Show us a picture of your reloading bench

[LAH]

You did great.........Is that a 650?.........Creeker

[LkWinnipesaukee]

Primers, thats sweet!!!


Now you MUST tell me; where did you get that Glock banner???

[IDriveB5]

Primer-
Amazing. I like the color match of the chest'o'drawers to your press. Neat.
Tell me about your walls. I love the wood.

[SRMohawk]

Hell, some these aren't even reloading rooms anymore . . . they're bunkers!

[Primersinmyshoe]

Thanks guys,

That's a Dillon 650 bolted to the bench. You can't quite see that the bench has a 2X4 brace going up to the joist and another 2X4 attached to the wall that secures the top of the bench. You could dance on top of the bench. I framed the room in the usual way and put up cedar paneling, but put the safe flush into the wall.

Here's the back of the wall with the safe:


I work part time at an indoor shooting range/gun shop (ain't life grand?), that's where I got the Glock banner, and a few others. If I'm not upstairs in my office at the computer, you'll find me tinkering around down in the shop.

[revolverman357]

Here is my humble hiding place:

[stellarpod]

Revolverman357:

I can't think of a better place to hide!

Just an observation for everyone: Your scale is very suseptable to dust. It works best and most accurately when it is dust-free. I found a solution at Lowe's several years ago. Find one of the clear plastic "shoe boxes" they sell in their organizer section. I tossed the lid and place the box upside down over my scale. It's sized just right, stays nice and pristine and it's a lot better IMHO than the vinyl bag-type covers that you usually see. Just a thought.

stellarpod

[BobMcG]

Here's shots of my humble main and secondary benches.

[revolverman357]

stellarpod, I had uncovered the scale for the picture, I have a cardboard box that I put over it when not in use, but the clear "shoe box" organizer thing sounds like a good idea. I will look for one...thanks

[keano44]

PRIMERSINMYSHOE,
Funny you should mention "You could dance on top of the bench."
The room my reloading setup is in is a multipurpose room; garage, workshop, gym, party room, reloading room, etc. I have told my wife and several friends that I built my benches strong enough for girls to dance on, "Just in case!"

[snuffy]

I would add to the comment "strong enough to dance on". Anybody just starting out reloading; IF the bench you're going to build is NOT strong enough to dance on, it won't be strong enough to load on! Build whatever bench you are considering to whithstand a lot of pressure, especially side ways torque applied by a press on one edge while sizing cases! It WILL try to tip the whole bench over! Even just lifting the other side a little is un-nerving, especially if you have loose bullets sitting on top or charged cases in a loading block.

One trick is to put all your bullets on the back edge to conterweight it so it won't lift. A simpler idea is to screw it to the wall/floor to make it stay put.

[Run&Shoot]

I just put together my second reloading bench. The first one I used 3/4" CDX plywood with 1/4" masonite board on the top. That was OK but had a little bit of give when sizing brass and torquing the endge of the bench.

For this #2 bench top I have 1" pine board as a base. Actual thickness of 1", not nominal. Boards are glued together to form a 24" wide board, from Home Depot). then I put 3/4" playwood that has Birch veneers on the top. The birch gives it a reasonably hard and smooth finish compared to fir/pine veneers. Looking back I wish I had spent the extra few dollars over the birch and just went ahead with an oak veneer plywood.

I used seven 5/16" galvanized (not zinc) bolts to secure the 23"x38" top to th e base cabinet. The cabinet is 32" wide. In order to provide room for the press to operate I have a 6" overhand on the right side where I mounted it. This combination is very sturdy and stable. No give at all no matter how hard I push down on the press handle.

The other approach I was thinking off until I found the glued up pine boards was to use 2x6 or 2x8 as a base and then 1/4" masonite over the top for a smooth finish. At any rate I think you want a minumum thickness of 1 1/2" to 2" for a reloading bench top.

[3rdpig]

I've just started reloading again after a long layoff. Added some new stuff like the Loadmaster in with my old single stage press and other older stuff. Got a small area to work with now, I can only keep one press mounted at once, but it's working well and ammo is stacking up.

[steelhead]

[LAH]

And the press on the left is?

[steelhead]

Hornady Lock-N-Load AP.

[LAH]

Have you used their case feed?

[20yearvet]

Here's my room. I have my own room about 8' X 12'. It is both small and huge. Small because it's small, and huge because it's all mine and has both my Shotgun and Metallic stuff in it. I'm both lucky and jealous. Lucky because it's dedicated to my gun and shooting stuff and I don't have to compete for space with my or my spouses other hobbies. I'm jealous due to some of the awesome setups that others have.

Future plans include some cedar paneling and additional work on ammo storage, etc.

[steelhead]

Haven't used the casefeed for the LNL.

[LAH]

Thanks

[Liberty4Ever]

When I started reloading 12 years ago, I built a space saving vertical reloading bench and bolted it to the back wall of a walk in closet. Close the closet door, and you'd never know a gun nut lived there. I've since moved and space is more of a premium than it was, so I was very glad I made a compact space saving reloading bench. I upgraded from the Lee Pro-1000 to a Lee LoadMaster. The bench is in my office, behind my computer. Turn around in the chair and I'm reloading instead of computing.



So far, I'm reloading 9mm and 10mm, but I also have a quick change turret and shell plate for .223 I haven't used yet, and I plan on adding .308 soon. I have a lot of unused storage space on the vertical bench that I'll be filling up soon.

Not shown: The brass I have stored in Rubbermaid storage containers (a bit larger and sturdier than plastic shoe boxes), the brass tumbler and media separator, the lead melt pot and bullet casting equipment, the Lee LoadAll 12 gauge shot shell loading press I've never used and the 1000 hulls I have to go with it.

Also not shown: I have a bright light on the left side that I can point at the press, and a very nice (and expensive!) lighted magnifier on the bench to the right that i can use to examine fine details. My 46 year old eyes need a lot of light and magnification for detailed work.

The vertical bench allows a lot of storage options for reloading equipment, powder, bullets, primers, etc. It could be easily expanded to accommodate a second press or more storage.

I use the MTM ammo boxes to store loads under development so I can keep them straight while test firing them. Once a load is the way I want it, I just load into mil-surp ammo cans and dip out of them into the Dilln Bordercross ammo range bag.

Here's a cheesy video of one round of 9mm being reloaded on the LoadMaster progressive press.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1v7fQX18Co

Since the video and the picture above, I've added a second 2X8 under the press to stiffen the bench. The compact design is very stiff and solid, and mounting it to the wall keeps the loading bench from moving. It's rock solid.

[MarshallDodge]

Liberty4ever, that's pretty neat.

That would work really well in a walk in closet.

[Liberty4Ever]

I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of readily available storage space on my vertical reloading bench, although I know I'll outgrow it. I'll probably add a second, smaller vertical bench to the left for the 12 gauge reloader.

I don't really want to store the other stuff with my reloading bench in it's current location in my office because all the bullet casting and brass cleaning operations can generate lead dust, and I'm kind of nuts about keeping the few brain cells I have left working as well as possible.

I started reloading to be able to afford to shoot the 10mm. With hard cast bullets, mostly from free used wheel weights from the local tire shop, my 10mm cost is about four cents a round, which is about the cost of premium 22 ammo. However, I was surprised that I enjoyed reloading as a hobby unto itself. I reload 9mm ammo now, and using Rainier plated bullets I'm currently not saving much over the cost of buying 9mm ammo, but I reload because I enjoy it. I'll start casting 9mm bullets too. That 9mm SUB-2000 carbine has an insatiable appetite.

[drsteve]

[snuffy]

Drsteve, the cadilac of single stage presses on a workmate! How do you like the co-ax? I've been using mine for around 20 years. Still works as good as new!

Lots of good ideas from people making do with what you have to work with.