OK, so I got some of the stuff to start case prep from my friend yesterday. Included is an O frame press, decapping and primer pocket swaging dies, and the Zip Trimmer. We did not have all the brass, but I had 500 to start with.
Thje first thing I did was to sort the brass by manufacturer. I put each kind in a large ziplock bags with an index card indicating what it was. As I complete each step on that bag I write the completed step on the card so that way anyone who may work with that brass in the future can tell exactly where in the process it has been worked to. There are three of us kind of sharing resources for reloading. I have bought some of the components and dies, they have presses, dies and other associated gear.
Here I am decapping, and for the milsurp also swaging the primer pockets. I put fired brass in the left bin, decap it, and move it to the right bin. When the whole lot is done I use the primer pocket cleaning tool and move them back to the left bin.
Once I got through all the brass on hand I moved to the trimmer. Untrimmed brass is again on the left, and I stack the trimmed brass up in the right bin so I can get a count on the ones that made it this far. These bins will hold nine .30-06 brass across the bottom. I stack them 11 rows high and put a lone one atop the stack for an even 100 brass. Then I start on the next stack and repeat.
I only had two cases that got pitched. One had a cracked neck, the other I could not get the primer out. Since I didn't want to force it and break the decapping pin, it got tossed.
Unfortunately the tumbler is at another friend's house right now so I didn't get to polish the brass. I did as much as I could with the tools I had. I have a small sonic cleaner that I may try to use on a smaller bunch of brass just to see how well it works. We are getting about 6" of snow today so I have nothing else on tap for today.
So, any comments or helpful hints on what I'm doing so far are always welcome and appreciated. Does it look like I'm doing OK with this so far?