Early next year, around Febuary, I will be building a new reloading bench. I have some ideas that I will be using but thought that I would put it out there for suggestions.
So if you had your time again what would you do different?
Maybe a stainless steel top…
What about more shelving…
Wider, longer, higher…
Different way to mount your equipment…
What about equipment?
What would you buy/make different to help you reload better?
I will be doing both pistol and rifle but at this stage I won’t be casting my own however if you have an idea or suggestion that involves casting please put it in as it might help someone else.
Side note to actual post:
So, will contribute on reloading bench, but speaking of casting…
you all knew this was cuoming
Can share a lot of details, I do a bit of casting. But I suspect you are asking about handgun pills and honestly, they are not worth it. It takes effort, material, material preparation and a bit of time. I cast for obsolete stuff that I simply (a) can’t buy or (b) way too uncommon and way too expensive to buy. However, for my run of the mill 44, 357, 30 cal for my milsurp 308 I just buy from HRBC. They sell buy weight and deliver to your door and also Lee is just a mellow cool guy to deal with. Never had an issue. Once you find pill you like, (read: once I find pill I like) I order 500+. Good quality, powder coated, rated to velocities you’d never get to, so reduced to (more realistically) no leading. Much easier to do this than cast hundreds of pills, sort, lube or coat, QA each one, swage maybe, watch out for ventilation or outside only, etc. It’s a process, but if you’re keen, I’ll write a post on it at some stage.
Thanks for that JS but I must not have written my post well. Basically what I was looking for is for ideas on building the bench and things that you would do differently if you could.
One example would be to fit the quick release plates so you could swap one press for another or for a different piece of equipment if that makes sense.
I don’t have anything that fancy, but I do have holes drilled into the bench and all equipment is mounted to brackets that gets bolted to the bench when I am using it.
Press is also attached with Lee Bench Plate. Although, I doubt it will be ok for Dillon, but for other press models it’s fine. I drilled out a few more holes for RCBS presses
Drilling holes is one thing that I was toying with but instead of just holes was looking at putting nutserts in the bottom so you could just screw a bolt straight in.
The Dillon and my Lyman will be permanently mounted but I was thinking more along the lines of case trimmers etc.
I know exactly what you mean, like furniture nuts… However, I am thrifty fucker so I have bunch of these bolts/nuts left over from strategically placed baby gates around the house, until not too long ago. So I use this… Just tighten by hand.
This is the main workbench. Press is now removable on Lee plate. I use plywood cutout lips things for vice, so I can clamp firearms in them, works a lot better than cleaning stands.
But there’s another bench opposite, with tool boxes, more wall shelving, wall mounted tool hanging board, old baby change table which works well for mobile tool station… I am an organisation freak, but as far as the main reloading bench goes - that’s it.
If I were to do it again, which I will… I would make it about 50% longer, when it’s time to load for little pew pews. I actually moved in with that bench already in place. Solid foundation, bolted to concrete floor and studs. The bench top was replaced with a sheet of pine from Bunnings. That’s about it.
Also, I want to build sort of an ‘architect’s draw’ thing for storing dies. That would be cool, but need time.
I like the laptop bracket. I was looking to modify one of the brackets for mounting monitors onto desktops that can rotate as well as moving up and down.
What you posted above are not big enough. Mine are cut to shape and span across the entire wise, so there is no chance of accidentally whacking metal and scratching stuff.
In case you are wondering, yes that is a barrel, hammer, mallet and a blowtorch LOL. Sometimes iron sights need to be persuaded a little more aggressively (was soldering and everything, earned my man-card)
Nope, they’d crack immediately. Thick Plywood! Durable and expandable. Heavy use, mine lasted a year and had to be replaced after a (separate) blowtorch cameo. But when I cut them out, I just cut a few sets - large for that vise and few sets of smaller ones for drill press vice.
I used to have my gear bolted directly to the bench, but now it is all on the Lee benchplate bases. The actual bench plate is bolted at one end of the bench leaving the rest of the bench free for other tasks. I’ll just use G-clamps to hold down accessories like case trimmer, lube-sizer, single stage press for a few quick reloads etc. instead of using the benchplate itself. My progressive press tends to be permanently in the base. Sort of defeating the purpose but when I need the full bench I can take it all off and have it clear. One thing you will need if you do plan on having everything removable is somewhere to put it when it’s not in use. I built a shelf up out of the way that I clamp it all to. Bench is made from a solid core door with 4 x 2" legs and bolted to the frame work.( 100 x 50 mm for the young 'uns )
Since this room is inside the garage/workshop where I have a proper vice setup on a workbench with all appropriate tooling I don’t need to set up another one on the reloading bench. That’s also where I do my casting.
Old photo, been remodeled again. Couldn’t be fucked going out and taking another one.
all I can add is that no matter how big you think you want it to be, make it bigger than that.
I have my shotgun press, case trimmer and a couple of other bits screwed to blocks of wood that I can just put in the vise.
The other thing I have done is set my reloading process up to work backwards across the bench ( working right to left, grab a primed case, powder charge, take a step to the left stick case into shell holder, seat bullet.) It forces me to take my time not slip into autopilot and stops me making mistakes.
