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I'm sorry I did not ask correct. Yes a neck turner. When you say pumpkin, is this the rcbs one? Does this feed as you turn? Is there a good electric? The hand operated one's seems tiedius.
As for doing it by hand or powered, all you need to add to the pumpkin to turn necks in 5-6 seconds per case is these 2 cheap items and a cordless drill.
The pumpkin turner is called the "Nielson Neck Turner." Everyone calls it the pumpkin turner. It is available from Bruno Shooter's Supply for $200. You will also need the expander die and mandrel. It comes with one mandrel and costs $50.
It is tough to find on the www.brunoshooters.com website. Just go to the website, do a search on Nielson, and it comes up. I was never able to find it through the standard navigation. You will find out all about the pumpkin by searching for "pumpkin" on the 6mmbr forums as well as the benchrest.com forums.
I have a total of 4 different neck turning tools. One I made. Two different styles from Sinclair's, (one has an indicator on it of adjustment.) The last one I bough in 2002 is the Pumpkin turner. I have found that when combined with the carbide mandrel and a 1/2" KEYLESS cordless 18 volt drill, it is by all means the best I have ever used. The carbide mandrel will not heat up as bad when lubricated correctly. Most other mandrels heat up a lot and very quickly. The 1/2" drill keyless chuck will hold 308 and 30-06 with ease. But belted cases like the 300 WinMag don't work too well. At least in the DeWalt I have. I also have a 5/8" drill. I have thought about using it for the 300 WinMag cases. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I looked at both, and I myself think the K&M looks sweet when used with a drill. Nice shinny neck, not all knurled up. I watched the video on youtube. I might just have to go with it.
I would rather trim with power. I watched the youtube video with the K&M used with a lee chuck, It produced a very nice neck turn. I liked it alot. I will continue to research turners. It may take me weeks till I research them enough before I buy.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: furtaker_.223</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Has any one used the drill with the K&M? From what I seen, looks great... </div></div>
The guy using the drill with the neck turner in the video in the attached thread is using a K & M neck turner.
Does K&M still use a steel cutter? The carbide turning mandrel and cutter were selling points for the pumpkin for me. I read somewhere that the pumpkin is less susceptible to heat changing the cutting depth. I don't remember where I read that, though.
The solution was to toss the turner in some ice while changing out the cases in the screwdriver. The K&M is certainly a lot cheaper.
You can easily take those out and resharpen to fit your neck angle. Their mandrels used to be available with or without cutting edge. I get the ones with the cutting edge so that it cuts the doughnut on the inside as you are turning the outside. Of course, you can back out the cutter and run the cutting mandrel if you just want to remove the doughnuts when they form.
Most all of them will do a good job.The main difference between the cheapest and most expensive is the way they adjust.The more expensive ones are eaiser to get the neck thickness you want and eaiser to return to the same meausurement.The Pumkin uses a different design than the others.A cordless screwdriver works well with a set of Sinclair drivers,and is slow enough that nothing gets hot.I usually buy another tool when I get a new cartrige that requires turning,and leave it set for that cut. Pete
I used the K&M neck turners for years and they are good neck turners but I recently bought a Nielson Pumpkin and then 2 more and sold my K&M's. The Pumpkin is way easier to set up and the cutter is wider and makes a smoother cut.
Just Ordered everything from K&M for my .223 and .308, I will post what I think of it in a few days. I talked to one of there techs today, and was very nice and very helpful. He told me that if I have any problem, they will take care of it right away and free of charge. He told me how to do the process and also suggested the carbide if you have or doughnuts. And also to use it on virgen brass.
Well, I got the K&M turner in today, And I must say, WOW. Great tool. I turned about 20 pieces today of .223 and was amazed. I didnt try with the cordless drill, only by hand, but still came out great. Now the question is, will they now help tighten up the groups?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: furtaker_.223</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now the question is, will they now help tighten up the groups? </div></div>
No, for that you need to tighten up the nut behind the stock. j/k
Not stupid at all. A standard (aka no neck turn) chamber is just that, a standard chamber with enough neck clearance to run brass right out of the bag/box without neck turning.
A neck turn chamber is designed for brass neckturned to a specific thickness. People do this for a couple of reasons. First, they feel that factory brass has too much brass in the neck area, so they turn the necks to their liking. since they neck is thinner now, a standard neck chamber would be too large for their liking, so they go with a neck turn chamber 1-3 thousands over what a loaded round measures.