What would you pay for case prep?

[Noreaster]

There's no way I'd clean, resize, and trim brass for under $0.10 per case. It seems like that's going to be too expensive for most people.

If you add in sorting, I wouldn't do it for less than $0.50 per case. Look at every one and make a decision? NFW.

For the same amount of time spent, I can make more money on OnlyFans.com

Yeah, thats why i said something. The churn of people doing then not doing that work was a good indication that it sucked ass. I think they all envisioned only CMP shooters using the service where most the brass was decent quality and fairly matched already. The first 1k of random range pick-ups and people start contemplating their life decisions.
Thanks for the onlyfans mental image....

 

[Noreaster]

It wasnt the cmp forum, it was the usrifleteams forum where a lot of highpower shooters hang out.

Here is an example of pricing:

Posted February 29, 2020



Posted February 29, 2020

Update as of 4/1 - Thanks for everyone who has sent my brass to process, I appreciate your business. I'm no longer offering the introductory discount and the cost is now reflective of my standard. But feel free to contact me about periodic special pricing. I'll post pricing updates and discounts from time to time.

Service - what I provide for each case (.223 only for now)

Sized to 0 on Moe’s gauge
Trimmed to 1.750
De-primed and primer pocket swaged
SS pin wet wash
Dry tumbled in corn cob and polish with a corrosion inhibitor (Nu-Finish)
Chamfered and de-burred case neck
Flash hole de-burred

Process

Clean in mass tumbler to get the grime off
Lube and let dry overnight
Run the machine

De-prime, size, trim, swage, expand neck

30 minutes in corn/walnut to get the lube off
Stainless steel pin wet wash and dry
Back into tumbler with corncob and polish - final polish and corrosion inhibitor
Chamfer and de-burr neck on Gracy
De-burr flash hole from the inside
Inspect by hand, each case.
Ship

Cost

7.5 cents ($0.075) per piece. Shipping both ways is paid for by customer.

Notices

Measurements: There will be variations in measurements of brass, especially with different head stamps and number of firings. I strive to keep as much consistency as possible. I will not return any brass that I would not personally shoot at a major event.

Time: Contact me first and I’ll give you a processing time frame pending queue and availability. Targeting 4 weeks or sooner to return to customer.

Special requests: Let me know if you have any special requests

Case prep: I don’t use a small base die.

Best practices:

Separate your brass best you can before you ship it to me by head stamp or # of firings to help maintain consistency per batch.

Contact me at loves beer 99 at hot mail dot com

Then:

Posted December 14, 2020

It's been a quite an experience, I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know and thought it would be easy. Once I started processing in bulk I learned it’s a different animal. Also its’ really challenging when you get so many different batches and head stamps and mixed stuff. It's much easier when the brass to process has been prepped by me, shot out of my gun, then prepped by me again. My biggest gripe is that processing 2500 pcs of brass takes way longer than i thought it would, even with the machines I bought. Running the brass in the CP2000 is easy. Chamfering and deburring, polishing, and inspecting is all done by hand and takes me a long as it takes you for 2500 pieces.

On the other hand I have a great wet wash and polishing process now. I’ve learned a lot about setting up a cement mixer. I can also lube and run brass in bulk. I’m in the process of building a bulk dehydrator to dry wet brass, even in the winter. Honestly I don’t think wet washing is necessary, its an extra step and takes some time, but people like their primer pockets clean. Other than that my clean and polish process is just as effective as wet washing.

But I have another big problem I need to figure out. I didn’t notice this right away as its was not an issue 100% of the time. But with some customer complaints, and 1 particular batch of brass that 100% had this issue, I figured it out. After I run the brass through the machine to size, trim and swage, the last station is to expand the neck to .221. I test this and it works. But after running the brass in the cement mixer to remove the lube, then again to wet wash and/or polish the necks are squeezing down to .218 or smaller. This is causing copper shavings when seating bullets and some times accuracy issue. It was also causing some issues with chamfering. The last batch I processed the necks were .214 and I couldn’t even fit my Ballistics Tool Neck sizing tool in the case. The only way to fix this is to reprocess the brass with the neck expander. But I can’t run it through the CP2000 again because I don’t want to have to re-lube or resize it. My only option is run them 1 at a time, and it takes a really long time.

I’m also working on these batches part time so again it takes a while. I can’t spend 2 hours per day so its more like 2 hours at a time but the days are a few apart. Plus with my neck sizing issue, it takes way too long to finish a batch.

I decided to take a break to get some stuff done around the house before the holidays. With this break I’m now second guessing if I will continue into the new year with 1 exception. There are a few customers whom I promised a discount on a second or 3rd batch of brass. If you are a previous customer I will still process a least 1 more batch for you as promised. For any new customers, we’ll see what happens in the new year.

Also, if I do continue, I need to do a better job.

 

[PatMcD]

Eddie, have you thought of loading ammo to sell? You'd need a manufacturing license I'd assume and good insurance, but there is big money to be made. A high-end trim carpenter I work with up here does it. 9mm and 223. Sells most on gunbroker. Every time I see him on a job he says "I'm losing money working here: I should be home filling my loaders.

 

[EddieCoyle]

Eddie, have you thought of loading ammo to sell? You'd need a manufacturing license I'd assume and good insurance, but there is big money to be made. A high-end trim carpenter I work with up here does it. 9mm and 223. Sells most on gunbroker. Every time I see him on a job he says "I'm losing money working here: I should be home filling my loaders.

I have both, and I did make a bunch of 9mm that I was wholesaling to some of the dealers at the Mill. Components are a bit tough to find though.