When I saw the Lyman Case Trim Express at the 2019 SHOT Show, I knew I needed to show this new tool on Ultimate Reloader! Well now is the time to get “up close and personal” with this new case trimmer! I’ve been surprised at how much interest there is in this tool, and I’m happy to publish the first full story showing everyone how it works.

What’s In the Box

The Lyman Case Trim Express comes with the following:

1. Case Trim Express trimmer
2. AC adapter and power cord
3. Bushings: 10 (See details below)
4. Instructions

This is everything you need to trim popular rifle cartridges including the following: (bushings included cover cartridges highlighted in ORANGE)

(click/tap to enlarge)

And here’s what the bushing box looks like on the inside:

Setting Up the Case Trim Express

Setting up the case trim express is very easy, as shown in the video. The first thing you need to do is determine which bushing you’ll need to install for the rifle cartridge cases that you plan to trim, and look up the trim-to length (see above). You can trim to the specified case length minus about 0.010″.

Above from left: Bushing retainer cap, bushing and compression washer, trimmer.

Once you have selected the appropriate bushing, you do the following to setup the trimmer:

1. Remove the bushing retainer cap
2. Remove a bushing if present
3. Install compression washer on bushing to be installed, insert assembly into trimmer
4. Tighten bushing retainer cap
5. Insert case into bushing
6. Adjust cutting depth micro-adjust wheel until you can push in on the case all the way and see a slight air gap between case mouth and cutter
7. Turn on the case trimmer (full speed)
8. Turn the micro adjust cutting depth micro-adjust wheel until you see/hear it contact the case mouth (while case is pressed all the way in)
9. Measure the length of the case you trimmed
10. Adjust trim length as needed
11. Trim cases

This sounds like a lot of steps, but it takes only a couple minutes once you get familiar with this trimmer.

Trimming Cases

I trimmed perhaps a couple hundred cases total with this unit to get familiar with it for this story. Once the machine is setup, all you have to do is insert a case until it just about contacts the cutter, then slowly press it in until it stops. You can optionally rotate the case 180° and then push it in again to ensure a square cut, but it’s not totally necessary.

Lyman advertises “up to 15 cases per minute”, and I think that’s doable once you get into the groove. That’s one case every 4 seconds! Part of why this is possible is the rotational speed at which this tool operates. I couldn’t find any specs for the RPM range online (on the Lyman product page, or other pages) so I decided to measure the RPM for myself!

What I found was speeds ranging from about 90 RPM up to just over 1200 RPM. You’ll be using the tool at maximum speed unless you have to reduce speed due to chatter. I didn’t have any issues with chatter while trimming 223 and 308 cases. The finish I saw on the cases looks great, and I know from talking with Lyman that they spent quite a while developing the new carbide cutter (geometry of cutting edges) in order to get the best possible trim finishes.

Conclusion

So far I really like the Lyman Case Trim Express, and feel it provides a unique capability for trimming, especially in this price range. The MSRP for this tool is $164.95 at the time of this writing, so expect to see this trimmer for less than that in stores (local or online). I know several people have already asked about a 3-way cutter for this trimmer- I’m not aware of any that exist, but it would be a great upgrade or option! If I find out anything, I’ll let you all know.

What do you think of this new trimmer from Lyman? I’d love to hear, please leave a comment! If you want to know more about this trimmer, check out the Lyman Case Trim Express product page.

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Thanks,
Gavin