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Reloading bench noise/vibration damping?


yellowfin

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My wife made an interesting observation today which requires attention. We're living in a small town house which my shop room is in the basement. I have a fairly large work bench to which my press is mounted. While reasonably good overall one downside is that the top surface of the bench is plywood which flexes somewhat. If I'm doing something that takes any appreciable amount of force met with resistance, most notably popping out crimped primers or sizing 9mm brass, it reverberates up through the wall from the basement and can be heard in our bedroom upstairs so she tells me. Do any of you have a particular damping material or mechanism to prevent this? I hate that so many places these days are built cheaply with thin walls, but that's what I've got to work with right now.

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Try lubing the cases with Hornady One Shot lube. There'll be much less resistance when sizing, and no hard bouncing. 9mm, which are really a tapered case, require much more force when resizing, even with carbide dies. And with the Hornady lube, no need to wipe off as its a wax based lube.

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I used isolation feet on my bench and made it out of steel (5" truss all the way around) to eliminate any flex.

Mounting it to the wall would likely exacerbate, vibrations going into the wall.

Edited by jmorris
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My bench top is 30" X 80" 1/2" thick steel plate. I can run two large Dillon case tumblers at the same time and it won't move. lol. If your bench top is flexing you may have more than a noise problem. You may get some inconsistency in your primer seating. Do something to reinforce your bench top.

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I like all the ideas submitted but mostly:

  • if the workbench is not really stiff in all directions then move it off the walls to avoid bumping and transmitting sounds
  • spraying case lube makes the desize and other stations work really with minimal resistance and this reduces stresses you create from operating the press -thus less chence for noises from movemenmts
  • use a rigid stand for the reloader-I have a Dillon 550B and have their stand mentioned.
  • I also stiffen and strengthen the contact between the stand and the bench top by cutting a rectangle from 3/4" MDF or ply or from any handy scraps of 2X6,8, or 10" wood stock which I set under he press and drill thru and into existing bolt holes in bench top. Then solidly bolt with washers. Glueing down as well is even better but you are stuck with that biock of wood glued to your bench top if you have other plans for that particular bench top in the future..
  • I cut the length and width of rectangle beneath my press very generousply to allow as much grounded surface(more square inches) as possible to improve he stiffness of the support and minimize the press table movement with operations. I left several inches of excess all around,.
  • my setup is really stable and the bench top is just a double 3/4" ply table top on a Black and Decker portable table frame. It is now prettty permanent except if I choose I can dismantle and clear the bench top and loosen the B&D clamps to remove the entire bench table top-I don't plan that in th distant future unless I build an erntire new base to handle the bench top..

FYI and thanks,

Chuck

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Mounting it to the wall would likely exacerbate, vibrations going into the wall.

Also depends on the wall. Anchoring to the outside, cinder block wall, should eliminate that issue, definitely not an interior wall.

My benches are pretty stiff, but still, when you load, you could flex them to some degree. I totally solved this by putting a rod under each press. The press bolt goes into that rod, and then it screws in the floor anchor. This arrangement eliminates any flexes, especially the primer seating push on the 650's.

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I solved flexing when I designed the bench from the start. The truss around the perimeter and cross braces connecting them at the location every press bolts to.

IMAG1238.jpg

The adjustable isolation feet are at each corner.

IMAG1210.jpg

The case feeders make the most noise in my operation by far, the air compressor is out of a dentist office ans very quite. That said I have the hearing of a 65 year old industrial worker (according to my ENT doctor) and two doors to shut off my reloading room from the rest of the house.

Edited by jmorris
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I solved flexing when I designed the bench from the start. The truss around the perimeter and cross braces connecting them at the location every press bolts to.

There is no question such a solution is great, but it is beyond the capability of most reloaders, unfortunately. Many of us do not have access to fabrication shop services.

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