Gracey case trimmer/Hornady one-shot lube

[Larsen E. Whipsnade]

A few questions that I hope some of you who are competition or high volume rifle shooters can help me out with. I just started using a Gracey case trimmer. I've got it set up for .223 but, short of miking every case, I can't tell when it's finished trimming. I thought I might develop a "feel" for when the case was done cutting, but so far I haven't. Some cases trim down in a few seconds, while others are still over length after 10. I've tried rotating the case as I trim it, but still some seem to take quite awhile. I imagine this is because some are more over-length to start with than others, but if I have to take, say, 15 seconds for each case to be sure it's trimmed all the way down when most will only take 5, it'll slow down the process quite a bit over the course of 1,000 or more cases. And miking each case to be sure it's down to proper length would defeat the whole purpose of the power trimmer. Anyone that uses one of these have any tips or tricks for me?

My other question involves Hornady one shot case lube. I've got close to 4,000 rounds of .223 that I loaded up years ago for a Ruger Mini-14, and it functions fine through it. But I recently bought an AR-15 that apparently has a tighter chamber, and about 1 in 5 rounds will jam in the chamber short of full closure. Much as I hate the idea, I plan to pull the rounds apart, resize with a small-base die (w/o the decapping pin, saving the primers), and reassemble. I'll be loading these on a Dillon, so I don't want to stop & clean the lube off before finishing the process. The one-shot claims it doesn't affect powder or primers, so that shouldn't be a problem, but what about cleaning the lube off the case afterwards? It seems to take several hours in the tumbler before none of the cases still have media sticking to them, and I'm not comfortable tumbling loaded rounds that long, as I've read it can break down the powder kernels & change the burn rate. I've heard of people adding some solvent, like mineral spirits, to some media & tumbling for just a few minutes, but I'm leery of that. I worry that flammable vapors may be set off by a spark from the motor. As near as I can remember, when I first loaded these (some 30 years ago) I didn't bother to clean the lube off the cases at all, & I never had a problem, but maybe I was just lucky. Again, thoughts/suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.