Lube Sizer setup (positioning) on your bench?

About to setup a furnace casting and lube sizer setup on a dedicated mobile workbench.

I am right handed and was curious how you folks positioned and equipped your sizer on the bench. Will be using gas checks and general lube sizing with a Lyman 450.

Do you have collection containers.. for example pull out collection tray so as a bullet or gas check is positioned with your left hand, and press operated with right hand, the finished bullets can be dropped into a container which is low left of the press...with the source of GC's and/or bullets remain on top of bench left of press?

I stack my lubed bullets in a box with cardboard between layers not really needed but that is how I have always done it. Box goes on the right side for me. If lubing GC bullets I seat my gas checks on the bench on the left side along with the container of bullets and when I have 20 or 30 seated I run them through the sizer luber .
I just use the space that is convenient for where I am working.

Being self imposed with minimal bench space I mount all my ancillary equipment (sizers, trimmers measures etc) on boards and clamp them as necessary to the bench when in use, the only thing permanently mounted is the press. For sizing and GC seating i generally spill out a few checks on the bench at a time seat by hand as much as possible then go to the sizer and seat/lube. Once done the sized/lubed bullets go into an old factory ammo tray to wait for loading.

Attachment 276201

Mines mounted on a board also with a couple spacers to get things as closely to the machine as I can. Grab a bullet from the upper box and drop it in the lower one when completed. The wierd looking concoction runs the little counter. Works for me.

Attachment 276205

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Originally Posted by Mike W1

Mines mounted on a board also with a couple spacers to get things as closely to the machine as I can. Grab a bullet from the upper box and drop it in the lower one when completed. The wierd looking concoction runs the little counter. Works for me.

Attachment 276205

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Thanks...that's more of what I am considering. Would like that lower tray to slide in when not in use.

Mine doesn't slide in but hooks onto a piece of aluminum that's screwed to the side of the board and is removeable that way. Little one on bottom is one of the Dillon trays that catches finished rounds on my SDB.

My loading bench is too short/crowded to add the sizer, and still have a comfortable amount of 'elbow room'..

I have a 4' x 3' movable work table with a 1/4" Alum. plate on top.
I drilled & tapped it for 1/4-20 to bolt the sizer down at a corner opposite the Lead pot when I need it.
There's still plenty of room in the middle to mount the trimmer that way too.

My Star sizer is bolted to a piece of 1/4" steel plate that bolts/clamps to the bench. My press is the only thing permanently mounted to the bench. My sizer is right hand powered so the bowl of unsized and the box for finished boolits is on the left.

Seems to me when I had a Lyman unsized was on the left, finished on the right but I can't remember how they got there. LOL

I have my sizer mounted to the left of my chair and my press to the right, so that I have workspace in the center. I pull the sizer handle with my left hand. I dump the checks and bullets into piles on a single layer towel. Once sized and lubed I wipe bullet bases on the towel and put the bullets either in a Tupperware container or in an ammo tray if it's soft lube. In a plastic ammo tray, bases up, with a cardboard cover for dust on the stack, ease to invert the tray and have 50 bullets ready to load.

Same as above,sizers on left... processing goes from left to right. See if this pic works.

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Originally Posted by Mal Paso

My Star sizer is bolted to a piece of 1/4" steel plate that bolts/clamps to the bench. My press is the only thing permanently mounted to the bench. My sizer is right hand powered so the bowl of unsized and the box for finished boolits is on the left.

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Essentially the same as my set-up except my two Lyman 450s...one without lube for sizing only and one with heat for carnuba-based lubes...are mounted on pieces of 3/4" white oak.

Bill

Just a thought.

It may make more sense to separate casting from lube/sizing operations. I like to cast when the weather is not too cold or hot and it is an outdoor activity. I can lube/size anytime and a good way to kill time or get away from the "lady of the house" in my basement reloading area.

My casting station is portable, Harbor Freight version of a Black and Decker work mate with a 24"w x 18"d work surface. Lee 10 lb pot on a standard size cookie sheet. In front of that, I place a wooden TV tray which fits between the legs of the work mate and under the surface. I have about 1/3 under the workmate. I drop onto a folded cloth towel and sort as I cast. I use metal bread loaf pans for the boolits, 2 pans fit nicely, mostly covered my the workmate top. Usual safety gear is worn.

I use the same workmate type set up for reloading as I have 2 in CA, only one in CO. For reloading, Lee turret press mounted to the center, Lyman 450 mounted on the left side, Lee loader (cheap c press) on the right. Each is mounted with t-nuts for easy removal. The Turret Press is operated as a single stage, each caliber has it's own 3 hole turret.

I used to lube/size with the Lyman 450, but since I started powder coating I cleaned it up and put it in it's box. I bought Lee push through dies for each caliber, and have 3 per turret. I tend to cast, coat, size, and load about 250 - 300 at a time, and then repeat. When I cast to build inventory (all my cases having been loaded) I will cast about 500, coat them, then size that day. Cheap Lee C press is used only for de-priming and as a powder measure for rifle. Every 5 shells I weigh the charge on a digital scale, target ammo is weighed each shell.

The set ups are very portable and do go to the range on occasion. I even helped a buddy build his portable station for his Dillon, he does not cast. He does however, barbecue while I cast. He has 3k of 38 sp brass, and wants the Lee 358-125 RF, coated black. I will likely cast some 356-95 RF for his GF's Ruger SP 101 for tin can rolling.

I'm fortunate to have both wall-placed benches and an island bench in my shop. The two Dillons (one for small primers and the other for large) are bolted on Strong Mounts on opposite sides of the island, and the casting/sizing area is on one of the wall benches, with the furnace next to a window with a box fan stuck in the window frame. My 450 is bolted to a separate heater, which is bolted through the bench overhang, with a steel reinforcing plate under the bench. I generally have as-cast in an Akro-Bin to the left, gas checks on a rag to the near left, finished get wiped on a weighted-down rag to the right and placed in rows in either mold boxes (the MP boxes are great) or commercial boolit boxes, with a spacer of thin cardboard between layers, on the right. There's an elderly Pacific O-press bolted near the 450 that's used for single-station chores like decapping/primer pocket swaging, collet-pulling, and lately push-through sizing.
I've been using cartridge box trays to invert shaken boolits onto my oven tray; hadn't thought of storing nose-down lubed boolits in 'em but that's GENIUS! I don't think I could scrounge enough of 'em to store Ks & Ks of stock boolits though.
Ed <><

I have the Inline Fabrication bench-plate system on my bench, next to my permanent progressive press. This allows me to swap my single-stage press, bench-vise or Star lubesizer as I need. This is totally separate from my little casting-bench.

https://i.imgur.com/1GWrlz9.jpg

My lube sizer sits on a roll around tool chest bottom cabinet which has a piece of 3/4” plywood fitted to the top. A 6”x12”x1/8” piece of aluminum is sandwiched between the plywood and the sizer. I set a cheap resale store clothes iron on the aluminum for a lube heater. The heat is set on low and the temperature is controlled by the distance from the iron to the sizer. Not rocket science and pretty easy to manage.

I removed the wheels and set the toolbox on 2x4 skids for stability. It’s great storage and I pull the top drawer out as a shelf for the sized boolit receptacle.

If you go this route it’s worth the extra price for a tool chest that has ball bearing glides. I regret not getting one with ball bearings because of the load that reloading stuff adds.