Tight on Space Bench, and First Batch Reloaded

I won't lie, cost was a major consideration for me... The Lee Pro 1000 was (still is) on sale at Wholesale for $288 plus tax... The tumbler/separator kit was just over $100 on sale... The collator was another $20 I think... The digital scale was from Amazon for about $40. I already had digital calipers in my tools. Other assorted stuff probably brought it close to $500. The bench cost maybe $50 to $60 to build. That's not including any reloading components... 1lb of HS-6 was about $40. 1000 bullets was $106. CCI primers are on sale at Wholesale for $4.04 for 100, so I bought some of those, and more at Cabelas (They honoured Wholesales sale price). Cases were free (range pickup). I'm still considering buying the bullet feeder, but not sure if it's worth it.

Edit to add, picked up the lights at Princess Auto for $25.
 
You did pretty good! I read about guys dropping a couple thousand on their setup...I'm still brand spanking new to the reloading world so I can't even fathom where that money would go. I'd be happy to get setup for around $500, given the cost of .223 is around $0.26~ (not sure about other calibers yet) you'll recoup the equipment cost in the first 3,000 rounds or so.

How long did it take you to pump out your 200 rounds of 9mm?
 
That's a great use of the space! And neatly laid out.

I know that when I'm reloading that I sit off slightly to the left so for me I'd probably have mounted the press slightly over to the right. If you find you're bumping into the side wall on your left perhaps it's something to consider.

For rifle rounds, assuming you have rifles as well and want to load for those, you'll likely want to use a single stage setup. A neat idea is to put a line of regularly spaced holes across the width of your bench and fit them with "T" nuts from below. Then mount your presses and other stuff on sub plates of 3/4" plywood which have holes to bolt through into the regularly spaced layout of holes in the bench. This makes things neater and easily switched over or shifted to fit better.
 
Now there's a good use of space.....

A couple of thoughts: Depending on where your brass comes from (outdoor range?) you might want to consider a light cleaning before resizing / depriming to get the sand and grit off the cases. Carbide resizing dies are pretty durable, but they make a mess when they get scratched.

If memory servers me correctly, the shell plate timing adjustment screw on the PRO 1000 only adjusts the internal one way. I forget which way the adjustment has any effect, but the screw pushes from the inside of the carrier. The instructions are useful here. A bit of a pain if you go just a bit too far....

Be prepared to spend just as much on reloads as you do now on ammo; you'll just have more ammo to shoot!! ;-})>
 
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Thats a nice little setup you have, its nice and tidy. We store all our Christmas decoration under the stairs, (its a closed in area with a small door) so its out for me. Ive been using the family room coffee table in the winter, I have the press on a piece of plywood and clamp it down to the table. I have a small office desk that I will mount the presses to soon and use that setup. The desk drawers will be handy for storing all the loading stuff.
 
Longshot84 said:
How long did it take you to pump out your 200 rounds of 9mm?
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I would say it was about 2 hours for the first 100, just because I was being very cautious, and dealing with getting the timing just right... The next 100 took about an hour. Pretty sure I could crank out 100 per hour easy, maybe more!
 
That's awesome! I thought it would take way longer. Thanks for sharing your experience Rebes, I really appreciate it!
 
Once you get going and your eyes get accustomed to flowing over the check points around the shell plate to confirm that everything is OK you should find that you're able to load around 300 to 350 per hour.

With the Pro 1000 one aspect that bit me a few times until I learned the trick was keeping the "ski run" used for the primers 110% oil free. The odd time a primer would get wiped off the pin and I'd pick these up and add them to the next tray fill. But these primers were picking up traces of oil from the press or perhaps from my fingers. Over time the oil got onto the ski run and that makes the primers stick. A bit of brake cleaner and a pipe cleaner served well to clean the track but if you don't notice it you'll crush a few primers before you realize what's happening.

After I figured this out I still put those primers back in the next tray but only after rubbing the face of the primer's cup over a paper towel.

Another trick you can do is to add a side shield made from aluminium roof flashing or an opened up tin can to direct more of the primers to fall down through the press and into a bucket instead of flying around the room. Other materials would work but I preferred the metal because I could wrap it around the posts and then tighten the wraps so it just sprung into place and back off when required.
 
BCRider said:
Once you get going and your eyes get accustomed to flowing over the check points around the shell plate to confirm that everything is OK you should find that you're able to load around 300 to 350 per hour.

With the Pro 1000 one aspect that bit me a few times until I learned the trick was keeping the "ski run" used for the primers 110% oil free. The odd time a primer would get wiped off the pin and I'd pick these up and add them to the next tray fill. But these primers were picking up traces of oil from the press or perhaps from my fingers. Over time the oil got onto the ski run and that makes the primers stick. A bit of brake cleaner and a pipe cleaner served well to clean the track but if you don't notice it you'll crush a few primers before you realize what's happening.

After I figured this out I still put those primers back in the next tray but only after rubbing the face of the primer's cup over a paper towel.

Another trick you can do is to add a side shield made from aluminium roof flashing or an opened up tin can to direct more of the primers to fall down through the press and into a bucket instead of flying around the room. Other materials would work but I preferred the metal because I could wrap it around the posts and then tighten the wraps so it just sprung into place and back off when required.
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Thanks for the tips BCRider!

I took another batch of 50 to the range tonight... generally successful, but had about 3 fail-to-eject... My next batch I'll bump up to the next measure on the disk system, so I should get about 6.3 or 6.4 grains.
 
Rebes said:
Thanks for the tips BCRider!

I took another batch of 50 to the range tonight... generally successful, but had about 3 fail-to-eject... My next batch I'll bump up to the next measure on the disk system, so I should get about 6.3 or 6.4 grains.
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Once you settle on a powder, you can "micro-adjust" the discs with a little sandpaper on a dowel to get loads between what are accommodated by the holes in the discs. Discs are cheap, I sand them, fill them, drill them and discard them as needed.
 
Pr589 said:
Once you settle on a powder, you can "micro-adjust" the discs with a little sandpaper on a dowel to get loads between what are accommodated by the holes in the discs. Discs are cheap, I sand them, fill them, drill them and discard them as needed.
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This right here is a great tip! Thanks! What do you use to fill them?
 
After fooling around with the auto discs I opted for the Lee micro adjust measuring plate. The little screw handle makes it a whole lot simpler. And outside of working with extremely small or large amounts it's just as consistent as the holes in the auto disc plates. And a whole lot less putzing around with selecting different holes.
 
BCRider said:
After fooling around with the auto discs I opted for the Lee micro adjust measuring plate. The little screw handle makes it a whole lot simpler. And outside of working with extremely small or large amounts it's just as consistent as the holes in the auto disc plates. And a whole lot less putzing around with selecting different holes.
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Also good! Where do you find the Lee Micro Adjust Measuring Plate? I'm guessing you mean the adjustable charge bar... I see it on Amazon for $17, but they want $20 shipping...
 
That's the one. I got it off Ebay from some seller. Being about 20 minutes from the border so I can use the shipment accepting services there has it's benefits.... :d I think it was about $10 plus a buck or two for shipping. But that was about 6 years back.
 
BCRider said:
That's the one. I got it off Ebay from some seller. Being about 20 minutes from the border so I can use the shipment accepting services there has it's benefits.... :d I think it was about $10 plus a buck or two for shipping. But that was about 6 years back.
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Good point, I will check the American sites... My parents live near the border, I have stuff shipped there all the time for them to pick up.
 
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