Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Case Prep Centers

I did a search on this topic and didn't find anything, so here tiz:
Considering the "affordable" units, ie: Lyman, Hornady, RCBS, etc. and excluding the $700+ unit, what, in your opinion, is the best "case prep center"? Thanks in advance.

Frankfort Arsenal Platinum Series....hands down the best I've seen or used.

I've been using a Frankford Arsenal trim and prep center for about eight years now.It does a great job trimming and prepping bottleneck brass,it doesn't trim straight wall cases.I paid $130 for mine back then,the newer ones are closer to $200 now,but still if you buy a trimmer,chamfer,deburr and primer pocket tools separately you getting close to that amount.I can do all the case prep operations at a rate of 4-5 cases a minute. This is the one I have.You can shop around and maybe get a better price.
https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Platinum-Hardened-Scrapers/dp/B00HS7JEB4?th=1

I have one of the old RCBS units that was one of the first on the market. It is still chugging along. I also bought the new RCBS unit. It has variable speed controlled by a rheostat. A good friend has the Lyman, but the RCBS is my preference.

Lyman works for me: no problems, does a good job mor consistently than I can do by hand. Also, it's not too expensive.

I have the Lyman and really, really like it.

I have the Frankford Arsenal and really like it. I did replace the case trimmer cutter after a year. The new one is so much better. For $18 spent, I’m not complaining. The original one cut rough no matter what I did. Bought a new one, installed it and no issues since then. I can say I’ve trimmed 3x’s the cases with the new cutter that the old one did. I like how I can adjust it to trim 6mm ARC and then adjust to .338 Win all in about a minute or two.

Frankford Arsenal............Great tool, reasonable price.

My only complaint is the schittty cutter for the trimmer
Even with an upgrade one, 500 cases is about it as the time required to trim just increases a lot.

If I could find a reasonably priced carbide one, that would make my day.

MM

I really like my FA case prep center. The cutter on it, must be pretty good, as I've trimmed thousands of cases. With that being said, I am not trimming a bunch off of each case, as most of my cases don't stretch much because the dies are set up properly.

What I noticed about the cutter on the trimmer is,if your brass is getting hard it lets you know it.It cuts soft brass OK,but at around the forth firing,you will notice it starts to chatter when trimming.If you anneal that same brass,the chatter will go away.

Same here. Sure saves time too.

I don't know if it's the best or not nowadays but I've got the original RCBS prep center. God only knows how many hours I think is ran but it is a bunch still trucking along like no it is kind of noisy though..

I don't use my RCBS prep center much anymore since I bought 3-way trimmers. I use it on new brass to true up flash holes and primer pockets, but I haven't bought new brass for a few years now.

Is there a country of origin list of the prep centers being discussed?

They all come from China so why discuss it?

Thanks. Was hoping for an anomaly.

I replaced the original cutter with a RCBS carbide cutter.

LOL!! So true......

I have the Lyman - I like it.

I have a Lyman and an older RCBS unit and they both work well.