Show your reloading benches

I converted my darkroom space into a reloading room and relegated all my photo editing and printing in a dedicated room.
Benchtop is an "L" shaped affair with storage space underneath. All my dies, powders, primers and other accessories fit into heavy duty vertical drawers in the space at left hand over the basement stairs.
They extend from the left, over the countertop and each can support about 150lbs of stock.
Ah, and also, please excuse the clutter on the first shelf, I have many things to do and not a lot of time to do cleanup jobs...















To liberate space on the workbench, I built a turret for my most used presses, a Forster Co-Ax and two Dillon Square Deal B in 45 ACP and 9mm. (Got rid of the Lee to simplify maintenance).
The rest of my accessories can be bolted to a reinforcing piece of steel on the countertop, drilled and tapped for each one.








 
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Press carousel

laker415 said:
Agreed. Thats a great use of space and an idea worth copying
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I'll post better pics with measurements if needed. :)
I'ts been about two years since I built it and it really works well. Everything is at eye level standing or sitting on a bar stool.
If possible I would try to find an industrial plunger lock for the rotating plate release if you want to avoid fashioning one. Lock stud is about 3/8" and is pulled against spring tension by a small rod.
 
And my appartment setup is done. I may have to edit and re-edit this post until I get the damn image hosting to work, please bear with me (but no shooting this bear).

20160307_151020_zpspjagkv4b.jpg



Do take note of the essentials for any reloader: the cat cage and the roll of duct tape at hand. :d


Ok, looks like photobucket works, as long as I use IE rather than Chrome to get the URL. Sigh. Same on 500px:

https://500px.com/photo/143432539/workbench-by-grawfr-grawferus
 
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f55 said:
Grawfr

Is that the CT bench that was on special & did it come with that top?
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Aye, it was normally $300, on special at $160, I'm real glad I got it. That's the top it came with, pressed bamboo wood about 1" thick, feels plenty solid and dense. Took the L'n'L press bolts like a charm, perfectly stable. I'll have to check the mounting bolts in, say, a thousand rounds and see if anything needs tightening. Assembly took a bit over three hours, what with dealing with a certain curious kitty that climbed on an unstable surface and spread nuts, bolts, washers, tools and his own surprised self over a large-ish floor area. ;)

The entire bench weights close to 200 pounds without the contents. It's on adjustable rubber feet and is quite stable during the reloading press' operation.

One minor issue: there was an error in the dimensioning of the front panels for the drawers. The front is supposed to be attached to the bottom panel of the drawers and to each side panels by nuts-and-bolts (3 on the bottom, 2 on each side). But the front panel is actually a few mm wider than it should be. Made in China quality control, I suspect. I had no problems bolting the front panel to the bottom of the drawers securely (3 bolts used, the holes lined up fine), but I couldn't bolt them to the drawer's side panels at the same time because the holes would not line up, Forcing them to line up would have required warping the sheet metal of the side panels. Not an option since they bear the tracks for opening/closing the drawers. The rear panel of the drawers did not have this issue.

In practice, the problem has no real effect: the drawers still function perfectly and close flush with the workbench's frame. Nothing protruding. And I ended up with a few spare nuts and bolts, eh! :)


What I need to get now is to mount some kind of extra shelf or solid pedestal to bring the beam balance about one foot higher, to eye level. Makes it a lot easier to accurately weight powder without having to bring my head down almost to the bench top to check the balance's index mark. I might get a short book shelf with angles irons and bolt it to the peg board at about the height the pliers are right now (that peg board is sheet metal, not fiber).
 
Grawfr said:
Aye, it was normally $300, on special at $160, I'm real glad I got it. That's the top it came with, pressed bamboo wood about 1" thick, feels plenty solid and dense. Took the L'n'L press bolts like a charm, perfectly stable. I'll have to check the mounting bolts in, say, a thousand rounds and see if anything needs tightening. Assembly took a bit over three hours, what with dealing with a certain curious kitty that climbed on an unstable surface and spread nuts, bolts, washers, tools and his own surprised self over a large-ish floor area. ;)

The entire bench weights close to 200 pounds without the contents. It's on adjustable rubber feet and is quite stable during the reloading press' operation.

One minor issue: there was an error in the dimensioning of the front panels for the drawers. The front is supposed to be attached to the bottom panel of the drawers and to each side panels by nuts-and-bolts (3 on the bottom, 2 on each side). But the front panel is actually a few mm wider than it should be. Made in China quality control, I suspect. I had no problems bolting the front panel to the bottom of the drawers securely (3 bolts used, the holes lined up fine), but I couldn't bolt them to the drawer's side panels at the same time because the holes would not line up, Forcing them to line up would have required warping the sheet metal of the side panels. Not an option since they bear the tracks for opening/closing the drawers. The rear panel of the drawers did not have this issue.

In practice, the problem has no real effect: the drawers still function perfectly and close flush with the workbench's frame. Nothing protruding. And I ended up with a few spare nuts and bolts, eh! :)


What I need to get now is to mount some kind of extra shelf or solid pedestal to bring the beam balance about one foot higher, to eye level. Makes it a lot easier to accurately weight powder without having to bring my head down almost to the bench top to check the balance's index mark. I might get a short book shelf with angles irons and bolt it to the peg board at about the height the pliers are right now (that peg board is sheet metal, not fiber).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, i should have picked one up.

Next time.
 
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