Reloading Bench Setup

[will marshall]

I have a small and humble setup that I mostly use for setting up weapons. This is my weapon cleaning station/gunsmithing area. It is a cheap $85 sale prefabricated unit from Lowe's. I was looking at getting into reloading. Will I be able to use this bench to mount a single stage press? It looks that since there is no overhang, the lower portion of the press would hit the cabinet drawers no? I have no problem fabricating another bench for $30 or whatever it would just be nice to keep it all contained.

[atbarr]

Picture? Or a link to it at Lowe's

A.T.

[will marshall]

Picture? Or a link to it at Lowe's

A.T.

The picture is of the bench. This is the link to it from Lowe's. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

I'm trying to figure out if I can run something simple like a lee single stage breech lock press or even the lee turret press. This is my first reloading forray and I need to do small(less than 100 rounds per week) of both rifle and pistol. So i'm going to try a simple press for a while and see how it goes.

[GrumpyOne]

Go ahead and get a Dillon 550. It will do just about anything you want it to. Yes, it costs more, but it will do rifle and pistol, there is the lifetime NO BS warranty, and it's a great loader to begin with. You can buy dies on Ebay, Gunbroker, or from Dillon. Buying anything else, you'll never get your money back from it. A Dillon will sell for damn near what you paid for it, 20 years from now, because if it ever breaks, if it ever wears out, ship it back to them and they will fix it, FREE! Same with their dies....

[halogrinder]

i have a HUGE reloading bench i built out of 2x2 1/8" angle, and 2 layers of 2x4's and 2x6's lag bolted into the wall with 1 3/4" tubing support legs. its SOLID.i couldnt see trying to use that 550 without having something SOLIDLY mounted into the wall or floor.

something moving around i could see bad accuracy with powder, and general no fun times.

[Graham Smith]

Will I be able to use this bench to mount a single stage press? It looks that since there is no overhang, the lower portion of the press would hit the cabinet drawers no? I have no problem fabricating another bench for $30 or whatever it would just be nice to keep it all contained.

It's entirely possible that it would block the use of the upper drawer as there is a section that needs to extend down in front on most of the presses I have seen (excepting a Dillion on a strong mount).

Here is a suggestion, you can build a small bench to hold your press that will be at the same height and bolt it to the wall right next to your current setup. You could even get a sheet of heavy plywood to extend across the two to give you a continuous work surface.

My setup is nothing to write home about as it's only some old kitchen cabinets with a piece of laminate countertop. At a gap between two cabinets, I overlapped the laminate with a piece of heavy plywood and bolted my press to that. It's cheap but fairly solid and nothing wobbles.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Graham Smith

[Jeff9mmM&P]

It looks that since there is no overhang, the lower portion of the press would hit the cabinet drawers no?

If you are interested in looking at Dillon presses, they sell a item called a strong mount for their presses that would take care of the overhang issue.

Strong mount(Stock#22051) - if your bench is either too low for comfortable use, or you need to access drawers underneath, the strong mount elevates the entire machine above your bench top. Raises height of the RL 550B to 29 1/2".

Dillon strong mount