Stronger mounts for press?

Interesting that this Lee Press Stand thread came up at the same time. Seems to be a great product at the right time.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=577171

But a quick Google of "grinder stands" turns up this link....

http://www.nextag.com/grinder-stand/products-html

....with similar machine stands for as low as $30. In such a stand, height is very important as most presses are better off near the 36" level.



In the stand pictured above, the weight issue can be quickly overcome by simply piling a bag of play sand or lead shot on the accessory shelf.

788ham has a good method. I did something similar useing a piece of 12 ga steel about 14" X to mount atop the 'bench' I have that has 1.5" plywood top.
press bolts thru the plate and top (5/16-18 gr5) and the steel secured round the edge by 9 countersunk head wood screws 1/4" X 1.5"
I form .45acp shot shell brass from .45Win mag and other brass no problem

Did something similar with mine. I have a steel framed bench with a rather thin top. Rather than reinforce the top, I just bridged across the frame with 2" angle iron and bolted through the top into that. Cheaper than a large sheet of wood and lots stronger. The press feels like it's welded to the bench now.

I started with too light of a bench and have had to reinforce it. After quite a lot of reloading it started to get 'rickety. I added some 2x4's on edge under the top (screwed and wood glued), a 3/8" piece of steel with 3 layers of 3/4" ply (to raise the press a little) on top. I bolted the steel to the underside 2x4's and welded three bolts to the steel passing throught the ply for the press mount.

I use about 12 coffee containers full of pistol brass as weights on the bench.

I had to relearn my press "stroke" again because of the big difference reinforcement made.

You won't be sorry you built it strong and heavy.

Wrage,

Hey young'n, no big deal on the SS plates I used. I laid one piece on top of the bench, sat the press on top of that and marked exactly where I needed the holes to be, to secure the press. I put the two SS pieces together, using clamps to hold without moving, and drilled the holes thru the pieces. Using the top SS piece, I laid it over the bench and marked where the holes would be in the 1" plywood table top, drilled the holes. Then I took the SS piece that was to go on the bottom side of the press, wedged it between the bench top and the 2X6 brace, hammered it into place { then took a screwdriver and centered the holes in the SS piece, laid the other SS piece over it, placed the press in place, bolted both sides and was complete. THEN, I drilled a hole in the front of each SS piece, furthest away from the press towards the front, put in two small bolts and washer, lock nut and secured. Done. Then I can take the press off of the bench top and have access to the bench top for whatever! Good luck

Just keep adding layers of scrap wood to the bench, attached with sheet rock screws, until the bench stops flexing when all a person's weight is put on a press handle.

How did you get your kids eye color to match the color of the press? That's pretty cool.

I found that I needed big bolts to hold the bench together and lots of layers of stiff wood. I really had to work at getting the bench to be stiff and unmovable.

But to attach the presses to the bench, just sheet rock screws was all that was needed to get all the stiffness I could measure.

You're lucky to have a reloading partner. My youngest daughter (12) likes to shoot but has no interest in reloading.

i use an old electronics workbench. i mounted my rockchucker to a 2x4 with some countersunk 3/8" hardware. i clamp that to the top of the bench with two big C-clamps. it's plenty sturdy and still allows me to get it out of the way if i wanna put my gun vise on the bench or work on something else.

Glad I read this thread to the end. I think I'm going to add a sandwich of steel to my bench. Great idea, wish I could take the credit but can't, so thanks.

Just bought another Lee bench plate which I'm also going to reinforce under the bench with 2 inch angle iron. Someone was asking for pictures of the setup. I should have them up in about a week.

Wrage,

Yep, just about like mine, sure doesn't bend or flex anymore! Looks like you've got a place to sling some lead and powder now!

Clark, a mans always gotta have sheet rock screws!! LOL

OK, finally got around to putting in the other plate. So in the first picture you can see the reinforcements that bridge from the front to the back of the frame. The reinforcing ribs are made of 2" x 2" 1/8" angle iron with a bolt at each end. The front bolt on each is the front mounting bolt on the Lee plate. There is a cross piece of 2" wide rib that is drilled to fit the rear bolts of the plate. I've let that float in position to bridge across the angle iron. The second picture shows the rib on the right and bolted into position on the left. I used the Lee flat topped carriage bolts for everything. As far as the bench top is concerned, to allow it to lay flat without being raised in the rear by the bolt heads I counterbored it by using a dry-erase marker and coloring the heads and then allowing the top to flop onto the bolt heads and mark the positions. I then counterbored about 1/4" deep with a Forstner bit big enough to allow a little wiggle room for the heads in case my marks were a little off. The third photo shows everything together. The top is 1/2" MDF and could be anything because the strength comes from being bolted through the iron underneath. When all is said and done it feels like the press is set in concrete.

I have all my Dremel equipment (drill press, router table, vise) mounted on wood blocks to mount into the bench plate, and designed a torch holder for annealing casings using a drill and socket to spin the casings.

In case anyone is wondering, the holder for the turrets is composed of two poplar boards that are using a series of nylon spacers for stand off. The bottom is solid and the top is drilled with a series of 3" holes and adjoining depressions for the shell holders. Pistol turrets each have their own powder measure and I use the "Perfect" powder measure for rifle loads and run the press as a single station.

I have not done it, but have seen it done by others in pics on forums... put a steel plate on top of the bench, to spread out the force of the press so the bench will flex less.

The press screws never break or stretch when sheet rock screws are used.

I just kept adding more layers of wood until it was stiff. That is probably not as smart as the metal plate.

I've got to remount my Hornady LnL AP to a 2x8 for a short (6 week) business trip and am taking it with me. The idea of a metal plate is awesome as I can stick to the 2x8 and make things simpler for me. I'll be C clamping the 2x8 to the hotel dining table

Rigid and Secure Press Mounting

Here is my recent press mounting effort. Two hot-rolled steel plates with two inches of plywood in between. It's secured with 5/16" bolts and large washers below. This was a very inexpensive and extremely rigid mount.