Building a .223/5.56 case prep bench any advice obn which tools to buy appreciated

[William]

After reluctantly getting dragged into the reloading realm, am going to be responsible for case prep while my buddy will take the prepped cases and reload.

So am looking for tools to:

Deprime
Decrimp/Chamfer/etc
Trim cases

Considerations
Most of my brass is once fired military
I am only going to do 223 for now, so will not be switching setup back and forth from small rifle to large rifle.
Have bench space to permanently mount tools if that makes them easier to use.
Would like to be under $300 total if possible, but want good quality.


Given all that I would like to hear from experienced case preppers out there on what they would buy. Also I have watched a lot of videos and people seem to do things in different orders, if you have a way that works great for you and maximizes efficiency would like to hear about it.

Thanks in advance. [Coffee][Coffee][Coffee]

[Great-Kazoo]

You could buy the equipment needed OR contact a well known shooter / reloader/ case prep guy in your area. I believe you will be taken care of and not get Hosed:)

Me i do the size, deprime on a 650 then trim on a giraud then swage on an rcbs or dillon. I looked at getting a dillon trimmer but the noise between the trimmer and vac put it out of the running real fast. YMMV

[dwalker460]

I like the RCBS bench mounted primer, but have also used various hand primers, they all work fine.
Any of the case trimmers will work fine, the caliber specific drill mounted ones work awesome
For depriming, you need a press. If you buy a press you might as well do it all. I recommend Lee products for the just getting started. You can buy a Lee Challenger Anniversary Kit from Midway today for $135 bucks, which will give you all the bits to reload your own rounds, just add a set of dies and a case trimmer.

To remove the crimps I have just been using a tapered bit in my drill press, but there are other ways to make that happen.

EDIT- I always recommend Lee to beginners because ti is inexpensive enough that it gets you up and going quickly, but it does last well, and being inexpensive it doesnt hurt much if you decide to abandon the practice.

[cstone]

Quantity to be prepped in what kind of time frame?

Money saves time.

Make your own lube from lanolin and 91% alcohol. You can size and deprime on any single stage. Tumble in anything that you can find that doesn't cost too much. Harbor Freight sells tumblers and vibratory bowls. Mx some corncob and walnut. You can order corncob from drillspot.com and walnut is cheap at PetSmart. Just look for reptile bedding.
If you can afford a Dillon Super Swager, I like mine. Once they have been swaged once, they don't need to be swaged again. Once you have used a Giraud Trimmer, I don't think you would want to use anything else.

I hand prime everything with an RCBS hand primer. It costs more but doesn't need different shell plates for different caliber cases.

At that point the cases are ready for reloading.

There are people who will process brass for others. Depending on the time and money you have to work with vs the number of cases you are trying to prep, this may be a solution for you.

[ChadAmberg]

You could buy the equipment needed OR contact a well known shooter / reloader/ case prep guy in your area. I believe you will be taken care of and not get Hosed:)

Wink wink nudge nudge know what I mean?

[Tim K]

You got stuck with the crappy end of that deal. Case prep is a chore, especially with a total budget of $300 in equipment. You can do it, but it's going to be slow. You have to clean before sizing, so that's another piece of equipment to add to your list if you don't already own.

Personally, I like to decap then clean. I'd buy a cheap single stage press, a Decapping die, and a tumbler suitable for stainless media. That'll chew up your budget. However, you'll have nice clean brass ready to give to someone to do the rest. Once it's been swaged and trimmed, you won't need to do it again probably (assuming 5 cycles to failure), and then you can just add a sizing die for subsequent loadings.

As budget permits, add a $100 Dillon swager, then a Wilson trimmer or similar. It'll still be slow, but you will be self sufficient.

[William]

Quantity to be prepped in what kind of time frame?

Money saves time.

Make your own lube from lanolin and 91% alcohol. You can size and deprime on any single stage. Tumble in anything that you can find that doesn't cost too much. Harbor Freight sells tumblers and vibratory bowls. Mx some corncob and walnut. You can order corncob from drillspot.com and walnut is cheap at PetSmart. Just look for reptile bedding.
If you can afford a Dillon Super Swager, I like mine. Once they have been swaged once, they don't need to be swaged again. Once you have used a Giraud Trimmer, I don't think you would want to use anything else.

I hand prime everything with an RCBS hand primer. It costs more but doesn't need different shell plates for different caliber cases.

At that point the cases are ready for reloading.

There are people who will process brass for others. Depending on the time and money you have to work with vs the number of cases you are trying to prep, this may be a solution for you.
I have 3k cases and would like to get them all prepped this winter. After that maybe 1-2k per year. So no real big hurry. How much do people charge to do the case work?

[William]

Thanks all for the suggestions and advice!