Lyman seemingly thought of everything in the design of their Case Prep Xpress. There are places to store the cartridge cases, extra attachments and tools, as well as a removable brass shaving dump container. All this versatility has been wrapped up in a single compact all-inclusive, impressive package. (Lyman photo)
of the necessary case preparation pro- cedures. At the heart of the unit is the “power-head,” which consists of five individual threaded receptors located on the top of the unit. Once the desired tools have been selected from the included tool inventory, they are simply screwed into the receptors. The available tools and products that come with the Case Prep Xpress are: 1) inside deburring (VLD) tool, 2) outside deburring tool, 3) primer pocket uniformers (small and large), 4) primer pocket reamers (small and large), 5) three case neck brushes, 6) case neck lube (mica), 7) removable brass shav-
ings dump pan, 8) cleanup brush and 9) a tube of mica dry lube. According to the labeling on the box, it was supposed to include four case neck brushes (25, 30, 38 and 45 calibers), but mine came with only three brushes. Because there appears to be only enough fi xed storage spots for three brushes I’m assuming that this was simply the result of a labeling error. No matter, though. If and when a customer sees fit to add additional caliber brushes they can be easily stored in a couple of built-in storage areas that have been molded into the body of the unit. The threads are the same as those used on most cleaning rods and brushes, which makes it convenient and easy to add additional brushes as needed, or to replace the brushes as they become worn. The brushes can be used in a couple of different ways. They can be left screwed into the base tool storage area and used in a manual fashion by simply running the brass up and down with the brush inside the neck, or you can take advantage of the power assist function by screwing the appropriate brush into one of the receptors of the power-head. Once you have selected the tools
you need and have them screwed into the power-head, the high torque gear motor can be switched to the on position. This results in all fi ve stations turning simulta- neously at a relatively slow rate of speed, but at an optimum rate to accomplish perfectly all of the processes. I found for maximum effi ciency it seemed best to complete all the appropriate processes on a single piece of brass before moving on to the next one. For example, I generally start by chamfering the outside of the neck, followed by deburring the inside of the neck, then cleaning and uniforming the primer pocket, and fi nally cleaning and lubing inside the neck. From there I set that piece of brass aside and go on to the next piece. A ridge molded around the top pe-
The Lyman Turbo Sonic Ultrasonic Cleaner does an excellent job cleaning not only the outside of the cases, but the inside and primer pocket area as well. (Lyman photo)
Page 178 October — December 2011
rimeter of the power-head confi nes any combustion residue and brass trimmings until your work has been completed. After that this debris can be easily swept to a small chute where it drops into a removable brass shavings dump pan for easy disposal. I reload a very diverse variety of
cartridges, starting as small as my .17 Mach IV and going all the way up to a big .500 Jeffrey Rimless big bore case. I found that the Lyman Case Prep Xpress did an
excellent job over that entire range of cartridge sizes with one exception. When I attempted to deburr the big 0.510-inch necks of the .500 Jeffrey cases the outside deburring tool was just a little too small to do the work. I doubt, however, that there are very many varmint hunters out there who use ground artillery as large as a .500 in their quest to terminate prairie dogs or ground squirrels populations. For me, I will just have to continue to deburr those cases by hand, the old- fashioned way. For all of the other jobs – even including such big boys as my .416 Rigby and .458 Winchester Magnum down to as small as the .17s, .20s, and .22 calibers – the tools performed their work perfectly.
About the only case preparation
process that the Lyman Case Prep Xpress doesn’t accomplish is the actual trim- ming of the brass to length. But aside from that, I found that this tool provided a great way to speed through all of the other case preparation processes. In ad- dition, I believe it is producing a higher level of uniformity than I had previously been achieving essentially by hand. LYMAN TURBO SONIC ULTRASONIC CLEANER
The second new addition to the
Lyman family of fi ne reloading tools is called the Lyman Turbo Sonic Ultrasonic Cleaner. This great little tool essentially turns upside down how we have been conditioned to think of cleaning and pol- ishing our cartridge cases. More decades ago than I want to think about, when I fi rst began reloading metallic cartridges, I simply used a piece of steel wool to remove the tarnish and corrosion from the outside of my brass. Man, how I hated that time consuming job! Then came the day that I found enough money stuck between the cushions of the couch to help offset the cost of purchasing a tumbler style polisher. Need I say, we didn’t have a great deal of extra money in those days to spend on handloading. Upon receiv- ing the tumbler I eagerly put it to use and quickly became overjoyed at how much easier it was than my old method of using steel wool. But tumbling came with its own set of disadvantages. Even though it allowed me to escape much of the drudgery that I had been subjecting myself to, it was nevertheless a time- consuming process that required many hours of tumbling before I was satisfi ed with the results. And second, it was a
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