Post by GLSHOOTER on Jan 1, 2020 10:00:26 GMT -8
As many know I do work with many non-standard cartridges. These usually involve massage of the case making them larger or smaller in diameter in various dimensions of both body and neck. Some require trimming from the original either post or prior to forming. This is often at times only a few thousandths but at times a big multiple of that. Given a hand cranked trimmer it may be fine, add in the stand alone powered table top systems or even the big powered rigs that are mounted up on the press a fellow can pick and choose. Some will just trim while others both size and trim. All well and good mostly if you are dealing with a standard case and can get the tooling set up reasonably priced but when you are dealing in the wildcat world a bit more goes into case prep and therein lies the rub. If you need to trim 0.100 off a case neck it can and does become tedious if more than a few cases are to be produced.
I have two or three wildcats that are 6.8 based that do require a good amount of shortening. Case cutters that are cartridge specific for the 5.56/223 to make 300 BLK are a dime a dozen and go from mild to wild in pricing. Doing some Google-fu work I found cutters for the 6.8 though are a rare bird. The more I looked the more the problem became evident. While many of us find the 6.8 case an ideal wildcat parent case the demand appears to be low in the hinterlands.
As I wandered the Ethernet I ran across ZEP Reloading at www.zepreloading.com Their designed set up for cutting 223 cases looked good as you just insert a case through one side, bump it further in with another case and a spring loaded mechanism holds the first in place sticking out of the other side. The cutting fixture is mounted up to one of the ubiquitous 2” Bench Top Cut-off Saw that is marketed by Harbor Freight and a myriad of other suppliers. They appeared very clean and elegant from what the video showed me for the task at hand.
The site did not show case cutters that were not 223 based although they did offer some uber-useful magazine bands in various flavors being designated by cartridge chamberings. Since none were mentioned for the 6.8 I sent a note to David Semrad who is the owner of ZEP and made an inquiry about a potential offering of a 6.8 based cutter. He responded back to me quickly and allowed as how they did not anything to handle that case diameter. He and I exchanged E-mails several times and I made my pitch for a set up to cut the 6.8’s off.
He asked me to send him some exemplar cases of the cartridges I was interested in so he could see what lengths would need to be accommodated. I sat down at the bench and made up some nice fresh cases for three wildcats that are current out in the wilds that I felt were the main candidates for production. I sent along some formed/finished 6 TAC, some 30 TAC and American 30 cases along with some mid process rounds and of course some untrimmed 6.8 cases. From the time I first contacted David until the first cutter prototypes s were on their way to the anodizers took right on 60 days. David and I communicated back and forth during that time so I was able to track the progress. Shocking as it may seem he got the anodized prototypes back in less than three days and he had one on the way to me for a shakedown right before Christmas. This is what I got and I’ll show what the process was from beginning to end for my new formed cases from box to ready to load.
Here is what came to me in the package. Remember I mentioned the nice magazine bands? David included a couple of those for me to apply as needed down the road and are available from his web page.
Very simple and directions were included so I was not left trying to figure out what to do. Several months ago I picked up the tooling to do 300 BLK cases and that included the 2” Mini-chop saw. I believe with the HF coupon I have maybe $19.00 in this one.
Unpacked and unmolested. Not fancy but adequate for this light work.
Here I have pulled the furnished clamp for the unit and am preparing to mount the fixture on the cutting table.
With the fixture mounted I’ve inserted a pair of cases to make sure everything looked right prior to adjusting the cutting length per instructions.
I did one cut and found I need a bit less removal of the case neck and here was my second case done with the set up.
After repeat as above I had 55 cases ready to go. The spring loaded set up allowed for a very positive hold on the cases and I found that variation from my desired cut length was + or – 0.001. That’s plenty god for a cartridge that has as much as 0.010 OAL variation allowing for a broad spectrum of “in spec” measurements.
Once I had the trimming done I went back and chamfered the case mouths and primer pockets and ran them through the final sizer with the appropriate shoulder set back. No cases were lost during the process and overall case growth was only about 0.002 max on sizing. My first batch sized and ready to go.
Here is a shot of the original and a formed case. I cut about 0.100 off the necks with the saw. Elapsed time for doing the 55 pieces was a tad under 5 minutes and I was going slowly making sure the locking in was holding tolerance.
I am very pleased with the results and know that I saved my arm form a terribly long trim session using my Forster trimmer. David made up several extra prototypes and based on the prices of his other products under $40.00 you might consider it. He has not placed these up on his website so you can contact him direct at Vonzep58@yahoo.com or zepreloading@yahoo.com . If the demand is as high as I suspect he will make them a part of his regular offerings. I do know I will be ordering up some 300 BLK bands and a 300 BLK fixture as this design puts my original purchase to shame.
Greg
I have two or three wildcats that are 6.8 based that do require a good amount of shortening. Case cutters that are cartridge specific for the 5.56/223 to make 300 BLK are a dime a dozen and go from mild to wild in pricing. Doing some Google-fu work I found cutters for the 6.8 though are a rare bird. The more I looked the more the problem became evident. While many of us find the 6.8 case an ideal wildcat parent case the demand appears to be low in the hinterlands.
As I wandered the Ethernet I ran across ZEP Reloading at www.zepreloading.com Their designed set up for cutting 223 cases looked good as you just insert a case through one side, bump it further in with another case and a spring loaded mechanism holds the first in place sticking out of the other side. The cutting fixture is mounted up to one of the ubiquitous 2” Bench Top Cut-off Saw that is marketed by Harbor Freight and a myriad of other suppliers. They appeared very clean and elegant from what the video showed me for the task at hand.
The site did not show case cutters that were not 223 based although they did offer some uber-useful magazine bands in various flavors being designated by cartridge chamberings. Since none were mentioned for the 6.8 I sent a note to David Semrad who is the owner of ZEP and made an inquiry about a potential offering of a 6.8 based cutter. He responded back to me quickly and allowed as how they did not anything to handle that case diameter. He and I exchanged E-mails several times and I made my pitch for a set up to cut the 6.8’s off.
He asked me to send him some exemplar cases of the cartridges I was interested in so he could see what lengths would need to be accommodated. I sat down at the bench and made up some nice fresh cases for three wildcats that are current out in the wilds that I felt were the main candidates for production. I sent along some formed/finished 6 TAC, some 30 TAC and American 30 cases along with some mid process rounds and of course some untrimmed 6.8 cases. From the time I first contacted David until the first cutter prototypes s were on their way to the anodizers took right on 60 days. David and I communicated back and forth during that time so I was able to track the progress. Shocking as it may seem he got the anodized prototypes back in less than three days and he had one on the way to me for a shakedown right before Christmas. This is what I got and I’ll show what the process was from beginning to end for my new formed cases from box to ready to load.
Here is what came to me in the package. Remember I mentioned the nice magazine bands? David included a couple of those for me to apply as needed down the road and are available from his web page.
Very simple and directions were included so I was not left trying to figure out what to do. Several months ago I picked up the tooling to do 300 BLK cases and that included the 2” Mini-chop saw. I believe with the HF coupon I have maybe $19.00 in this one.
Unpacked and unmolested. Not fancy but adequate for this light work.
Here I have pulled the furnished clamp for the unit and am preparing to mount the fixture on the cutting table.
With the fixture mounted I’ve inserted a pair of cases to make sure everything looked right prior to adjusting the cutting length per instructions.
I did one cut and found I need a bit less removal of the case neck and here was my second case done with the set up.
After repeat as above I had 55 cases ready to go. The spring loaded set up allowed for a very positive hold on the cases and I found that variation from my desired cut length was + or – 0.001. That’s plenty god for a cartridge that has as much as 0.010 OAL variation allowing for a broad spectrum of “in spec” measurements.
Once I had the trimming done I went back and chamfered the case mouths and primer pockets and ran them through the final sizer with the appropriate shoulder set back. No cases were lost during the process and overall case growth was only about 0.002 max on sizing. My first batch sized and ready to go.
Here is a shot of the original and a formed case. I cut about 0.100 off the necks with the saw. Elapsed time for doing the 55 pieces was a tad under 5 minutes and I was going slowly making sure the locking in was holding tolerance.
I am very pleased with the results and know that I saved my arm form a terribly long trim session using my Forster trimmer. David made up several extra prototypes and based on the prices of his other products under $40.00 you might consider it. He has not placed these up on his website so you can contact him direct at Vonzep58@yahoo.com or zepreloading@yahoo.com . If the demand is as high as I suspect he will make them a part of his regular offerings. I do know I will be ordering up some 300 BLK bands and a 300 BLK fixture as this design puts my original purchase to shame.
Greg