Reloading Bench Photos

[Underwhere]

Updated my setup a little bit the past couple weeks. I added some shelves and bins under the press and mounted a lee single stage with a hornandy cam-lock setup as a dedicated bullet puller. Amazing how a few shelves and bins can really add up to alot of storage. I was thinking of getting a stool. Anyone use one while reloading or does it make it uncomfortable reaching in front of you?

I use a stool.

Make sure it's height adjustable.
Try not to get one on wheels. You want to set it in place and make sure it doesn't move. If it does move you'll be using muscles trying to keep yourself stable.

Why the small bins? Buckets man!

 

[JimB]

stool

i use one that is height adjustable, and has no wheels. my bench has one

shelf that is about 12" of the floor, i can if needed put my feet on it.

i use a 650 w/ casefeeder and sit slightly to the left, i have a halogen

light facing the shell plate. from position i can see all thats going on.

at the end of my bench and to the left there is a groud of shelves

that hold all of my supplies., the bottom shelf is approx 30" of the floor,

makes things more accessible.

JimB

 

[Marcus5aurelius]

Hey guys, we just installed a reloading bench that we salvaged from an old workbench that was going to be tossed. We sanded out some pretty good sized gouges and put a ton of polyurethane to seal it. Also spray painted the bottom metal to give it a new look. The thing is amazingly sturdy:


This setup makes it nice, organized, and completely interchangeable. To switch over to a different caliber, it takes only a few minutes and it allows us to know where everything is at one time:


This shows a docking station that is interchangable with a dillon super swager, lee classic press, star sizer and luber, and lee reloader to utilize bench space. Again, if you want to swage, just grab the swager and swap it out. Pretty sweet design:


Locking cabinet holds a TON of ammo and powder and completely solved out storage issue. More room then we know what to do with:


My father set up some finishing nails to hold primerless cases of everything we load in all the different calibers (more to come ):


Stackable containers underneath are long so they can hold all the different brass casings that we reload, and it lets us sort them easily.


We just reloaded some of these bad boys just to test fire for accuracy. These are completely homemade, our own casted bullets, lubed them and made the gas checks ourselves. I shot them freehand and those holes hold ten rounds. We finally got it right!

 

[6hold]

Marcus5aurelius ~ What a fantastic setup, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Just wondering how many years you’ve been reloading and whether your Dad reloaded before you? I must say the photos you took are top notch also.​

 

[Chrisg67]

Marcus5aurelius, nice setup!

 

[Knob Creek]

This could be the "Holy Grail" of Reloading rooms

How about this place:

This had been posted on the Savage shooters forum and a few others as well.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

I already know the answer, but will allow Marcus to reply.

BTW, Marcus, I have a couple of comments:

• Leaving your dies out (not in their original packaging) invites air humidity to get to them faster. They would be less likly to rust if you kept them in their original packaging, or at least in zip lock bags.
• Don't leave the powder sitting in the powder measures like that. The container isn't tight enough to keep moisture out. The powder will suffer.
• You guys did a great job with your reloading area.

Marcus5aurelius ~ What a fantastic setup, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Just wondering how many years you’ve been reloading and whether your Dad reloaded before you? I must say the photos you took are top notch also.​

 

[Marcus5aurelius]

[*]Don't leave the powder sitting in the powder measures like that. The container isn't tight enough to keep moisture out. The powder will suffer.
[/LIST]

You make a great point Duke, we have several of the powders out because we were recently reloading them but any long term storage should be poured back into the original, sealable container to prevent any clumping in the powder which may cause some irregular measurements when loading.

Marcus5aurelius ~ What a fantastic setup, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Just wondering how many years you’ve been reloading and whether your Dad reloaded before you? I must say the photos you took are top notch also.​

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! We have only been reloading for about a year or so, but have been researching for years before that as to what works and doesn't throughout the entire reloading process. I think we're finally starting to settle into a good point where we can start to pump out reloads faster than we can shoot them (hard to believe ). The best thing about this setup IMO is that everything is interchangeable and doesn't take much space at all. Everything from which caliber you choose to reload or which setup you would like to mount to the docking station at that point in time. The above reloading station is awesome, but it requires a full garage and multiple presses to be set up at once. I do wish we had the indoor chrono though

 

[epete]

The presses

Bench details

 

[epete]

continued from above

Storage

 

[Marcus5aurelius]

Very nice setup!

 

[ArmedMainer]

I'm impressed with how clean some of these set-ups are. Puts mine to shame.

 

[Chrisg67]

epete that is an awesome setup. i love the hinged face board. so slick

 

[Steve_P]

Great idea for storing the primer pickup tubes! I might try a taller alliant powder bottle for mine.

 

[Navy Moose]

I love that bench, I downloaded the plans. If anyone here made one recently, what is the ballpark price for the wood? I want to use a bench like this for reloading and for cleaning weapons, in addition to any other small projects.

My office is 10X10, which is where the bench would be. I don't have a basement or garage, just the second bedroom / office. I'm 5'7, which height would you guys recommend for the bench?

My original plan had been to buy two 3 drawer filing cabinets and a 6 X 2 section of butcher block and 3/8" plywood as a backstop. I like the bench in the PDF much better

Thanks for the ideas guys!

 

[WILDCATT]

my reloading

if this works

 

[Bob J]

I'm impressed with how clean some of these set-ups are. Puts mine to shame.

I have to admit ours is not always that clean.....

 

[Fixxah]

It might not be the Caddilac, but it works for me. It just took so long to complete.

 

[Patriot]

View attachment 14229View attachment 14231View attachment 14230It might not be the Caddilac, but it works for me. It just took so long to complete.

Congrats on finishing it John! Looks good to me.

 

[IDPA Mike]

My reloading room

Press

Shelving and bench



Supplies and scale



Bullet heads



Reloading data



Brass to sort



Wash area

 

[WeedWhacker]

Wash area

Hmmmmmm thats a good idea...... Nice setup also.. .

 

[Fixxah]

I plan on getting into stainless media and rotary tumbler. Have to put in a sink nearby, my wife would be pissed if I was dumping the water into the kitchen sink.

Before I put the bench together, I had looked for the "wood shop" type top to no avail. Mike, that room reminds me of a doctor's office. Nice job.

 

[IDPA Mike]

I plan on getting into stainless media and rotary tumbler. Have to put in a sink nearby, my wife would be pissed if I was dumping the water into the kitchen sink.

Before I put the bench together, I had looked for the "wood shop" type top to no avail. Mike, that room reminds me of a doctor's office. Nice job.

Thanks.
I got the bench from a job site. It is the bottom of an assembly table. Very sturdy legs. I also put a solid core door on top for more room and height. All plywood ,Lights,and brackets came from demo jobs also.

Believe it or not the sink "as grimy as it is" Is used quite a bit. Mainly after sorting old brass.
It was an extra kitchen in the basement that was here when we bought the house.

 

[Fixxah]

The only thing I paid for to do my room was the studs, chip board sheets, and door hardware at Home Cheapo.

Spent about a hundred and change.

 

[IDPA Mike]

View attachment 14229View attachment 14231View attachment 14230It might not be the Caddilac, but it works for me. It just took so long to complete.

I went with a John Wayne Calender.
I like your pics better

 

[Jamie]

Well done John, I like it. That almost motivates me to continue with mine. How well does your exhaust fan set-up work?

IDPA Mike, that is waaaaaaaay too clean.

 

[bhmax16]

I just built this today since I decided I'd like to get into reloading. It's quite sturdy and screwed very tightly to the studs in the basement. I won't know if I'm happy with the outcome until I mount a press to it (likely going to be a Dillon RL550B). It is still not complete since I need to lay some wood down on the bottom for storage and also a thin sheet of plywood for the backing so I can attach a secondary light source.

 

[Manomet]

I am jealous of all you people that don't live in Mass. so you don't have to lock up your powder, primers, bullets, etc.

 

[GunGrey]

just put a new laminate top on my old bench


This used to be my brothers room and hes moved out so now it my reloading room,






Dont flame me for the two differnt patches of tiles, these are the stick on ones and i really dont know what he did it

 

[Fixxah]

Jamie,

I sorted my 223 brass and tumbled a bunch. When I was seperating the media I had my fan on to gather the airborne dust. Well I dropped the end into the bin and it vacuumed up about a quart containers worth of lizard litter and shot a cloud out the side of my house.