Show us a picture of your reloading bench

Ok here is my Den O fun!!!









Wife didn't know I was going to take over her scrap book room. Moved her out to a upstairs room. mine now!!!

Love that Den-O-Fun!! Nice. So much more productive than scrap-booking too!

Bob

This is a great thread. I looked at every page while deciding what to build.

We had two spare bedrooms and an office then we started having kids. Didn't want to take any room in the home office. I've got room in the garage but half the year it's just too hot in the garage (120 degrees in the summer).

My solution was to make a bench on wheels so when it's too hot to work in the garage I can wheel it inside, do my thing and then wheel it back out to the garage. Made some blocks with cutouts for the wheels so when I get it inside all the weight of the bench is on the blocks, not the wheels.

The most stress I've put on the bench was just some full length resizing some .223 but it was plenty stable considering it's a movable bench IMO.

Got the metal bench used for $80, took off the MDF top and made this top from three layers of 3/4 plywood. Probably more thick than it needs to be but I like the look of the thick top.



Made a small elevator for my case trimmer to avoid knuckle scraping. Free is cheaper than the $25 RCBS version:



My first reloads ever! .38 specials, 158 grain plated Berrys with 3.6gr of 231. Very satifying even if I did take me quite a bit of time going very slow for this first batch of 100:



Not pictured is the RCBS trim mate case prep center...fired it up the first time to clean up some trimmed .223 brass.

I'm a rookie but this is fun.

Nice job. I'm a fan of the island deisgn that gives access to all sides of the bench. You have room to mount another press or two.

Very nice work.

Dentite

you need to paint those drawers green!!!!!

The Dove

THe dove,

....or he needs new equipment!

Nojoke -

He needs to paint the frame green too!!! HAHA

The Dove

Thanks for the nice words guys. It's a start!

I would love it if the bench were green, I just didn't feel like painting haha.

I really like this thread. It is really neat how you guys take sometimes the smallest space and make a santuary. I will post mine someday when I get it cleaned up.

New Bench

I decided to stain and poly my bench, so I pulled everything off and went to town. I think it looks better than it did before. My dad and I built this bench just the other day. I can't wait for this to dry so I can get my stuff back on it. I haven't decided how I want to build my shelf on top, but I was thinking about an enclosure with some type of slide out for my scale. I don't know....it's a work in progress.

Nice looking bench spc.

All shops/benchs are a work in progress, in case you didn't know.


Cat

Bench

Mounted the press finally!

Finally getting it all put together.
From a costco shed:http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=7324997&postcount=2047


To this:



It's working out well.
Yes, that's an attempt at sound proofing. The neighbor is just a few feet away, normal for CA high density living.
The less they know, the better IMO.

Well, I at least have a temporary place to load a couple rounds for load testing. I still have boxes of stuff, gun safe and 3 more presses to set up. What you see framed in is a paint room that I can airbrush in without getting overspray all over everything. I plan on framing in the remaining corner(where my loading stuff is now) of the basement for my loading room. I have a buddy that is getting me several kitchen base cabinets and wall cabinets. Hopefully buy spring, I will have something more permanent, LOL.

I used some old entertainment base cabinets and I made a base for them using 4x4's. I used 2x4's to attache them and them put a 1/2" mdf on top followed by a 3/4" MDF on top of that. I used contact cement to cover the top with Formica and it works for me. See http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=7420946&postcount=2118 for pictures of the results. You can do something like this with the Kitchen base cabinents.

Finally got all my presses reinstalled after installing the LNL AP. I have posted pics of the bench before, but not with the new addition. I took an idea from another member on THR and made up a Primer tube style bullet feeder for 9mm. It works awesome, and I ended up running out of powder before I ran out of bullets!

Great work Joe! I like the T track idea and may do something similar with my bench. I saw T track used on other benches in this thread. Where can you buy t track?

Bench Expansion

I expanded my reloading bench and added a second Dillon 550B. One is setup for large primers and the other small primers. On the end is my Lyman T mag for rifle work.

I bought this kit at Rockler.com It is on sale now and you can cut the 4' track to the size that you need for your bench.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21276&rrt=1

On the same web page are the hold down clamps that I use. I waited until they put them on sale also.
There is a cheaper clamp here: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21387

You will need to use a router to cut a 3/4' wide by 3/8' deep dado to put the t-track in. I installed the t-track before I put the Formica on . I routed the dados before I installed the top on the bench so that I could clamp some boards to the top to guide the router.

Finished the garage this summer - for many reasons - but the sweetest payoff is this reloading area. Light is excellent, and there's lots of storage room on racks and in cabinets not pictured in this photo (in case I need to add anything ....). Bench can be cleared off (including press, which is attached via the Lee mounting brackets) and stored securely in 2 minutes, freeing up the nice work bench surface and leaving no trace of reloading activity (er, perhaps except some HP-38 on the floor, and spent primers in the trash ....).

16in50calNavalRifle said:

Finished the garage this summer - for many reasons - but the sweetest payoff is this reloading area.

Click to expand...

16in50calNavalRifle - What is the source of your reloading bench?

Black Talon, here is the workbench page on the website for the manufacturer (Penco):

http://www.pencoproducts.com/index.asp?pageID=8&cId=5&pid=18#target

Note: I bought this used, off of Craigslist, for a very good price. "Used" in this case meant a few marks and scratches on top of the butcher block surface (as in, nothing important - will refinish it in a few years and it will look new). So my price was a big discount - I think it was $300, delivered and assembled.

I highly recommend this bench - sturdy, the power strip is great, the little shelf in the back is perfect. I also recommend the swivel/magnification lamp I got:

http://www.harborfreight.com/fluorescent-magnifying-lamp-66384.html

It's that rarest of things - an item that is exactly what I wanted. It provides great light of course, but it's perfect for reloading - I keep it just overhead near my press, which helps me do my QA powder check (Lee 4-hole turret, so you get both some efficiency and very high quality assurance by seeing each round as it goes through the various steps), and when I want to check a loaded round more closely to check for defects, I just pull down the lamp, flip up the cover, and peer through the magnifying lens for a closer look.

Depending on your workbench needs/uses, the bench could well be worth it at full price - it is very good and will never need to be replaced. My good fortune on Craigslist is just consistent with my luck buying most of my reloading equipment through CalGuns - altogether I have spent about 60% of new prices for a complete, 4-caliber set-up with gear that is either actually or close to new.

This is my son's and I reloding area. We really enjoy this hobby. After a good round of reloading we like to go shooting. My son really likes using the RCBS progressive while I like to reload "old school" one at a time. We reload almost all the handgun rounds espicially .44mag, .357, .40, .45, 9mm. Rifle we load .223, 30-30, 30-06 .308. Reloading really helps keep costs way down but then you like to shoot more!!

I borrowed this design for a portable workbench and adapted it to fit a small, rolling SS table that I have been using as my hamshack repair bench. If I need to do some work on an ailing radio I can simply unclamp the reloading bench from the cart and set it aside.

http://www.weaponscache.com/forum/ammunition-reloading/1840-portable-reloading-bench-free-plans.html

I started out reloading for my M1911A1 Colt that I inherited from my Dad . I've since added dies for 30-06 and a recently acquired Remington 722 .222 to the collection. Reloading dovetails nicely with my amateur radio hobby. I can listen along to a radio net or to my friends chatting on 75 meters while I resize and deprime for a couple hours.

I really appreciate all the helpful ideas and info posted here. Thanks!

Paul