Help me design my reloading bench.

[Rotortuner]

OK so i am almost done constructing my reloading room and now i need to figure out the work bench that i will mount my presses on.

I plan on reloading for rifles, hand guns and also for my 50. So several presses. several single stages and probably one dillon 650. The dimensions of my room are 18ft long and 9ft wide. so there will be an 18ft long bench down one wall, shelving on the other wall. So how tall and wide should this bench be?


CJG

 

[Queequeg]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

If it were me, I'd go with standard counter height and depth, (36" high X 25" deep [front edge to back wall]) but I have a cube storage cabinet along the back of the bench, with slidimg panels of clear plexiglass, so I can store dies, conversion kits, tool heads and other stuff, in plain sight.

I load while standing so this height works well for me. If seated loading is your plan, it is likely too high at 36".

 

[HOGGHEAD]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

I prefer to use A-Face 3/4 inch plywood for the surface, and framed up with at least 2X6's with a 2X8 for the face board. I go with a 40" height. And a depth of 36". You can go to Lowe's and have them rip 2-12" pieces off the 3/4" sheets of plywood. You can use these for the base of your shelves. I prefer heavy shelves. Just buy a piece of 5/8" plywood and have them rip 12" strips at the lumber yard. Lowe's charges $.25 a cut. And their cuts are perfect, and normally they do not even charge me extra.

The A-Face plywood works great because there is not any cracks in the plywood, and it is sanded smooth.

I us 2X lumber for shell spacers, and do not nail them so I can slide them to the left or right to change the width of my shelve "holes". I do nail the ends. Just use different width 2X material to change the height of your shelves. This makes them very heavy duty, and will take a bunch of weight.

The 2X8 across the front will make the bench very strong to accomodate your presses. Tom.

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

I've built three for myself, helped with three others. Learned a few things and my last effort, still used, was done in '72, wouldn't change a thing on it. Won't try to help you design it, that will depend a whole lot on your wood working skills, but I can tell you a lot about what you will want. And, actually, you will need much more than simply a bench. The whole room should contain a loading system.

I like to work my press standing most of the time. Standing bench top needs to be about belt buckle high, for me that's 41". I have a cheap, yard sale swiveling bar stool with back that puts me at the same height when sitting.

Make your bench top almost as long as your room but put a vertical "closet", at least 2-3 ft wide, at one end to store long tall stuff; broom, cleaning rods, chronograph tripod, vacuum, targets, a "range box" (mine is a clean 5 gal paint pail holding bench rest, sand bags, ear muffs, stapler, etc).

Make the top 19-21 inches wide. Wder only accumulates "stuff" and isn't used for loading anyway! Assuming a right hander, put your presses so you can stand to their left with at least 15" of clear space before another press, etc. If you do have multipule presses consider putting the ones least used on plywood plates that can be temporary mounted with a couple of bolts and wing nuts. You will use the bench top for a lot of gun related stuff such as cleaning and scope mounting so keeping at least a four foot section clear will be really nice. Make the top extend forward of the under supporting framework about 1-1.5" so you can "C" clamp things along the edges.

Plan supporting legs, 2x4 is fine, under or within 8" of the anticipated press locations.

If you can, put a 3"/4" swiveling mechanist type vise from Lowes/H'Depot/Ace at the left end. You will use it far more than you might think. And, it provides a great temp mounting place for your case trimmer, concentricity gage, etc,---IF you mount the things on a wood block with a smaller block underneath that can be clamped in the vise jaws.

Make the top as seamless and smooth as possible, 3/4" plywood should be plenty strong. FINISH it with at least three coats of a marine type polyurethane. It's inexpensive (Minwax, Walmart) in the quanity needed, it resists spills of oils and solvents better than most any paint, it's durable and easy to clean.

Storage for STUFF will be a prime need. I put a full bench-length wall mounted "book shelf" of 1x6 boards above my bench for powder, primers, bullets, loaded ammo, small tools (and scale). Mine starts some 16" above the bench top for the first shelf and goes to the ceiling. The shelves vary 8-10" apart to allow some flexibilty and maximum use capacity. The first shelf has an additional section of spliced (on edge) 1x4 x 16" at nose level to support my beam scale - that makes it very easy to read.

Add a wider shelf under the bench top for rough storage; tumbler and media, overflow inventory of brass, bullet casting lead/melter, extra presses...

Assuming you will have ONE "prime" single stage press for precision rifle loading, put it near the middle of your bench. Put a good powder measure stand just behind the press' base and a few inches to its left side. Then have the scale (and trickler) shelf just to the left of the measure. That will allow easy, efficent work flow when dumping, weighing, trickling and pouring charges very quickly, without moving at all.

Assemble it with screws and glue, "Elmers" white/yellow glue or "contruction adhesive" in tubes, at all high stress points. Nails tend to work loose over time.

Any press that is permanatly mounted on the bench should use bolts or, even better, sections of 3/8" "all thread" rod with large washers under the nuts to prevent sinking into the wood.

Plan to mount your press(es) on blocks of whatever, sitting high enough so you can fully depress the lever without bending over, at all. Your back will thank you! My Rock Chucker sits on a 3" high block, my old turret press sits on a 6" high block to accomplish that.

Put in a really good light system, I prefer quad 48" tube flourescents over the frount edge of the bench for lot of shadow free lighting. As long as your bench will be, I would want three fixtures but two might do it.

Install more electrical outlets or power strips in the room and on the bench than you think you will ever need. You will need them! Tumbler, hair dryer or heat gun (to dry things quickly), Dremel tool, radio, coffee pot, fan, vacuum, battery charger for power drill/screw driver, etc.

Plan for a place to put a trash can. And a paper towel holder. And, if you have a garage air compressor, run a line in for your bench and have a blow gun for cleaning stuff and bench top.

Put a lot of shelving on your back wall. Then put doors on them to keep stuff clean. Cheap ones are good, I used 1/2" plywood sections and cheap hinges to convert my shelves into "cabinets".

IF you have easy access to water feed and drain lines, install a small sink cabinet for hand washing - you won't regret that! Especially if you can add a small coffee maker and apartment size refrig for snaks during long sessions!

Good luck!

 

[Rotortuner]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

Thank you guys very much for the help. I plan on sitting at the bench, but I think you guys are right, a lot of times you end up standing, so 40" or so in height is probably a good bet. Let me know what you guys think of this layout, everything is rough scale,not perfect but i did scale it a little:

 

[Rotortuner]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

here are a couple pics of what i have so far. I decided to stay away from florescents, because they start to flicker, plus they might interfere with the scale i want to use. i went with 4, 4 head halogen track lights, but i may add a big halogen head to each. here is how it looks:

 

[LA_Lawman]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

I use florescents, I had a hard time getting a bright enough light to evenly disperse in the room. I wanted to avoid a direct focus light cooking me while sitting or standing at the bench.

My bench is in a "L" config, my 550b is almost in the crook of the "L", and my Rock Chucker Sup, is on one end, works great. my benches are 38" tall, so i can use a bar stool with a back and or stand. I can stack two 5gal buckets underneath too.

I have a long powerstrip on the back of the benches and on the front. so power where i need it is not an issue....

 

[bigwheeler]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

With 18 feet I don't think I would go with L's in the ends. I do like a deeper bench
so I have room for things behind the presses. I used the dark hark slick press board
as my final surface. I also screwed down 2x12's first, then plywood and then the
press board. the 2x12's are cheap and they add a lot of weight to the bench and
allow me to mount and dismount various tools with a screw gun. (bow vise, power
trimmer, etc..)

 

[Woodswarrior]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

Fuzzball has some good points I started with a bench 2'wide 6'long 32" high I sit to reload, back has shelving fastened to it, also have a lower shelf for storage you would be suprised at what all you get and use. Needed more space so this now has another 6' added to it (12'total) and bench vise mounted on the left end . I have 4' shop light and a also a table top light with magnifier lens, this you may not need but hey it was free from work, good lighting realy helps. I like the plastic cabinets with the clear drawers you can keep from loosing things if you have a proper place to put it, and it keeps things cleaned up.

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

Okay, a really nice new space!

Suggest you put linoleum on the floor for easy cleaning. And then plan for rugs or what my wife call carpet runners to pad the floor and give you aomething you can roll up to take outside and shake clean.

Paint those walls WHITE, that will help with lighting, a bunch.

Don't make your bench or back wall things too wide or you will quickly loose comfortable floor space.

Many things get LOST when stored out of sight. With that high ceiling, I'd put a 10-12" wide "ring" shelf all around the room, about 18" below the cealing. Put things rarely used up there, they will be out of the way but allow you to see them and know where they are. Do that shelf now, the walls will be too hard to get to later.

The end wall would benefit from mounting several of the plastic wall parts bins (from Harbor Freight/Walmart) AND a large set of narrow shelving, 1x4" stock, to hold small items such as gun cleaning oils/solvents, spray lubes/cleaners, small hand tools, bullet boxes, ...

 

[5280EM!]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

I dont' know if this may help but it might give you some ideas if you will be switching out with a few presses.

http://www.rifleshootermag.com/ammunition/benchs_022607/

 

[Clark]

Re: Help me design my reloading bench.

1) I arrived early for Thanksgiving 1977 and with two others, built a reloading bench. It was 8' long and attached to the wall. We bolted down a big shotgun shell press.
The next year it was gone
The needs had changed.

2) My son became interested in video games, so my wife had a large custom cabinet built to hold games, monitors, and machines. He had sleep overs with other boys and they built a LAN or moved machines to a different room every time, by pulling equipment out of the cabinet.
The needs kept changing.

3) I started reloading .308 ten years ago, and now I handload 19 Badger .222, .223, 22-250 .243, 25acp, 6mmBR,.243Win, 25/35, .250/3000, 257Roberts, 257 Roberts AI, 6.5x55, 270, 7x57mm, 7mm Rem mag, 32acp, 32sw, 32S&WLong, 32-20, 30 Mauser, 7.62x25mm, 30-30, 303Sav, 300Sav,.308, 30-06, 300 Win Mag, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62x39mm, 303Brit, 7.62x54R, 8x57mm, 338WM, .380, 9x19mm, 9x23mm, 357Sig,38special, 357 mag, 38sw, 350RM, 40sw, 10mm, 10.4mm, 44 mag, 45acp,45acp tight chamber, 45Colt, .410, 45/70, 12 ga, and 10 ga.
I saw other guy's reloading rooms on the internet and so I had the:
..a) shelves of powders in one book case
..b) shelves of dies in another book case
..c) shelves of bullets in another book case
..d) shelves of load books
..e) shelves of primers
..f) shelves of plastic ammo boxes
..g) file folder boxes on the floor filled with brass
..h) a sturdy 8' bench mounted to the wall with a Rockchucker press

But when I wanted to load at the range, I had to kit up all kinds of things.
When I got back, putting the stuff away was a big task.
The needs kept changing.

So I re organized for mobility.
I have file folder boxes assigned to cartridges. In that box is brass, bullets, and dies. Some cartridges can share a box, like 6.5x55mm and 260Rem, and some boxes like .223 get a half dozen file folder boxes.

5 of my favorite presses are mounted on a board that is clamped to a free standing bench.

So now if I want to load a few thousand rounds of .223 for rodents, I can move to the living room in a few minutes, where I can watch TV. When I bring the stuff back, it takes just a few minutes to get the reloading room back in order.

4) This mobility can be extended to the shop. I now have on wheels:
..a) 1200 pound lathe
..b) 800 pound mill
..c) 400 pound table saw
..d) 400 pound band saw
..e) 400 pound jointer
..f) 20 pound shop vac

What does it all mean?
Don't design for optimum set up. Optimum set up keeps changing. Design for flexibility and mobility.
If your basement floods, you will be glad you did.