Frankford Arsenal Case Trim and Prep Center with Expansion Kit, Crimp Remover, 8-31 Threads, for Trim, Chamfer, Deburr, Pocket Clean, and Reloading

Let me start by saying, for the reviewers that write one star reviews because they are missing something, STOP IT...thats not the purpose of reviewing and these are assembled by humans, and humans can tend to make mistakes... I almost questioned whether to buy this because of the reviews about runout on the shafts, the difficulty of consistency of having brass fired from different guns, ect...they me tell you...DONT LISTEN TO THEM! This product is awesome for what is for, rapid case trimming for brass...if you are a match shooter or think you are a match shooter...use a hand trimmer...this is not meant for exact tolerances...that being said, I was pleasantly surprised that after 500 cases of .223, fired from various rifles, and checking randomly I was wishing .0002 in tolerance...totally good enough for my purposes. I have owned a RCBS trimmer since I got my first reloader 20 years ago...I have never trimmed my brass! I always would start it and after about 10 I had better things to do...and never had any real problems...I decided to check this batch of 1000 and found some of them were pretty long! and 95% were over a little...I dug out the hand trimmer, attached a drill and after 10 was done with this process... Looking around I didn't want to spend $500 on a trimmer (correction...wife wouldn't allow me to spend $500 on a trimmer!) and I came across this...having just purchased the FA Tumbler (awesome BTW over vibration and ultrasonic) I decided to make this purchase...and I don't regret it... As many have said, trimming cases is worse than watching paint dry, however I don't see any other product out there that can make you more efficient than this, I didn't have a grip issue...its really easy to use and set up, I was up and running out of the box in 10 min! It is about as loud as my can opener in the kitchen so my wife allows me to do this in the house (thank god since I live in Phoenix and its about 120 degrees in the garage!). Other negative reviews I have read: Inconstant length - If you read the manual (I know...heaven forbid) it states to turn the case a quarter of turn clockwise after it stops cutting FOR AN EVEN CUT...I did and it works, I always hear it snip a little more when I turn it. The tool heads are junk - Working fine for me...you are cutting brass, which is like hot butter in the metal world...doesn't take much to cut it Runout on the tool heads - And? So what...your holding the casing in your HAND, its not a stationary lathe...the case will move with the small amount of runout and what micrometer it will be off my crimp die takes care of when I put them in the press... As another review said...JUST BUY IT and you will be happy!

Great product! It worked good for me and saved a little of time in prepping cases for reloading.

Summary: Works great! Don't be anxious because of a few folks who are bagging on the debur tools. Go ahead and buy it if you are sick of holding a drill and switching off to hand tools for every case. After looking around at multiple tools and owning hand tools and a Lyman E-ZEE trim, I decided to go with this prep system. The other contender was the Hornady case prep center at over double the price and you still had to chuck a case in a shell holder before you could trim. I also considered the worlds finest trimmer, but at over $70 a pop I didn't feel like buying one for each caliber I was working with. With this prep center, you get the ability to setup for A LOT (I won't say all because I haven't tested them all) of bottle neck cartridges. I know the new versions of the worlds finest trimmer are able to be changed out for caliber now too though. So here's the other thing that makes this a bit nicer in my opinion. The case trimmer has a collet set that you can adjust to each case. This does a majority of the holding so the case does not spin. This allows you to avoid a lot of the hand pain associated with trying to keep the case from spinning in some other cutters (I know, I know...work on your hand strength wimp. RESPONSE: Sorry, too busy reloading and having fun shooting to be bothered with that ; ). As for quality and speed, I think it's great for what you are paying. The debur and chamfer tools ran smoothly and did not chatter in any of the 223 cases I was working with. I did about 400 cases over 2 nights working 1.5 hours the first night and 1 hour the second. That puts me at about 22 seconds per case. Keep in mind I was not only trimming and deburring but also checking for military crimps and sorting. Had this not been the case it would have been a bit faster. The machine runs fairly quiet and chugged right along. I'll be curious to see how it holds up after a few hundred hours of use. As for trimming accuracy, I set my case length to 1.750" (Rem 223). I saw variation between 1.750" and 1.748". I'm sure that's an issue for some competition shooters, but for anyone interested in large volume reloading for general use rounds it will work any day. Just make sure to follow directions when setting up and pay attention to which collet and ring you are supposed to use. Conclusion....buy it. You won't be sorry. I plan on using it to prep 223, 308, 30-06, 300 AAC and 243 initially.

Extremely nice quality of life item for reloaders. Honestly it’s kind of expensive for what it is in my opinion, but I’m glad I bought it, and would by it again. All of the things it does can be done with cheaper tools and more manual labor, but this streamlines the process and makes it easier. Pretty impressed with Frankford Arsenal reloading items purchased in 2023 - 2025, all seem to be a good quality and work as advertised.

I am not sorry I got this brass prep system. There are some things that one must keep in mind. The motor has a lot of torque (it doesn't spin fast but it is very strong). I use a little oil on my finger tips on the brass before I reshape it. When you have oily fingers and you try to trim the brass on this machine it's easy for the brass to spin and not trim. To solve this I wear an old golf glove on one hand and a latex glove on the other (the oily hand). When I have the gloves on, brass prep goes really well. I can easily do 300 rounds an hour and that's with swaging military brass as well (de-militarizing or swaging takes place on another machine - this machine wont de-militarize or swage military brass)! With brass that doesn't require swaging its much higher. I believe that an adapter could be made to handle straight walled cases - right now this unit only handles cases that have a shoulder. The trimmer works a lot like an electric pencil sharpener. The pocket cleaner is pretty fierce! The de-chamfering tools are excellent quality. The motor is quiet enough where I could trim brass with the TV going and although you have to turn up the volume on the TV a little, using the trimmer didn't seem to bother anyone else in the room (this might be a matter of personal preference though). The noise was not as bad as I expected. I prefer to use the machine upright instead of on it's side - gravity helps make things go a little faster (I believe some other reviewer found the same thing and I thank him for the idea). Shavings do pile up inside the "neck" of the trimming part of the machine. There is a very easy to remove plastic guard that holds the brass shavings inside the "neck" of the trimming portion of the machine and one just "pops" that off and you can blow out the shavings with canned/compressed air. By handling the shavings this way, you can pick the machine up and hold it over the trash or recycling bin or outside and blow the shavings out when you are ready. You don't have to blow the shavings out constantly for this thing to work right. It is extremely consistent case lengths. Part of the reason why I only get 300 an hour is that I'm a little bit "OCD" and I check the heck out of my cases because I like them just a little bit below the max length (like 100th of an inch below). I was highly satisfied with the consistency. I found that my technique was bad when my lengths were off. With any type of hand loading equipment one has to find "the feel" that works for them. I'm glad I purchased this device. I don't think anyone else out there is making something similar with this much quality that can match or beat this price. The only thing I would like to see is maybe a "shell holder" type adapter that could be used for straight walled cases. I realize that is an extra step but it would still beat hand cranking or even a drill and case gauge style pilot.

This is a fantastic item for trimming rifle brass. It's so much faster and more efficient than a traditional mini-lathe style trimmer. I use it to convert .223 Remington and 5.56mm NATO into 300 AAC Blackout. A couple of other tools are needed to make it happen, but this gets the final length exactly where I want it. Pros: Heavy, and heavy duty. Even when you're pushing down hard on a casing to get it trimmed up, it doesn't budge. The adjustable foot is also nice to get it angled at a convenient work position. The motor seems plenty powerful enough, it barely bogs down even when pushing hard on an extra-long casing. Setup is very straightforward - I was up and running within 10 minutes of opening the box. Cons: I suppose it could be a bit less expensive. If you're reloading your own ammunition to save costs, then any cost is hard to swallow - it just raises the price per round. But, at the going rate of almost a dollar per round of 300 BLK, this thing should pay for itself quickly. Bottom line: I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who reloads rifle brass. Since rife brass tends to stretch a bit over time, it's important to keep it trimmed to proper length anyway. But if you're going to convert bulk brass and need a way to get your final cut, bevel and chamfer done, this is the machine to do it.

Product is great and couldn't be happier which is for the 5 starts. Shipping/handling I would give 2 stars . You would have thought it would have been placed inside an Amazon box( my Hornady AP that was delivered the same time) but this was sent in its original packaging. This had more dents than a Nissian Altima driven by a teenager and the lid to the package was unsecured and looked to have been opened in transit. Luckily, the contents are there and product is fine. I'm just one of those people that like to retain the original packaging for later use. Just be aware if you order that it might arrive like this.

I love to reload but I hate case prep. I read the reviews on all the Case Prep Centers on the market from all the big names. Most of them probably do a fair job. The reviews made it sound like the Franklin Arsenal did them all the best but there weren't many reviews. I reload on a Dillon Press because of the quality. Dillon isn't the cheapest by far but it is considered the best by many including me. So what is a Dillon guy doing with a Franklin Arsenal Prep Center? I didn't switch to Dillon because of the name. Don't let the Franklin Arsenal name turn you away. I have a Franklin Arsenal Tumbler that was a good price and has gone strong for years so I wasn't afraid to give this a try. Especially since it's through Amazon! I'm sure glad I did and I believe you will be also. I have used 5 different case trimmers and the best by far was the World's Finest Trimmer until this came along. This is a huge improvement for several important reasons. a) You don't have to chuck it in a drill and put the drill in a mount to keep it steady. b) It turns at a correct slower rpm so brass is better contained and the noise level is more comfortable. It doesn't remove as much metal as other tools do in a fast drill so your cases should last longer. c) You can stand it on end and let gravity help you. Very important when doing hundreds of cases. d) And the most important and best difference is you can trim, chamfer and deburr with a single grip on the case. Pick up the case and do all three operations and never change your grip. Yeah, this saves time! e) I can do three operations in about five seconds per case. If you are agile with good eyes you might shave a second or two off this time. f) It also cleans the primer pocket in a second but you do have to flip the case over g) It trims almost any cartridge without spending more bucks on additional tools h) It only takes a few seconds to set up and adjust i) It comes with all of the cutting tools. If it holds up for the long haul it will be the best reloading investment since I went Dillon Blue. I wear a rubber palmed cotton glove. I like to be above the trimmer to make it easier. As with most trimmers, you can close your eyes and feel when each step is completed. The only way it could be easier would be for someone else to do it for you. Any volunteers? Case prep is still the longest and hardest part of reloading but it just got a whole lot better and faster. I hope this review helps you.