I received my CPS priming tool from Greg this last Monday 12/1/14. He mentioned he shipped mine out before anyone else's! I just wanted to start out by braggin on that a bit. I got the first one!!
Before I begin I'd like to be clear, this isn't a paid review, I haven't received any compensation for it. Greg did ask if I could do this for him and I have no problem doing that. I would want an honest review of something I built to. So heres my thoughts on the CPS.
First it was well packed for its trip to Colorado, wrapped in sheets of closed cell foam and a huge box. I was wondering just how big this thing was! Inside I also found the small and large primer tubes and appropriate shuttles bars in the box along with an envelope containing my receipt, a few cards etc.. I unpacked it all but didn't find instructions. I didn't fret about it too much, I had no worries in being able to figure it out. Turns out it took me longer to find the correct two Allen wrenches than it did to put it together and get it operating. Anyone with an IQ higher than their shoe size can figure this out. I had it mounted to the bench and seating primers shortly after pulling it out of the box. Easy set up... Done. Heres a pic mounted to the bench and another with a Forster die box for size comparison.
One thing that strikes you when handling it the first time is the overall fit and finish of the parts. Its a superbly finished piece of equipment. The edges are smooth and or beveled and the anodized black finish is very well done. My pictures do it no justice but you can see the reflections (thru the finger prints) on the black parts of the tool which tells you the surface finish of the machined parts is smooth. The handle operates like butter, the seating depth adjustment rotates smoothly with positive stops that won't move while the CPS is doing its job. I'd also add that its nice to only have to finger tight the socket head cap screws on the shell holder. When you don't need tools to tighten things like this down it just means it will last longer. I also noted that while the holder is made out of aluminum the body that it screws down to is steel. Which means those tapped holes won't wear out like they would if it was also made of aluminum. The top plate that holds the primer shuttle in along with the entire body is aluminum. Those top plate screws do go into tapped holes in the aluminum body but seriously you don't even need to have those tight at all, snug is even too much. I"ll probably change those pan head allen screws out to socket cap screws and then find some of those plastic knobs that fit the cap screw heads so I can have a totally tool-less machine. Your local hardware store has those in that isle of plastic drawers in the fastener department. They probably cost .50 cents a piece but would make a nice touch. I don't know how small you can get them but I might look for ones for the shell holder too. This might also be an idea for Greg when doing version 1.01.
Overall, with some machining background myself, I can appreciate a well built tool, tight machining tolerances etc.. this CPS is all of that. Heres another pic of the depth adjustment wheel showing the stop detents.
Setting seating depth on your primers is easy. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of it and remember which way to turn the wheel for up or down. After that its off to the races. I've primed just over 400 cases on mine already with only two hiccups. One was operator error. My neighbor who only started reloading last summer (on my equipment and I don't mind) after I talked him into a 223AI came over to check it out and was priming a few of his cases with it. He was pushing the primer shuttle in fine but was letting the spring return out too fast. I think it caused a double feed and before I realized what was happening he had actuated the shuttle a few more times and had 3 of them jammed up in there. I thought I was going to have to tear it all apart, reload the primers etc.. We simply removed the shell holder and used a needle file to reach in and align a primer on the seating pin and lift each primer up so we could grab it and reload into the tube. Replaced the shell holder and were up and running again in just a minute or two. Once we figured out what caused the issue it never happened again. You just can't let the spring return on the shuttle snap back out. I think Greg mentioned this in the video above. Well we did it before there was a video so…
The second issue was it dropped the last primer from the tube and somehow it got turned upside down. Its only happened once out of the 4 or 5 times we loaded and run out of primers so I'm not sure what happened. The mothership might have been hovering outside.. I don't know!
The primer tubes are the same tube material as used by other manufacturers like Dillon. (and Hornady I believe) However those other tubes won't work with the CPS as the pin location on the tube has been set for the hole depth where its inserted on the CPS. Notice how the hole's for the clips are drilled further up the tube on the bottom two (CPS) primer tubes. The CPS won't accept the plastic ends that are now used on the Dillion's. (top) The old style Dillon tubes (second one down) would work but the clip hole is in the wrong position, it would have to be drilled again to fit. I do like the pick up end on the Dillion's better so I pulled out the white one in the small primer tube and replaced it with a dillon end. Warning here... The white plastic ends fit inside a counter bored hole in the tube. To use the Dillon end you must cut off that counter bored section as your primers will hang up in it as the Dillon ends go over the outside of the tube. I have no doubt though that the white ends will loosen up after some use if your patience prevails. A guy might use a needle file and open up the white ones a touch to make plucking the primers off a tray a bit easier.
The tubes fit in the machine like this. If this hole were drilled a half inch higher on the tube it would make getting my big fingers on that clip a little easier. I could add a small ring to it to make it easier to grab or re-drill it myself. I don't know if Greg actually builds these so it might not be something he can change. Its not a huge deal though just something I noticed.
Priming cases is so nice with the CPS. Its effortless to use and seats primers to the same depth each and every time. Its much faster and easier than hand priming tools or using a single stage press to prime. Coming from the seaters on my Dillion's that have next to no feel and an old Lee hand primer that has too much. (meaning my hands just ache after using it) The CPS is a total joy to operate. You can set the depth of the primer so when the handle hits the stop your there, making the seating depth on each primer consistent. Unlike every other tool on the market where you pull a handle or squeeze a grip until the primer bottoms out in the cup to tell you when its deep enough. Even with the leverage created with the handle it has a lot of feel during the seating process. It's easy to catch the occasional loose pocket so no problems there. Its so much easier on my hands and my retired neighbor/shooting buddy thinks its a wonderful piece of equipment, oh he hated that Lee hand primer with a passion and I was getting there myself.
Theres no doubt this is a tool for the discerning handloader and anyone else that wants a top quality bench mounted system. Its a cleverly designed tool with a few moving parts that have been well thought out and executed to perfection. The only thing that comes to mind in the hand loading world that closely relates to the quality, fit, finish and smoothness of operation of the CPS would probably be the Harrell's powder measures. This isn't a mass produced product thats been slapped together with pot metal cast parts and theres nothing about it that feels cheap or looks poorly done.
I'm glad I got in on the initial offering of this tool at the 350 price point. As it turns out the CPS was a steal at that price considering the time and engineering thats went into it and the finished product that was delivered. I mentioned earlier in this thread that I would only have to pay for half of it but in the end I wasn't going to take money from my shooting buddy even if he was going to use it. Its my tool and is on my bench, he offered the money but I didn't want to take it. It was also said that shooters can justify anything. Well yea they can, most people can justify any purchase if they want to. For me when its put into perspective of all things firearms and reloading I've collected thru the years, even at its full price its a drop in a bucket comparatively speaking. So would I recommend it? After getting mine and using it, absolutely.. its a fine piece of equipment and well worth saving up and spending a few shekels on.
You know that rifle you have sitting in the back of your safe that you haven't shot in a few years and you've thought about selling? I know theres a few more of these CPS tools available that you would get far more use out of.
