the inside of the case holder to allow the ugly pilots to slide in, I think I took a little off the OD threaded end as well so the case mouth sits close enough to the trimmer blade, the flange on the pilot moves the case a bit futher away. It's probably a job where you need to have everything sitting there so you can machine it and test fit.

I just added the pilot tray to the design on Thingiverse. I was going to pull the machine apart to fit it but ended up just levering the original bit out with a screwdrived and popped this one in.

I missed my notification that you responded - thank you for uploading the additional file!

I always welcome an opportunity to buy new tools. Do you have any “garage/reloading room” sized lathe + tooling buying recommendations for me to complete this job? Anything else worth mentioning that I’d need?

Thanks again for your time and help - appreciate you!

 

[Gtar]

No problem I haven't had much to do with smaller lathes, I've got an old Colchester Master and it does pretty much anything I need to do. For the time it would take someone to do it for you it's probably about a 6-pack and you could drink half. The best improvement to the trimmer is the carbide cutter blade, it screws straight in and away you go.

 

[wavebywave]

No problem I haven't had much to do with smaller lathes, I've got an old Colchester Master and it does pretty much anything I need to do. For the time it would take someone to do it for you it's probably about a 6-pack and you could drink half. The best improvement to the trimmer is the carbide cutter blade, it screws straight in and away you go.

I'll give this some more thought - RCBS carbide cutter, chamfer, and debur tools on order. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Eo12]

Which carbide cutter are you guys using for the frankford replacement?

 

[wavebywave]

Which carbide cutter are you guys using for the frankford replacement?

I got all 3 of the carbide tools for my platinum prep center - see below. Ran about 100 cases. If you're interested in them I'll let them go. Decided to go the Henderson route as it is faster (at a much much higher cost).

RCBS90250	RCBS CASE TRIMMER CARBIDE CUTTER HEAD
RCBS90384	RCBS TRIM MATE CARBIDE CHAMFER TOOL
RCBS90385	RCBS TRIM MATE CARBIDE DEBUR TOOL