Mounting a press in a Vice

vinver

vinver

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Enfield, NS
So I don't have a great amount of workspace to dedicate to reloading full time, and since I only expect to be doing limited amounts of reloading, I thought I could mount my single stage press to a piece of angle iron and clamp in my bench Vice as needed. . The vice is a 6-inch Record and very solidly mounted, and I have some very heavy 4-inch angle Iron to mount up the press.
Other than being mounted about 6 inches higher than desirable, it should work out well. Thoughts, does anybody do this and any pics of your setup? Tips or suggestions?
 
Can't see why this wouldn't work for you. In my wood shop I hold my metal vise in my Record face vise all of the time. Your set up is beefy enough to be stable. My presses are actually mounted to sturdy wooden "L" fixtures which I clamp to my bench, this allows me to move things around as needed.
 
fdc said:
Can't see why this wouldn't work for you. In my wood shop I hold my metal vise in my Record face vise all of the time. Your set up is beefy enough to be stable. My presses are actually mounted to sturdy wooden "L" fixtures which I clamp to my bench, this allows me to move things around as needed.
Click to expand...

This is what I'm going to be doing on my new old bench.
 
What is a comfortable working height for single-stage reloading? I'm now thinking the additional height of the bench vice will work to my advantage since I am about 6 ft tall, I'll go ahead with the plan and make up the angle iron bracket, worst part will be cutting it off since it's rather heavy gauge, at least 1/4 thick. I'll post pics once mounted.
 
Do you load sitting or standing?
You don't need to use heavy angle iron. A bracket can be made up using plywood.
 
I have my Lee LM bolted to a 1" plank which is glued and screwed to a short length of 2x4. I clamp the 2x4 in my Woodworking vise. This set up is solid enough to make me wish I had a heavier bench. The height of the bottom of the LM base is 33" and ideally it would be about 3" higher - I have to bend my legs to get the lever to the bottom of its stroke. I'm only 5'8" so you may be right where you need to be mounting it in a regular bench vise.
 
I mount my press and powder measure on a piece of 3/4" plywood, and then clamp the plywood to my bench or whatever when I am going to reload. A vice should work well too.
 
A metal working vice (as opposed to a woodworker's) would do a fine job of holding a chunk of 4" angle. If you were going to do some heavy duty reloading (reforming brass, resizing 50BMG...) I'd be looking at possible flex in the angle iron.

A higher seat / stool might be the ticket for dealing with the higher mounting position.
 
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