I have a bucket full of 2-3/4" Federal papers. I plan on making 2-1/2" cartridges to use in my H. Atkin 12g.
Is there a simple and clean way to shorten these cases?
Thanks.
Yup, jigs that are 3d printed sold on ebay and harbor freight sells a low dollar mini chop saw. I no longer re-load shotgun shells but I was visiting a buddy and he reloads 2&1/2" 12 bore. He showed me his set up like that and it is quite slick.
Steve - thanks for the ideas. I think I'll make a jig and use a cutoff wheel in my die grinder...
I drill about a dozen or more holes in the wide side of a 2x4 just large enough to insert the hull to be cut. Set the guide of a table saw the correct distance from the blade, insert the hulls in the drilled holes and cut away. It takes very little time to cut a bunch of cases.
This fellow makes a good one. Lots of happy trimmers.
http://www.16ga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21288
Well worth the money. Great trimmer!!!!!
I tried several of the commercially made cutters. Most of them were pure junk and really hard to get a clean trim from. I made a simple jig out of scrap plywood to use on my chop saw and never looked back. The jig took less than ten minutes to make @ zero cost.
I made one out of wood and a razor blade. It has a dowel with shims under to adjust the height of the cut. It takes about 5 seconds a case to cut them off with it.
Thanks. I have a 'Trim Doctor' from Ballistic Products. Works OK on plastic hulls, but not too well on papers.In addition, it is a pain to remove the cut-off portion after cutting. Really slow for any volume use.
I have made case trimmers from a dowel and an eXacto knife blade. Again, works on plastic, not so good on papers.
I am now looking at mini chop saws with a cut depth of 1" or so. Some of these products can only make a 3/8" cut.
Wingshooter is a better woodworker than I am, but here's what I did.
I made a sliding jig for my tablesaw.
Zero clearance table insert.
Hull jig slides in the table slot.
The 3/8" guide rail indexes the jig to the blade for squareness and reproducibility.
The top block is drilled like Daryl said, and attached to the mini-panel cutter.
Push cut off hull out with a dowel.
The blade is never exposed.
One of many ways to clip a hull cleanly.
Seems like once I did about 250, I never needed to do anymore.
ClapperZapper
Do you have any pictures of your setup?