Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Powered Trimmer Project

First let me state I hate trimming brass , I shoot a lot of AI calibers for this reason . I’ve tried a lot of different trimmer but find it tedious, the most simple being the old Lee ZIP trim. Over the years I have accumulated most of the pilots and shell holders from Lee . Tragedy…. My old ZIP TRIM gave out and of course the needed parts are no longer available, in fact I couldn’t locate a trimmer that used the same pilot cutter configuration…. I am not one to throw away tooling .
After disassembly of the old trimmer I had the arbor turned down to fit into a small pin chuck , I purchased a small “bead” lathe on line for about $50 ….now the arbor fits the chuck , the motor is variable speed and all my pre-owned tooling for many calibers works as original …. If anything the higher speed is more precise.

I use a Wilson case trimmer....by design nothing is as precise as a Wilson.

Wilson makes a cutter attachment that works on a drill I just never saw the need to buy one.

That Wilson’s / Sinclair unit is a nicely machined piece of equipment, similar to the Lee it requires multiple caliber specific jigs .

I had multiple pilots and holders from Lee and assumed there would be many with the same .