Need to figure good way to hold Cases from spining during trimming

[powerman]

I started Reloading again this time with 308 cases.
i have the lee case trimmer cutter with the 308 rod/pilot that goes through case and primer hole.
i am using my mill/drill using the 1/2" collet to hold the cutter.
I trim just as if your were drilling a hole with a drill press.
I hold case in my fingers, slip it under the rod/pilot and pull the handle.
with case flat on the bottom the cutters starts cutting till the rod bottoms on the solid part of my vise.
its working great except after 30 cases or so my fingers get fatiqued and the case start to spin.
I tried bare fingers, vynal exam gloves, scotch brite, sand paper and nothing realy works better than you fingers. Scotch brite is the worst
The cases still have hornady one shot case lube on them which is a little sticky.
i need some sort of mechanical grip.
i figred some kind of pliers with a lot of surface area.
or some kind of donut with a hole with a slight tapper to match the case.
I was also thinking of a clamping block but not sure how to prceed.

Any Ideas

 

[EddieCoyle]

Tumble them clean first, then try a pair of rubber coated work gloves.

 

[Slowdive]

I find I can grip cases well if I clean the outside with Simple Green. I use it to clean off case lube.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

i keep meaning to try to trim brass like this. does it work well?

 

[swampy]

Lyman used to make a shell holder and stand that held a case upright to trim in a drill press. I think they are out of production but there are usually a few on ebay.

There is this also: http://www.rdzproducts.com/uploads/6/5/9/0/6590534/2ez700_case_trimmer_instructions.pdf

http://www.rdzproducts.com/

 

[highscore]

Check out Sinclair International, now part of Brownells. They should have something you can either buy or copy. Either that or a light piece of leather or leather work gloves. I've heard that the Giraud trimmer can be tough on fingers also.

 

[mac1911]

the nitrile coated cotton gloves work great. I have short fingers I find the womens garden gloves fit me best.

 

[Kevin l]

This is not exactly the cheapest way to go about doing this, but since I already had these in the shop it wasn't a big deal...

Try a collet holder using either an e-collet or regular 3/8" 5C collet with work stop inside to control depth the casing sits inside the collet. First pic is the typical setup I use for trimming several hundred cases. The air operated closer I use in conjunction with a foot pedal and makes things go a little more quickly with less fatigue for the larger batches.

Because the 5C collet is a draw-in type collet, it takes a few cases to get a good rhythm going to keep the case length consistent when yanking on the lever of the manual closer. The pnuematic unit doesn't have this problem once you set the pressure.

If I didn't have these collet closers, I would have made a set of aluminum soft jaws for the vise and bored a hole in the top straddling the fixed and moving jaws to snugly fit your case diameter. Repeat along the length of the jaws for each caliber. Don't bore too deep, it doesn't take much to hold the case securely. For rimmed cartridges, I've had good success simply by holding the rim and feeding a little slower.

 

[powerman]

OK, I found my answer and its working great- it's WOOD.
i made a clamp out of wood.
I took a piece of scrap pine 3/4 thick by about 2" wide and 10" long.
I drilled a 7/16 hole about 2" from one end.
I cut a 1/8" slot down the middle from the long end to the hole.
The cut allows me to squeze the wood tighter or pull a apart to loose to remove the case if I need to.
i load case into the wood with my right hand while holding the clamp in my left.
i rest the bottom of the case on the top of the vice and lower the cutter till it bottoms on the vise.
it works great. it's fast and the cuts are square and smooth.
about 10 sec total per case.
you just need to make sure there are no cuttings under the case, i didn't have any problem with this.
The lee case trimmer which bottoms out is the key. The cases are measureing 2.003 and are consistant.

I didn't want to clean the cases till all cutting, trimming and chamfering operations are done.

It's amazing how you just need to describe the problem to get yur brain going and the solution presents itself.

FWIW i have one of the low end mill drills but i think a cheap low dollar drill press would work so long as you could chuck the 1/2 diam cutter and the stroke was 2" or more.
Thanks for the replies and moral suport.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Go to the local auto store and buy a pair of sparkplug wire pulling pliers. They have rubber coated tips and should fit the circumference of a .308 shell casing well.

Bend the tips to the correct angle for ergonomic function.View attachment 20167

 

[powerman]

Nice tip on spark plug pliers.

I ran into a little Gotcha. I finshed the rest of the cases about 50 after my second posting above. Working at home can be bad or good.
I started to have a little trouble at the point the pin is going through the flash hole. (it would hang up)
since there is no lube the pin tip started flatten out a little and expand sideways. i lost a few thousands .
You can apply a lot a presure with the drill and if the pin losses lenght your cases will get shorter.
i added a little oil were the pin hits the vise surface.
This maybe the only drawback with this aproach

 

[swampy]

You can eliminate the pin as the length gage if you set a stop on the drill press. The pin will still help center the cutter.

 

[powerman]

Another good tip on the adjusting the drill press stop for the down stroke.
thanks

 

[zerodown]

Tumble them clean first, then try a pair of rubber coated work gloves.

This.... The coated gloves work awesome. Cheap and fast