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Henderson trimmer as an IDOD

Coosawfisher

Private
Minuteman
Sep 3, 2023
13
21
Raleigh, NC
Been using a Henderson trimmer for a while. Every once in a while I will look at the thing and think: “If they engineered thus-and-so to go here … it would make a jim-dandy IDOD neck turner.”

But then, a friend of mine's words come to mind: "Be careful of all that thinkin'. It's overrated.

Anyone else thought about it?
 
You’d have too much potential wobble. When you don’t use a pilot, the only way you can get an even neck wall thickness is to cut out all the runout.

For example, the actual IDOD’s lightest cut it can make is whatever the runout is on the neck. You can’t skim cut. And that’s when holding the case body itself.

Hence something like the 21st century neck turner using a floating head and pilot. That allows the case to float and make even skim cuts. And obviously you can’t inside cut when using a pilot.
 
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Forster had - maybe still has - an attachment like that for their trimmer. Back in the bad ol' days of the 6.5-08, it was pretty common to need to neck turn brass after necking down due to the increase in neck thickness. More than one person I knew would set up the Forster cutter head in a drill press (they had a base that would clamp to the DP table and hold the case head) and use that to turn necks in bulk.

It worked... sorta. Drill presses in general aren't reknowned for their low spindle runout. The Henderson would most likely be 'better', but as good as a purpose built IDOD? Probably not even close.