How strong is your reloading bench?

My press mount is strong only where it needs to be.
Each is bolted to a 2" x 6" which is bolted to the table simply so they won't slide. The 2x6's run the entire width of the table to the wall where they are bolted to the wall studs with angle brackets. Zero movement. The table is just a Gorilla rack, but there is zero vertical movement so the stiffness is where it needs to be.

1/2" or so plywood top setting on 2 x 4s lagged to wall. 45 degree 2 x 4s bracket screwed to studs at floor/wall intersection and up to bottom of table. Had toimprovise a little with the Ponsness/Warren.

Mine is a 2x4 frame on doubled 2x4 legs with doubled 3/4 plywood top. My 550 is bolted to that.
The Rockchucker is on a 2x8 riser and stiffener, my S1050 is on doubled 2x12 which serves as elevator and stiffener.

I use one I bought as it is light enough to move (live in small apartment) made by. The bench is about $70 and sells at Walmart among others. It is made by Stack-On but very steady and stable.

4x4 legs. The top is 2x12s with 1/2" plywood on top of that and is braced well and bolted to the wall. I go about 240 lbs and I could do jumping jacks on top of it I think. I like em solid.

I mounted mine to an old teacher's desk that was given to me by the maintenance men at work. Very strong and stable.

DM~ said:

I have more than one reloading area, but below is my "most used" bench. I milled it out of an ash tree that i harvested, and then built the bench with a 3-1/2" thick top, so it's pretty strong, the shelves are solid ash too,



The legs are solid oak, and there's no fasteners in it any place as it doesn't need any.

Nothing i've done on it has move it one bit, in any way!

DM

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You didn't make bows out of that good old ash heart wood!?

Here is a pic before I mounted the press or otherwise cluttered up the room.

It is 2 layers of 3/4 birch plywood glued and screwed to cabinets bolted to the wall. It doesn't move at all.

You didn't make bows out of that good old ash heart wood!?

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His construction thread was quite good. it is worth looking up and reading. I just don't have that kind of equipment or I might have a bench that sturdy too.

Mine is 4x4's, with hand cut tongue and groove 2x4 crossmembers, and double ply 3/4" plywood topped.

Its all pressure glued, and the corners are reinforced with 3" lag bolts.

It's pretty sturdy.

I built my 10' x 28" x 42.5" high bench by layering 2x10's then topping with good one side oak plywood making it 3 3/4" thick. Then bolted it to the wall, it is as solid as it can get, I can stand a pen on end anywhere on my bench, and no matter what I do including jumping on it, or hitting the bench with a 4lb hammer doesn't even wiggle the pen, let alone knock it over!

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Sears 3/4" board on a standard Sears work bench
Works fine for all calibers. Bench is bolted to wall. Coffee can is joke for other post
On another Sears bench I jammed a 2 x 6 under the Dillon 550 for extra strength

2x4 basics kit, double layered 3/4 hardwood ply glued and screwed, lagged to the wall. My xl650 hardly moves, even if I lean on it it does none of the 'nosing down' so often seen in press demo videos.

i bet i have the junkest bench there ever was. its just a 1.5 inch one piece wood. its weighed down with what ever i have. done over 10k rounds like that.

MaterDei said:

I'm not exactly sure how strong it is but this was my first strength test. It passed.

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I am in the process of building the same bench. I have the bench complete and will start the shelves on my days off.

" Red cent "

What kind of shotgun shell reloader is that. I likey a lot

Nice bench's everyone, especially the one out of log's.

Mine's pretty strong. It and some other workbenches and cabinets came with the basement.
It's an old desk probably about fifty years old and faced and topped with formica. It weighs a ton with nothing in the huge drawers or on it.. it's just free-standing. It looks like this but mine's over six feet long and about three and a half feet deep. I love it.



I'd take a picture of it but I'm lazy and I've got about twelve projects going on down there.

Mine's not strong enough. I broke the press off with a big chunk of wood attached. It's a cheap desk made of mostly particle board, but I've since reinforced the top with 5/8" plywood and a couple of 2x4s to the floor. I'm in the middle of building a real bench, but that'll probably take a month or so.

Matt

Mine is a heavy duty shelving unit from lowes that can be configured as 2 36 inch high "tables" instead of a 72 inch high shelving unit. I bolted to the two tables together, end to end (giving me 16 feet of "frontage), and glued & screwed a 3/4 inch plywood top to the original 1/2 inch particle board shelf. My 12 presses are carriage bolted to the top, wired together from underneath, and grounded to a water pipe. The powder trickler and trimmer are held down with sheet rock screws.

splattergun said:

You didn't make bows out of that good old ash heart wood!?

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Naaaa, here's what happened to "that" ash log,

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=6984862#post6984862


BUT, it's NOT the last ash log that i have!

DM

I just stuck mine on the side of a Snap-On work bench I got several year ago...



I ued a couple of shelving brackets from lowe's and mounted a 2x6 board on it. The brackets are mounted where the handle was on the Snap-On bench.