Pictures of your reloading bench/equipment

Benches

Jim243,weather that is your daughter or grandaughter she is a cutie and you should be proud. Hope she is taking interest in your hobbies too.
 
I was so excited about Rembrandt's aluminum t-slot stuff on page 3, I combined that with a rolling workbench I saw on arfcom a few months ago, and came up with this little project... Sorry about the poor pictures, it always seems to be rather late at night when I finish various stages of projects and I usually just have my cell phone on me
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Google SketchUp for the design stage
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Half-finished
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And now it's almost done, just finished playing with the router and now I need to go take a shower to get all the wood dust off myself. For some reason, I didn't think ahead about how much of a mess cutting a pair of 1"x1" channels 3 feet long would make :eek:
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Ended up using pieces of a 2x12 from a never started decking project for the top, a couple of 2x4's for the frame, and the rest except for the t-slot stuff and 2x4's were sitting around in the garage for years, some of it salvaged from old projects. Now I just need to make room for it indoors, and mount my press and other stuff... I was thinking about painting it, but it's getting cold out and the garage is unheated. Maybe in the spring. So for now all I need to do is fix the aluminum in place(think I'm going to epoxy it, bolting it down seems too troublesome), and make some mounting plates.

ETA- another pic, during the day, after gluing the rails and making a mount for the press.
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Catcow ....

... I like your combination of wood frame construction along with Rembrandt's aluminum t-slot stuff.
How about a few details -- I'm assuming the top is wood screwed down to the supports.
All screw construction - any nailing ?

And I do like the tube for the spent primers.

Are the 2x4s used for the top raw or did you run them through a planer ?

I'd been thinking of gluing a couple of 5/8 sheets of playwood together for a top, but I suspect that would not work very well with a router to install channels for the aluminum t-slots.
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Two sheets of 3/4" plywood, glued and screwed would work great with the under bench receiver system.

Also be careful about making a bench overly light unless it is attached to the floor or wall.

A bench that "walks" or rolls around when in use is the pits!

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot
 
Jim243,weather that is your daughter or grandaughter she is a cutie and you should be proud. Hope she is taking interest in your hobbies too.
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I am. Actually she is both (daughter and grand daughter), my wife and I adopted her when our daughter was going through a rough time with her Ex. Soon to have a new grandson (first one) withing one or two weeks. And I even like my new son-in-law (I must be getting old).

Looks like I'll be looking for two Crickets, one in pink and one in synthic (at least till the little one stops teething.) (LOL)

Thanks - proud as punch grand-dad.
Jim

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Here's mine. It's super portable so I can do mundane brass prep downstairs in front of the TV, reload on the kitchen table, in the spare room, in the camper, etc.

I keep all of my gear in a closet in the spare room, then fill a plastic milk crate with what I need for any individual loading session and bring it, and this mini-bench with me to where I intend to reload.

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cwok said:
How about a few details -- I'm assuming the top is wood screwed down to the supports. All screw construction - any nailing
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2.5" deck screws throughout, except for the thinner shelves which have 1.25" screws. And Gorilla Glue to hold the rails in. Got a few wide spots to fill in with wood glue where the router hit knots and tried to get away from me :p

Are the 2x4s used for the top raw or did you run them through a planer ?
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A cut up old 2x12 from a decking project actually, although I had enough 2x4's to use them too, I figured the wider wood would give me a better platform without having to top it with plywood. After it was put together I hit the top and edges with a belt sander too smooth things out, but not by much.

I'd been thinking of gluing a couple of 5/8 sheets of playwood together for a top, but I suspect that would not work very well with a router to install channels for the aluminum t-slots.
Click to expand...

I had the same thought about putting plywood on top of 2x4's. I guess it would work, but it would take some careful planning. I imagine it would work OK as long as the combined layers are thick enough and well bonded, but I'm not that good at woodworking.
 
Don't know about the stut but the pedestal should work fine, especially if you use a separate piece of metal or wood for the base between the press and pedestal.
 
new bench setup

I've been using some space in the garage on a work bench for a while, but just finished setting up this space in a closet in a spare bedroom. It's easy to close things up and get them out of sight if the room needs to be used and I don't have to keep setting up and breaking down the gear when I need space for other projects in the garage.

It isn't a big space, but it works for my low volume needs.

I know this is an old post, but seems appropriate to just add these pictures here.

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Great Idea LakeCruiser!

I did almost the identical thing when I finished a basement in our last home.

The difference, I planned it that way and didn't need to retro fit a closet.

So, that is a good plan to go with. Bigger is better if possible, as it does allow for more of the bench surface to be usable/reachable.

Then just forget all the grooves in the bench top and everything else and just use the under bench receiver system for mounting as many loading tools as you could possibly want or buy.

I just checked and you can Google, "under bench receiver system" and it is still on the net on at least one forum, plus references to it o others.

Images are posted of my bench/system on the Cast Boolits Forum.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot
 
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Crusty - I know what you mean about more bench top space is better. I'm thinking about using a little stand (like a workmate bench) to put that little Challenger press on and get it out of the closet to make some more space in there. If I do that, I'd make that little workmate style bench small and portable enough fold up and hide in the closet when necessary.

We'll see what I come up with.
 
Lakecruiser,

If you can't find the links to the images of the under bench system, send me a PM with your "E" address and I can forward the images to you.

If you go that way, you won't need the extra bench.

One problem with small tables or benchs is they can "walk" if any loading or forming is done which requires any amount of effort.

Have a great day,

CDOC
 
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