Gracey case trimmer

[KY DAN]

I purchased a gracey power case trimmer in the fall of 2020.

I have not used it since, I have a 308 and 223 case insert and a Giurad 3 way carbide cutter for the unit.

My 223 cases taper lock on entering and have to be removed with pliers, bear in mind this unit should work off the electric pencil sharpener practice of inserting and twisting 1/4 turn until the case neck reaches the internal shoulder of insert thus creating a stop.

This is not a case issue as based on other forums people had the same issue with 223 rem and the only solution was a properly machined replacement insert from Gracey.

Gracey is out of business near as I can tell as all forms of contact and websites are obsolete.

I think if an appropriate reamer were spun through this insert all issues could be restored.

What is the thoughts of the forum?

 

[garandsrus]

Hi,

I have a Gracey trimmer and use it quite a bit. I purchased a 30-06 and 223 case holder when I bought the trimmer. Both work as designed. I also use the Giraud trimming blade.

You are resizing your cases prior to trimming, right? The case holder is only designed to work with sized cases. Trying to trim an unsized case would have problems like you are mentioning.

Here is a source for case holders: https://www.creedmoorsports.com/product/gracey-case-holder/case-trimming

I have a lathe and have made case holders for quite a few different calibers. The only critical dimensions are the neck opening size and the diameter where the case body meets the shell holder.

 

[KY DAN]

Hi,

I have a Gracey trimmer and use it quite a bit. I purchased a 30-06 and 223 case holder when I bought the trimmer. Both work as designed. I also use the Giraud trimming blade.

You are resizing your cases prior to trimming, right? The case holder is only designed to work with sized cases. Trying to trim an unsized case would have problems like you are mentioning.

Here is a source for case holders: https://www.creedmoorsports.com/product/gracey-case-holder/case-trimming

I have a lathe and have made case holders for quite a few different calibers. The only critical dimensions are the neck opening size and the diameter where the case body meets the shell holder.

Cases are full length resized and drop in a headspace check gage.

I would be interested in learning more about your self manufactured inserts.

Also I did order a 223 case holder from there, they are custom made items and I hope it works because with out it this thing is worthless

 

[garandsrus]

The case holder is pretty simple to make. Where the case mouth comes out of the holder, the holder needs to be a couple thousandths larger than the resized neck diameter. The part of the holder where the case enters has to be a couple thousandths over the case diameter at that spot. I turn a taper that is close to the case shoulder taper where the holder goes from the case diameter to the neck diameter. Since there are two points of contact (case neck and holder mouth) the internal taper along the length of the case doesn’t need to match the case taper. The cases will land on the shoulder taper I made “somewhere” and the cases will index off there. The die is screwed in or out to change trim length, so it doesn’t really matter where. I do slightly enlarge the beginning of the shoulder/neck junction so that the start of the neck to shoulder doesn’t contact the case holder. My thought is that this spot could be inconsistent as the case changes diameters so I just work around it.

When you install/adjust your cutter, make sure you install it correctly! The flat side should face the direction of rotation. That is either up or down, depending on which side of the case you are looking at! I have installed mine backwards more times than I would like to admit. It will have a funny vibration if it is installed backwards.