New reloading bench project

I welded an angle iron frame and made it big enough to fit a row of 2x6's and gussets for oak legs (from an oak pallet from work)

I then covered it with on or two layers of 1/2 plywood. It needs more cross bracing, or a shelf underneath loaded with bullets or something, but no matter what you do, keep the colours light. The worst thing you can do is make the work area too dark to be in. Lighter colours make the space seem larger than it really is, and when you drop a small screw, makes it that much easier to find.
 
How in the heck do you guys damage a reloading table top? I have 3/4" plywood on a 2" steel tubing frame, press bolted to the 2". It's really solid, and I never bang on the top with anything. I also used the Diamond clear coat.
 
Lead hammer said:
How in the heck do you guys damage a reloading table top? I have 3/4" plywood on a 2" steel tubing frame, press bolted to the 2". It's really solid, and I never bang on the top with anything. I also used the Diamond clear coat.
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There is a feeling in some quarters that no good reloading bench can he be made without a Kevlar-coated 4" reinforced concrete top and construction-grade I-beam legs.
 
Lead hammer said:
How in the heck do you guys damage a reloading table top? I have 3/4" plywood on a 2" steel tubing frame, press bolted to the 2". It's really solid, and I never bang on the top with anything. I also used the Diamond clear coat.
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My reloading bench double as my garage workbench..... It suffers lots of abuse.
BTW, I just about have it cleared off to take the belt sander to the top (3 8 5.8t&g plywood, glued together) and paint it. I'm debating porch and floor enamel.
 
I used MDF (on top of multiple layers plywood) for its density, then applied 5 coats of polyurethane until it is saturated and mirror shiny. I also edged it with 2x2 solid hardwood routed round on the outside top & bottom for edge treatment.
 
ATOM said:
There is a feeling in some quarters that no good reloading bench can he be made without a Kevlar-coated 4" reinforced concrete top and construction-grade I-beam legs.
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Some people use their equipment. After 10 years of putting stuff on a bench, it tends to get scratched, tarnished and various oil and lubricants stain it, etc.
I recommend the diamond kote stuff so you have a hard, flat surface to work with. Plywood and whatnot are not truly flat, and by sanding the grain down and putting a tough clear coat on the top, when powder and liquids get on the surface, it just brushes or wipes clean.
The last thing you want is movement of your press. Unless you don't like accurate ammunition.
The plates I mention are $4, found at Kent (locally, any hardware store would work) and they are actually in the boating section. They are galvanised and work really well. Drilling them to mount your press through takes a good bit, I have a cobalt set I use for metalwork. And when they are bolted to the top and bottom (to mount your press to) it creates a super rock hard surface for your press so that it doesn't move.. single stage or otherwise.

If I were to do it again, I would take more time, and laminate some solid hardwood as a surface instead of plywood. Way more expensive, and way more work, but worth it long term.
 
I would source a laminate maple top ready for use. It can take abuse, weighs a lot and looks great. Lee Valley used to carry them. Do a bit of research on how to construct it. The top needs to "float".
 
I built my bench L-shaped, so that no matter how much force I apply to the press lever, the bench doesn't lose balance even if it's not very heavy.
 
OldDude said:
My reloading bench double as my garage workbench..... It suffers lots of abuse.
BTW, I just about have it cleared off to take the belt sander to the top (3 8 5.8t&g plywood, glued together) and paint it. I'm debating porch and floor enamel.
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That would work, as long as you remove your reloading stuff off the table before hammering on it. I would just have a nice top to place over the crap top for when you reload.
 
Lead hammer said:
That would work, as long as you remove your reloading stuff off the table before hammering on it. I would just have a nice top to place over the crap top for when you reload.
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I work in phases... I load up a bunch of ammo (various calibers), put away the reloading stuff, work on other projects, and so on.
The wear and tear on the bench top has been gradual over the years.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
I'm in the process of doing the exact same build as you accept with doubled up 3/4" plywood. I'm thinking i will be making it 36" deep though, not sure about height just yet. I'm used to sitting down for reloading but maybe i will make another bench at standing height. I've got 5 presses to mount and have setup up all the time so the bench will wrap around the back of the basement in a u shape. I was also going to use 6x6 posts for the main support on top of 2x6 boards lagged into the basement foundation. Drywall and studs as the backing which i also plan to add lag bolts into the foundation walls 3 feet up. If the bench moves in the slightest while reloading i will shocked.

EDIT: I'm thinking i will top the bench with this then seal it with something. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.4-feetx8-feetx52mm-revolutionply-plywood.1000811055.html
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I'd suggest you reconsider that. For an island style bench where you work from both sides 36" wide would be great. But where the bench is against a wall 36" is more than we can comfortably reach easily. So the 8 or 10 inches near the wall ends up as a total junk collection. And frankly it's farther than we really want to reach. As MDF suggested don't just use measurements that sound good. Mock up the size you want to try and see for yourself. Even use it for light duty stuff for a week or so and find out for sure.

My last bench was "just" 32 inches front to back. And it ended up with the area along the wall as a total junk area. Now all my bench areas are a typical 25'ish inches wide as per kitchen counter sizing and I love them. I can easily reach the back without leaning over and I tend to tidy them up more often because I need the room to work. But that's a good thing even if I had to force myself into it... :)
 
VinnyQC said:
I built my bench L-shaped, so that no matter how much force I apply to the press lever, the bench doesn't lose balance even if it's not very heavy.
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That is a very slick idea. It could also be done as a "T" shape with a longer bench with the peninsula as the steadying element. And that peninsula could be very handy for anything you work on where it would be an advantage to easily access three sides without moving anything around.
 
Betty-Lou said:
I took a bit of a different approach, my room has laminate flooring and it just used that as the top to my bench and shelves. It looks good, to me anyway, it's durable and if any part should get damaged I can just change out that piece.
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I did exactly this for the "dry" shop areas. I didn't want to do the same thing on the metal work bench simply due to spillage of oil or solvent. But as you say really the top is a sacrificial layer. So it would likely be just fine. And it's not like we can't make it a point to wipe up any wet spills rapidly. I probably should have just done it the same.

And at around a buck a square foot it isn't any more expensive than plywood. And it's tough as nails.
 
BCRider said:
I'd suggest you reconsider that. For an island style bench where you work from both sides 36" wide would be great. But where the bench is against a wall 36" is more than we can comfortably reach easily. So the 8 or 10 inches near the wall ends up as a total junk collection. And frankly it's farther than we really want to reach. As MDF suggested don't just use measurements that sound good. Mock up the size you want to try and see for yourself. Even use it for light duty stuff for a week or so and find out for sure.

My last bench was "just" 32 inches front to back. And it ended up with the area along the wall as a total junk area. Now all my bench areas are a typical 25'ish inches wide as per kitchen counter sizing and I love them. I can easily reach the back without leaning over and I tend to tidy them up more often because I need the room to work. But that's a good thing even if I had to force myself into it... :)
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I will be using the counter tops from ikea (once i go and inspect them) which are 25" deep so it should work out perfect. My thought process behind a deeper bench was to have extra space but as you are suggested it will likely turn into a mess of junk along the back of it. i'm going to be making the bench at least 20 feet long (L shape) so it's not like i will have a lack of space for things.
 
Some people use their equipment.
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Me-OW!

Trigger Warning - Heresy

I am aware of the theory that the accurate ammo cannot be made unless the press is arc-welded to battleship armour plate mounted on a cast concrete base the size of a politician's coffin. Let's look at that - realistic or urban legend?

The accuracy of the ammo depends, certainly, on the alignment of the parts of the press. A ram with play in it or a die with some wobble will of course result in slight differences in (for example) how the bullet and the case come together and variations in (in this case) bullet seating will absolutely affect accuracy.

But that lack of play is however only important within the press mechanism. Unless something is seriously wrong, what happens outside of the press assembly is irrelevant, to my way of thinking. The die being firmly screwed down, the ram and the shell holder being tight - those are the things that matter. Given that, even on a wobbly bench, the ram is going to move smoothly up, with the same alignment WRT the die, until the shell holder hits the bottom of the die (or as adjusted). The press can be sideways or floating on a board in the middle of a swimming pool, the precision of the ram movement, the perfect relative alignment of die to the ram, etc - those will not change. You're more likely to get component misalignment from using a cheap C press or cheap dies.

I've done a lot of reloading over a lot of years and I've never seen any credible evidence that a massive bench makes any practical difference WRT accuracy. Such apocryphal tales I've seen can generally be explained away as mere placebo effect.
 
Hey ATOM,
I didn't mean it that way, but I can see how it comes across as negative. What I mean, is "by using your desk a lot, it can get damaged from use, spills, accidents, etc".. I shouldn't have phrased it as such, to mean "I use my equipment and you don't". That's why I recommend a nice flat, hard work surface.
While I agree with your statement concerning a single stage press, I primarily use a dillon 650 which,- as any owner of a 650, they have a few "issues" with spilling powder from hard indexing and general foolery to get it 'running well'. Without making the surface table completely stable, you can have issues with powder spillage (at least I did) so I bought a few $4 plates to reinforce the base of the softwood plywood / pine top. If powder starts spilling out of a 9mm cartridge, the loads aren't consistent and really noticeable at a range.
Specifically, I use a Mr. Bulletfeeder, which changes the flaring tool on the powder drop. This causes the case to stick a little more than the OEM dillon one, but necessary for the bullet to seat correctly when the press indexes over. With less play / wobble in the press, when the press downstrokes it doesn't shift the powder in the case as much, and doesn't lead to spilled powder over the shell plates.
I've measured my loads with a wobbly table, and due to spillage I've had everything from 3.1 grains to 3.4 grain (load is 3.4grains). This is of VV N310 for 9mm loads, about 900fps on a 147 grain campro. at 3.1 grains, it gets unreasonably close to not making minor in IPSC, which is not cool. That, and I'd have a bunch of powder on my shellplate. :(
 
My apologies, SolentD, for getting touchy. Old age and hot weather doth a man testy make.

I see your point. While I still don't think massive benches are de rigueur, yours is the first coherent argument I've read. Not using a progressive, that has never been an issue for me. Thanks for the explanation.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the advice.

I did make it with plywood because I had a bunch readily available. If I ever use it so much that it gets beaten up it's pretty easy to change the top for something better. i did listen to you and coated it. Frame is overkill, bolted to the ground and the back wall... top is 1.5 '' thick plywood.

bonus picture of the other side of the gun room.



 
Loved reading this thread! Some f you might be interested in the garage journal forum. I would love to build a reloading room but am very limited to space in the house. My garage is large but am reluctant to set up reloading in it b/c of all the welding/grind fab work that goes on in there. Pinard I'd love to see more pics as your project moves along.
 
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