Loading room

[jim4065]

Finally getting crowded out of my reload area by too many wood working tools - so I'm moving it upstairs in the barn where I'll have lots more room. Question is - How do I make a big enough bench for 4 or 5 presses (if you include shotshell) and a couple of lubrisizers? I cast outdoors, but still want to store molds etc. with the other reloading stuff. The new area is about 18 by 14 feet, and I'm not sure about making it all bench - seems kind of inflexible.
I saw a picture on one of these threads, or maybe a different board, showing a reload bench that I'd like to duplicate. The bench was a double layer of 3/4 ply with a "notch" out for slip-in sections with a press on each piece. Am I describing this right? Anyway - if anyone can direct me to the right thread I'd sure appreciate it. :Fire:

[fourarmed]

I recall the thread you mention, but its location is GWTW. I think the bench top was three layers of plywood. The bottom was solid, the middle had something like a 12" square hole opening to the edge of the bench, the top had a 10" or 11" opening directly above the one in the middle layer, and also opening on the front edge of the bench. Each press was mounted on a two-layer piece that would just slide into the bench slot and was anchored by a drop-in pin. That's how I recall it anyway. It sounded much more elegant than a couple of C-clamps, though it might not work any better.

[454PB]

I don't know if this will help, but here are pictures of my loading and casting benches. My room is 24' by 12', and one bench at each end of the room. You can see that I have two reloading presses mounted on the loading bench, as well as two Lyman sizers. On the casting bench, there is a Star luber mounted, and I also fitted a piece of 6" by 3/8" by 24" steel plate with holes tapped to accept any and all presses and sizers. The plate is visible in this picture, just to the left of the Star lubrisizer.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1030/castingbenchyn9.jpg

CASTING BENCH

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6351/loadingbenchsmallza2.jpg

LOADING BENCH

[dragonrider]

Home Depot has, and possibly Lowes, a system of steel brackets from which you can easily construct very sturdy benches.

[Bret4207]

I've seen the removable insert idea made of hardwood. I fact I had a set up like then when I was living in the mountains. Worked ok. A better idea IMHO is to use a recv'r hitch set up like on a car. The female part is bolted to the bench and you get a series of male parts with flat plates welded on to mount the presses to. Simple slide in mounting and very sturdy.

[KCSO]

I used a Home depot bench for my last one and remade the top from an old oak door they threw away at work. I took oak and made rails and the tools slide in and out as needed.

[monadnock#5]

Many, many moons ago I bought reloading bench plans from the SAAMI Institute for a small fee. The plans were great, but way too big for the space I had. The neatest feature was a small cabinet at eye level, for powder scale storage. In use, the door folded down, and the scale placed on the shelf. Direct lighting, and placed for accurate reading of the graduations. Great plan, great concept.
For machine mounts, check Buckshot's threads. That's the system he uses, IIRC.

Ken

[Patrick L]

I have that insert setup un my reloading bench, and its the cat's meow ! The only thing permanently mounted to my bench is my main press, the RCBS Ammomaster. Everything else(trimmer, lubesizers, shotshell presses, secondary metallic presses, even my bench vise) is on an insert.

I originally saw the idea back in the mid 80s in one of those old DBI books (Handgun Reloading or something like that) in an article by Wiley Clapp. I still have the book so if you can't find the info anywhere else pm me and I'll xerox it and send it snail mail. Basically its four layers of bench material with the inserts in the form of inverted "T"'s cut into the top two.

One suggestion I took and would suggetst to others is that for a dedicated reloading bench, don't make it too deep. That out-of-reach space just seems to collect crap. My bench is 8 feet long by a scant 20 inches deep. It is plenty big enough for any reloading task I've ever undertaken, but its narrow enough that it forces me to clean up before moving on to the next project. Just my thoughts.

[joatmon]

This fourm,post by PGBsuperior 'My Loading Bench' post#9 by rbstern . HTH

[jim4065]

I guess that the RBStern bench has the same idea, but I really can't see how it's built. At any rate - it's not the one that I was looking at earlier. Teach me to cut & paste more photos to the desktop.

[rbwillnj]

I have my Mec 9000 mounted to a bench, but I use the Midway loading pedistals for the rest of my presses. doesn't take up any bench space, and I can move them out of the way if I have a big wood working project.

I make my own mounting bases for my Star Reloaders because primers, and in some cases loaded rounds drop out the bottom. But the supplied plastic mounting tops work great for most other presses. I have a Jr Rock Chucker mounted on one, and I used to have a Lee Loadmaster mounted on another.

I fill the plastic bases with concreate for added stability.

[rbstern]

The insert thing worked out well for me. I have since permanently mounted my main press on one corner of the bench because of of the specifics of the press and how often I use it, but the two remaining slots are regularly used for sizing, single stage work, turret work, and powder charging in batches.

http://www.gunsandbullets.com/articles/reloadingbench.asp

[beagle]

About 15 years ago, I had the same delima. I had a two car garage with about 8 feet of space in front of the cars. I needed a reloading bench.

Checking with some hospital renovators, I was able to get 2" X 30" solid wooden doors for the price of hauling them off. I scrounged som 4 X 4 dunnage from work and mounted the doors 30" from the floor. This gave me a 30" wide workspace all the way across a two car garage.

At the same renovation site, I was able to get wooden drawer sections. Three of these fit nicely under the bench top under one foor. Plywood shelving was built under the bench top and also overhead for storing light items.

I now have 4 "bays" on the bench. One used for tumbling, one for casting, one for reloading/sizing and one not useable as my safe blocks it.

I made slide out plywood shelves under the press and under the sizer to allow for sitting and working with your work right in front of you.

The whole right works well and I assembled it with lag bolts so when I move, it goes with me.


Is it neat and orderly? No way. I use the Buckshot method of organization...the avalanche method. When I start to have too many avalanches, I clean up...some.

But if you can find a company that's doing a big renovation project, the material will come cheap and maybe free and may be just what you need./beagle

[sjohnson]

I've also used hinges in small, multipurpose space to claim and reclaim workspace:

Mount the bench to the wall using hinges, and add two locking, foldout legs.

Fold the bench up from the wall, fold out the legs and do your work. When done, clean off the bench (cabinets mounted above the bench) and fold it back down.

I did both walls of a small garage this way, using cast-off doors from renovation projects. Useful for projects, reloading, garage sales, even get-togethers and the bench(es) all fold down & out of the way when not needed.

(Edit) stupid memory lapse, corrected

[georgeld]

Some yrs ago I was using a couple planks to run the car/trk up on blocks for a ramp. It worked real nice and still does. But, the trk was too heavy and broke on. I went to the lumber yard to get a piece about 8-10" wide and 6' long. They ended up loading my truck down with a huge amount of 2" laminated planks, 8, 10, 12 & 14" wide. From 6' to 14' long. I have a ladder rack on that truck, untility box. Bed is 4'w x about 5' high to the rack, they filled it full, then the long stuff went on top the rack about 2' deep full width. That was one hell of a load but, the old truck has heavy springs and wasn't hauled very far.

I didn't have a place to put it, so took it to a buddy's tin shop with an open shed. We stacked it there. He sold a bunch of it for a buck a ft. My share at 50/50 was $130, plus I gave him and some others several nice planks. There was a bunch of it left over when I finally came to my sense's and figured out 'what a dandy bench that would make'.

The bench is 38" wide, yes it catchs a lot of junk! and 34' long. I ripped the planks to width and glued them together with the end's staggered to make it solid. Then welded up stanchions for legs and lagged them into the concrete slab under the bench. Am gradually making and install 16ga steel drawers 2' wide mounted on garage door tracks and wheels. Let me know your e/mail and I can send pictures of this setup.
For a nice steel top over the whole bench. Having stock piled a bunch of 4' x 7' sheets of 1/8" plate I had a metal shop shear it and break the edge's over to face the front edge 2" with steel. All this was glued with DAP and lagged to the bench top. Along the back I ran an inch conduit pipe with a 4 hole outlet box every 3 feet. Every other one has a 220v outlet and two 110v. Every two boxes has it's own circuit. At one end I welded up a cutting table from 1/2"x 2" flats. When using a torch to cut the fire, sparks and hot stuff drops thru the bars into a steel scrap box on wheels. There's also a light tin funnel shape under this to guide the hot stuff into the box. Next to that and all welded together is a welding table of 3/4" plate. Three vise's are mounted along it.
There must be a couple ton of equipment, lathe, drill press, mill and several other things plus a semi full of accumulation on that top.

Having a bunch of those planks left after the bench was finished. And having a 13' high block wall. I welded up some drop arm's every 3 ft on these five arm's I've placed loose planks 14" wide to make a total of 240' lineal feet of shelve's on five rows. All except the bottom one needs a ladder to get to, but, that's fine as things are stored out of the way. I've run out of shelf and bench top though.

Still having a bunch of planks left over. Oh yeah!! When the roof trusses were welded up. Keep in mind all this is salvage I've gathered over the years. The trusses were 14" high web type 25' long. I got 26 of them for $500 when the state was tearing down a building. Plus, the guy in charge gave me all the blocks I could haul off before they were done for the hauling.

Not wanting a flat/shed roof, and being a weldor. I cut the botton rods on the trusses and bent the top to form a gable type roof with 5' rise. Then welded them back together and welded a 5/8" rod across the building to each end for torsion bars. These are spaced @ 3'. The last of the planks are laid on these rods for an attic floor. I do wish I'd kept more of the planks as I ran out before decking much over half the shop's attic. The building is 25'x50'. Along the south side are three sets of steel framed windows. Welded three frames together to make two sets 9' high x 13'6" long. With a 2' wide column between them. The third set is only 10' long as the walk thru door I put in is at a 45 % angle to the walls. It's a wood grained fancy high dollar door the wife wanted 4' x 8' tall. With a 3'x3' window. Lot's of glass and daylight.
For the big door on the east end I bought and had installed a 16'w x 13' h rollup door costing $1500.
The whole building hasn't cost me much over $3500. But, haven't poured a floor in it yet, it's still wood. I've got a nearly new boiler and PVC under floor hot water heat system planned.

The major set back to all this is, I'm 63 now and had back surgery a year ago that's not healing up right. So, whether I'll ever be able to use this fine shop or not is still up in the air. The next guy I hope will be young enough to get a lifetimes use out of it. Plans are to insist all my tools and equipment stay in place when I'm gone.

Long post, but, it's one hell of a shop.

[Nueces]

Well, George, I surely do hope you get to enjoy that labor-of-love you're building. I know you're enjoying putting it together. Sure would like to see some photos.

This boolit caster is but a few years behind you and the wimmin I live with require being located closer to town, so I've got yet another move and shop-building career in my future. When folks ask why that's such a big deal, my eyes just glaze over.

Here's hoping we both get to settle into our new shops.

All the best, Mark

[MT Gianni]

I have two old desks that are in my reloading room. One, an older students desk, has a piece of 3/4" laminate screwed on top of the original and holds two reloading presses. There is a Lee powder measure at the far left. It's drawers hold j*****d bullets as well as small tools. Above it are 2 shelves holding dies and books with more bookshelves around the room. To the left is an old office desk given away at a work lottery. {if you want it, put your name in the cup}. It holds the lubesizer and Lyman 1200 measure/scale. Boolits are stored under this desk in zip-lock bags and boxes per caliber. There is a 2 drawer file cabinet that holds brass as well as a couple of cases on the floor. Primers, powder and checks are all stored in the closet where there will be only one flavor out at a time. Casting is done out in the shop or attached garage, smelting is outside work. The safe is also in the room so fit can be checked when you start to seat.
The student desk was $5 at a yard sale, the file cabinet was free when my wife's worksite moved. I have an old computer table that sat at the side of a desk that the cast pot goes on also free.
I also have some 1" 3 ring binders with each caliber I load for that articles get torn out or files get printed and put into. There are also titles such as casting, powders and hunting in the binders. CRS still occurs but not nearly as often.
Gianni.

[carpetman]

I read Tpr Brett's suggestion of using a receiver hitch to mount the tools on. So I bought a new pickup to use as a work bench. Even with a milking stool,it was too low to the ground. So I had a hydraulic lift installed in my reloading room where the pickup(workbench)can be raised to the exact height I want. Has benefit of giving me the option of standing or sitting,depending on what job I'm doing. I can also secure the handle of my press and just raise and lower the pickup(work bench)so I dont have to operate the lever on the press.

[MT Gianni]

Carpetman, with your mechanical abilities it should be simple to jack up a tire, run a big belt to the rear and have the worlds fastest progressive press. Dillon will be quaking in their boots to see a demo of that one. Gianni.

[flashhole]

You might consider a circular bench in the center of the room with all the support equipment and components on shelves and in cabinets along the walls. I have four stations mounted around a 36" square bench and am considering cutting the corners off just because they get in the way. A round bench would have worked better for me.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

The insert thing worked out well for me. I have since permanently mounted my main press on one corner of the bench because of of the specifics of the press and how often I use it, but the two remaining slots are regularly used for sizing, single stage work, turret work, and powder charging in batches.

http://www.gunsandbullets.com/articles/reloadingbench.asp

Hey Rich,

I think you need to update those pics. That isn't the presses I saw on those benches last time I was there. :drinks:

Regards,

Dave

[Sundogg1911]

Here's my Reload room. I have it posted in another thread.
I put the pics on my web server, so I don't clog this one up [smilie=1:

http://choppdaddy.com/reloadroom/

You know....I really didn't think I had that much stuff, 'till I snapped a few pics) [smilie=1:

[454PB]

You gotta love a guy that uses Dillon and Lee. How many powder measures do you own?

[Sundogg1911]

I think I have 16 powder measures. (I never could pass up a good deal) [smilie=1:

[454PB]

I may be wrong, but I think that makes you the world's champ. I thought I was overdoing it with 5.

[Char-Gar]

If you have lots of room, get a solid core door and frame up some legs under it with some shelves.

I have got a very heavy door in my garage ready to be moved to my retirement home next year. It is 1.75" thick. I will build a frame with 4x4 legs and attatch the door so it will be 40" high. There will be a 4" set back from the edge to mount the tools. There will be shelves for storage under the top.

I will locate it in the center of the shop so I can mount tools on all four edges. It will give me over 18 running feet of bench space to mount my loading presses and tools.

I will build benches and storage on the walls, as well as leave room for gun safes and machine tools against the walls as well.

I have several friends who are in the construction business and they remove these doors and throw them in dumpsters every week when doing a remodeling job.

I have also picked up several bench tops that are 72 X 30 inches made from laminated 2X4 on edge. I got these for free as well. I will frame them up and one will be my general gunsmith bench and the other will hold my little Logan lathe.

I know one fellow who bought a couple of used metal cabinets and used these as bases to which he attached a solid core door.

Lots of good junk out there.

[Sundogg1911]

I actually got the Dillon 550 with 10 of the changeovers (Powder measures and all) at an estate sale for $1000. I sold the shotgun presses, some of the dies that i'd never use, components, a few moulds and some other misc. items, and ended up getting all of my stuff free, and making about $600. It was a once in a lifetime deal. But i'm always looking at sales, (just in case) :-)