Moved into a new to me home a couple of months ago and built my reloading bench from a kitchen counter with drawers frame. I used an old solid core door for the top and covered it with some 1/4" hardboard for a nice clean look. My previous bench had a lot of holes in it from the various reloading machines and I didn't want to go that route again.
Looked at a bunch of different options. There was one that basically was a receiver hitch mounted under the bench and you would simply pull out a mount (kind of like the removable receiver hitch on the back of the truck) and put another machine in it. Great idea but it really wouldn't work for my application and having a bunch of different reloading tools that I work with I would have had to have a whole cabinet full of receiver hitches.
I looked at a post from another website where he mitred a trapezoid looking shape into the bench and simply had a piece of plywood mounted to each tool and then just swapped it to what reloading tool he needed next.
Now we are getting somewhere, I wanted something that you can change in under a minute and isn't much bigger than the machine.
I looked at Lee's Bench Plate on the website and so I stopped by a dealer in Edmonton to see if they had one. I opened the box and quality wasn't the first thing that came to mind, more like crap. I wanted something recessed anyway, you could do that with this one but looked cheap.
I found what I was looking for over on castboolits website. A guy came up with a simple yet sturdy mounting system that meet my needs. The Rockdock is exactly what I was looking for so I ordered the mount without the lube heater attachment (don't need it) and a couple of mounting plates to start with. It was kind of pricey but as long as I had the mount I can easily duplicate the mounting plates for all my machines. I made some more mount blanks out of aluminum plate that I had laying around so all my machines now have a plate on them.
Pat is a great guy to deal with and lives totally off the grid in California. Since he is a one man show the order time is a bit longer at about 4 weeks from time of order but you will not be disappointed.
I routed the mounting block into the bench and secured them with the bolts provided. I had to use screws for the middle bolts because that is where a vertical wood piece is of course
. You set it up to just give a friction feel and a tad bit more and that is it. Tighten the bolts and you can now move each tool in and out with a slight effort in less than 15 seconds. Once in place it will not move and I have reloaded 416 Ruger on my RCBS Rockchucker with no movement at all.
When I am not using the mount I simply made a blank out of plywood to cover the whole and have a smooth table top bench.
Here is a picture with my Dillon 550 getting set up. It has the mounting plate on the bottom and a couple of spacers and then an upper mounting plate that holds everything together including the loaded round catcher.
Here is another angle of it:
Here is my first reloading press that I bought in High School 1974. Use it to teach new reloaders the basics.
I have now made one for all my lube machines, my Hornady LNL, my Dillon 650 and I even have one made for a small vise I use when I do fly tying.
Thought I would give you guys another option when you want to build a bench and don't want lots of holes to mess with. Now I can change tools in less than 30 seconds and no bolts to undo and loose.
Looked at a bunch of different options. There was one that basically was a receiver hitch mounted under the bench and you would simply pull out a mount (kind of like the removable receiver hitch on the back of the truck) and put another machine in it. Great idea but it really wouldn't work for my application and having a bunch of different reloading tools that I work with I would have had to have a whole cabinet full of receiver hitches.
I looked at a post from another website where he mitred a trapezoid looking shape into the bench and simply had a piece of plywood mounted to each tool and then just swapped it to what reloading tool he needed next.
Now we are getting somewhere, I wanted something that you can change in under a minute and isn't much bigger than the machine.
I looked at Lee's Bench Plate on the website and so I stopped by a dealer in Edmonton to see if they had one. I opened the box and quality wasn't the first thing that came to mind, more like crap. I wanted something recessed anyway, you could do that with this one but looked cheap.
I found what I was looking for over on castboolits website. A guy came up with a simple yet sturdy mounting system that meet my needs. The Rockdock is exactly what I was looking for so I ordered the mount without the lube heater attachment (don't need it) and a couple of mounting plates to start with. It was kind of pricey but as long as I had the mount I can easily duplicate the mounting plates for all my machines. I made some more mount blanks out of aluminum plate that I had laying around so all my machines now have a plate on them.
Pat is a great guy to deal with and lives totally off the grid in California. Since he is a one man show the order time is a bit longer at about 4 weeks from time of order but you will not be disappointed.
I routed the mounting block into the bench and secured them with the bolts provided. I had to use screws for the middle bolts because that is where a vertical wood piece is of course
. You set it up to just give a friction feel and a tad bit more and that is it. Tighten the bolts and you can now move each tool in and out with a slight effort in less than 15 seconds. Once in place it will not move and I have reloaded 416 Ruger on my RCBS Rockchucker with no movement at all. When I am not using the mount I simply made a blank out of plywood to cover the whole and have a smooth table top bench.
Here is a picture with my Dillon 550 getting set up. It has the mounting plate on the bottom and a couple of spacers and then an upper mounting plate that holds everything together including the loaded round catcher.
Here is another angle of it:
Here is my first reloading press that I bought in High School 1974. Use it to teach new reloaders the basics.
I have now made one for all my lube machines, my Hornady LNL, my Dillon 650 and I even have one made for a small vise I use when I do fly tying.
Thought I would give you guys another option when you want to build a bench and don't want lots of holes to mess with. Now I can change tools in less than 30 seconds and no bolts to undo and loose.
