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reloading bench for the room
- Thread starter bubba41
- Start date
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wyowinchester
Well-Known Member
I took an old "drafters" table, cut two inches off the backside and reattached it in the upright position for a back. 4 drawers, solid top. I built shelves for some supplies, but it doesn't move during any of the prossess.
Engineering101
Well-Known Member
My press is attached with wood blocks and clamps to a very nice teak secretarial return. This matches my rather large teak desk but is lower to allow for a keyboard to be in proper typing position. I have a keyboard and computer monitor sitting on the return as well. Works great for reloading. If you walked in the room you would think it a typical home office - until you noticed the press, stack of reloading dies, powder, bullets etc. It is really a reloading room disguised as a home office.
MudRunner2005
Well-Known Member
I bought the Stack-On bench with the top shelf option from Midway USA.
I'm really mechanically inclined, and putting it together was a mother. Not so much confusing, as it was too many inter-connecting parts to do it by myself. I did it by myself, but won't be doing that again. Get an extra set of hands to help hold things in place while screwing them together, and it won't be anywhere near the pain it was for me.
However, that said, it is incredibly sturdy, and I'm pleased with it. Nice fit & finish, too.
I'm really mechanically inclined, and putting it together was a mother. Not so much confusing, as it was too many inter-connecting parts to do it by myself. I did it by myself, but won't be doing that again. Get an extra set of hands to help hold things in place while screwing them together, and it won't be anywhere near the pain it was for me.
However, that said, it is incredibly sturdy, and I'm pleased with it. Nice fit & finish, too.
g0rd0
Well-Known Member
go to your friendly neighborhood army surplus or used furniture store, look for an old teachers desk. Mine is oak legs base and drawrs with 1/4" plywood top.
Engineering101
Well-Known Member
bubba41
See pic for setup. Nothing much too it. One advantage of the clamped press, I recently wanted more RL-33 in a 338 RUM load than would fit without crunching the powder pretty bad so I loaded the powder, barely seated the bullets and flipped the press upside down to finish bullet seating. No powder crunching and the load works great. I'm getting 2,750 with the 300 gr Berger out of a 26 inch tube.
See pic for setup. Nothing much too it. One advantage of the clamped press, I recently wanted more RL-33 in a 338 RUM load than would fit without crunching the powder pretty bad so I loaded the powder, barely seated the bullets and flipped the press upside down to finish bullet seating. No powder crunching and the load works great. I'm getting 2,750 with the 300 gr Berger out of a 26 inch tube.
Attachments
I hand built my own with shelves and all. I used a couple of 2x8x16 concrete pavers to counter the uplift stroke of the press. My bench sits on thick carpet so I notched the bottom of the leg posts to sit in deeper and the added weight from the pavers makes it feel pretty solid.
Black Tail Hunter
Well-Known Member
When you say without bolting down, do you mean without bolting the table to the floor to keep it from moving or without bolting the press to the table?
My table top is 3/8" steel plate in an "L" shape with 2" steel square tube legs. I built a shelf under one side of the table for extra storage. I painted it all black and it looks nice and is very sturdy. I can resize all my magnum cases with almost no movement.
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thatguyshm
Well-Known Member
I live in a small apartment and use the Frankford Arsenal reloading stand, so that I can keep the reloading footprint small until I can get a bigger space. I have two of them. One has my Dillon 550 on it, and the other has my Rockchucker, a Forster trimmer and my Redding powder dump all bolted in place. Its not ideal, but they hardly take any space to store, and are rather sturdy. I have used the one with my Chucker attached to it to form 257 WBY brass from 7mm RM cases, which can be pretty tough. I inside mouth ream AFTER forming it, so the down swing can be pretty forceful.
I must admit, that being able to take the press anywhere I want is really nice. Plus I can take it to the range if I ever desire to. I haven't yet, choosing to simply use my Lee hand press so far, but its an extremely easy option if I ever plan to spend an extended day doing load development.
You just have to find what will work for you.
-shm
I must admit, that being able to take the press anywhere I want is really nice. Plus I can take it to the range if I ever desire to. I haven't yet, choosing to simply use my Lee hand press so far, but its an extremely easy option if I ever plan to spend an extended day doing load development.
You just have to find what will work for you.
-shm
jvansl
Member
I built this bench pretty much as the plan shows and my Rock Chucker hasn't made it jiggle. But a couple small L-bracket screwed to the wall would be a reasonable insurance I guess. I strongly recommend you get course threaded screws with the star or torx drive head.
Official "HOW TO" build a basic reloading bench--Plans and Process w/pics - AR15.COM
No pretty but very functional.
Whole family asleep so had some time to take some pics of my reloading desk. I rented apartments for over 10 years until I bought my own house, so I understand the limitations that puts on a reloading setup. The house I finally bought had an unfinished basement, so I was able to finish it myself and build a reloading desk into the far wall. The entire desk and all cabinets are made out of pine (very affordable) the front endcap is a 4x6, which my press mounts to, with 2x8's behind it until it reaches the wall (all pinned/glued together). I think I put on 8 coats of floor urethane to harden the pine. It is still pine, so it dings, but I think just gives it character. the entire surface anchored over an L-shaped 2x6 which has a handful of concrete anchors into the concrete wall/foundation behind it. As you can imagine it is quite sturdy, zero vibration during any press operations. Definitely overkill, but that's my style and it's going to give a lifetime of vibration free reloading. My best calculations show that it will hold up to a sherman tank rolling over it.
A few of the goodies I built in:
Underneath the desk I had room to build a lockable powder/primer storage box which has worked out very well.
If you look close to the backsplash wood above the desktop, at the far left I have a compressed air quick release valve which runs to a compressor I have in the storage area of the basement. Just to the right of that I have a vacuum fitting which runs to a shopvac which also sits in the storage area. electric outlets across the backsplash as well. Cabinet lights are mounted above the desk under the upper cabinets along with switches which turn on/off the air compressor and the vacuum. And the most recent addition which I am the most proud of, is the fancy black and decker toddler workbench that belongs to my 2 year old son. When I load bullets he hammers anything he can find at his own workbench. He helps me reload too... he's already good at FL resizing, and sometimes he gets to press bullets in too.
One of these days I need to get something other than a folding chair to sit on... but right now happy after I got a call from my gunsmith today... he's running a couple of months ahead of schedule and my 338 RUM is going to be ready in about 6 weeks. That's going to give me plenty of time to dial in a Berger 250 load and get in some good practice before elk season!
A few of the goodies I built in:
Underneath the desk I had room to build a lockable powder/primer storage box which has worked out very well.
If you look close to the backsplash wood above the desktop, at the far left I have a compressed air quick release valve which runs to a compressor I have in the storage area of the basement. Just to the right of that I have a vacuum fitting which runs to a shopvac which also sits in the storage area. electric outlets across the backsplash as well. Cabinet lights are mounted above the desk under the upper cabinets along with switches which turn on/off the air compressor and the vacuum. And the most recent addition which I am the most proud of, is the fancy black and decker toddler workbench that belongs to my 2 year old son. When I load bullets he hammers anything he can find at his own workbench. He helps me reload too... he's already good at FL resizing, and sometimes he gets to press bullets in too.
One of these days I need to get something other than a folding chair to sit on... but right now happy after I got a call from my gunsmith today... he's running a couple of months ahead of schedule and my 338 RUM is going to be ready in about 6 weeks. That's going to give me plenty of time to dial in a Berger 250 load and get in some good practice before elk season!
