Giraud Case Trimmer

[djl4570]

The Giraud Case Trimmer rocks!

http://www.giraudtool.com/

In the past trimming cases has been my most time consuming and tedious case preparation task. Using my new Giraud Case Trimmer I can routinely trim over 100 cases in less than 15 minutes without rushing the work. It works out to about six to eight seconds per case. The unit arrived very quickly and was completey set up for .308 Winchester cases. All I had to do was find some sized cases, plug in the trimmer and throw the switch.

You feed the case into the spring loaded case holder and down onto the cutter, the cutter trims and champhers the inside and outside of the case mouth. Remove the case and do the next case. A small amount of lateral torque helps seat the case firmly in the shell holder and reduces chatter. Chatter is only a problem on previously untrimmed cases. The unit is mounted in a bracket with rubber feet on two sides that allow you to orient the unit for horizontal or vertical feed. I chose vertical so I wouldn't slide the unit when pressing a case into the cutter.

Cleanup consists of placing the unit upside down over a trash can, Sliding the the plastic chip guard off the spindle housing and letting the chips fall into the trash.

Using my olde Forster; trimming 100 cases would have taken close to an hour plus another 20 minutes to champher the case mouths. More time for cleanup because the Forster throws chips everywhere when you turn it with a drill motor.

The Giraud trimmer does make a fair amount of noise but no more than the drill motor I use to turn the Forster. Not a problem if you're watching a game on the tube where you don't really need to listen to the audio portion.

After using the case trimmer for around 600 cases I noticed quite a bit of chatter while trimming the cases. I later discovered that much of the chatter was caused by the shell holder coming loose. Unfortunately I did not discover this until after I had trimmed ~300 sized cases about .015" too short. The first 600 cases were trimmed perfectly so I had little reason to suspect that the shell holder that sets the length was going to move. Because of the large volume of cases you can trim with this unit check your trim length often in a case gauge or with calipers. I check at least three cases out of every 50. I added a bit of blue loctite to the shell holder locknut to reduce the chances of it coming loose again. Since doing this I have trimmed over six hundred cases and there is no sign of it coming loose. The shell holder is threaded with the standard 7/8-14 thread so any lock nut can be used. I am a bit wary of using a split steel lock nut because I do not want to distort the shell holder but the RCBS style with a brass set screw may work just fine.

At US$330.00 plus shipping it is expensive but well worth the investment for anyone who has a lot of brass to trim. You need a shell holder for each cartridge but they're not very expensive.

 

[Dave P]

"You need a shell holder for each cartridge " - and how long does it take to setup for another caliber? I assume you have to manually tweak the OAL adjustment?

Every time I trim case (very often!) I consider this buying this machine.

These days I use a EJS (Sinclair) trimmer in a drill press. Trim to length is pretty fast, then change tool to chamfer inside, then change tool to chamfer outside. 3 steps, but still fairly fast and painless. Changing calbers is easy, cause you use a different EJS tool that is already set up for the right length.

Dave

 

[djl4570]

When I adjusted the shell holder after it came loose it took less than ten minutes using a properly trimmed case as a gauge. The shell holder is threaded with a standard 7.8-14 thread so you can use standard reloading die lock nuts. If you secure the shell holder with a split ring lock nut such as those by Hornady it should give you repeatability each time you secure it to the spindle housing. I would be cautious of how tightly the lock ring is secured to the shell holder to avoid distorting the holder. I have not fiddled with adjusting the cutter for different calibers. I bought this unit for my 30 caliber M14 brass and will use the Forster for the more modest amount of cases in other calibers.

If you have small numbers of cases in lots of different calibers then the drill press unit may be a better choice for you.

 

[dhg2]

djl4570,

There is no need to worry about a lock nut damaging your case holder. If you can damage one with a normal reloading clamping lock ring, I will replace it free of charge. I seriously doubt that a single 6-32 screw will compress the stainless case holder before the screw strips or shears. I would be more afraid of the RCBS types that impenge the set screw directly on the threads causing any damage. But even those could be repaired with a small file and five minutes of patience.

To change calibers, the case holder is removed from the trimmer body, the cutter head is removed using a set of spanner wrenches provided, another cutting head pre-adjusted to the correct caliber is installed, and the second case holder is threaded into the trimmer body. A sample case is inserted while the case holder as it is threaded in to set the starting point for the overall length. Tighten the lock nut and try trimming the sample case. Check for length. Loosen the case holder lock nut and adjust in or out to set the proper length, tighten the lock nut and try again. Usually takes about 3 minutes from start to finish.

Thanks,
Doug Giraud
Giraud Tool Company