Awe in the grandeur and splendor of my reloading bench.

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gfanikf

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Beats the bathroom. :D

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80104268/

We have one at the house and last night I decided to take it lay some news papers over it and do some priming.* My daughter was asleep, the cat was in the bedroom with my wife with the door shut. My wife said I just had to get a new one (as this has a small amount of chipped paint)...I think I can afford it. Only question is how much weight can I expect it to support?
However, I also have a significant amount of credit at Amazon so I told her my plan was to place a mounted reloading press (so goodbye lee hand press) and I can always store it easily in a closet by removing the legs (though perhaps it will fit fine with the legs (just have to do some cleaning and it should. We're also moving soon and I'm hoping we can find a place with that magical extra room I can use for mancave (my wife joked I could put back up all my Kung Fu and Chow Yun Fat movie posters in it too). lol

Anyhow what can I do to add some weight to the legs to prevent tipping over? I really know little about woodwork or building stuff (and tool wish I'm limited to what I can cheaply get at home depot precut or made and tools I can borrow from my parents.


*Which besides dropping two onto a hardwood floor (which thankfully my wife didn't hear), went perfectly easy. I could see myself priming all afternoon. I tend to do ten load bursts (so when a primer fell on the floor, I knew and was able to verify it was only one, and when I found it, knew nothing else was missing.
 
Is that wood or plastic? If wood, is it the typical particleboard IKEA has their stuff built from? If so, it would be a poor choice for anything except to hold a magazine or two and a beer while you watch TV

you would be better off with something like this - works great when I reload shotgun shells:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200451563_200451563

I can stow it away easily enough, and bring it out to watch sports while I reload
 
+1

You ain't gonna buy nothing for $9.99 suitable for mounting a reloading press on it.

Besides that, the one you linked is too low.
You would have to set on the floor Indian style to use it.

And get somebody else to hold it down for you.

rc
 
oneounceload said:
Is that wood or plastic? If wood, is it the typical particleboard IKEA has their stuff built from? If so, it would be a poor choice for anything except to hold a magazine or two and a beer while you watch TV
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It's IKEA, I wouldn't be shocked if it was Balsa lol

you would be better off with something like this - works great when I reload shotgun shells:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200451563_200451563

I can stow it away easily enough, and bring it out to watch sports while I reload[/QUOTE]

SOLD! Especially after seeing the customer photo showing the weight on it. Shipping price kind of sucks though...but 15-20 bucks isn't enough to save and risk a bad bench.

What type of unit do you keep on it?

rcmodel said:
+1

You ain't gonna buy nothing for $9.99 suitable for mounting a reloading press on it.
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Looks like there is one if I'm willing to spend double the cost though :( lol

rcmodel said:
Besides that, the one you linked is too low.
You would have to set on the floor Indian style to use it.

And get somebody else to hold it down for you.

rc
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I did have to lean over the couch to do it, so that is a good point. I think the one linked above is what I'm going with. I'm putting an order in for it now.
 
A couple weeks ago, I assembled the coffee table version of the table for my daughter's new apartment and it is pretty light weight material.

One one TDY assignment, I used a small, inexpensive, particle board typewriter stand for loading shot shells with a MEC 600jr. It worked pretty well. Glued and screwed together made it pretty rigid.

I think it would have handled handgun loading with a single stage press although the table height may not have been optimum. Rifle might put a bit too much stress on it.

Lee makes a press stand that you can nestle up next to a table. Small enough to put away in a closet.

I built my own press stands and powder measure stands from 1" square steel tubing. Similar in concept to the Lee. Another TDY assignment spawned the first stand. It was made from 2x4s. I liked the concept and have used it for 30 years.

The 2x4 stand worked fine but eventually the joints in the wood failed. Hence the steel versions.
 
Right now I keep a MEC Grabber for reloading 12 gauge. I am currently looking into moving the metallic to it, but I will do it modular style - that is nothing permanently mounted to it, but to boards that clamp to it

If you do not have a Northern freight, I would bet harbor Freight has something similar, as might the big box stores - I found the flared out lower legs to help make it VERY stable when reloading
 
Why buy any table? Just get some scrap wood and some bolts and put together your own? Frankly I haven't found any commercial product this side of a Knaack jobsite center to be stable enough for the task. They don't build workbenches like they used to. But you can!
 
The issue is not so much how much weight it can support, but can it take the force of you pushing down on the press handle. It has to be real solid.
 
The problem the OP has is that he is basically tool less and therefore locked into something pre-made. The other thing that has worked well for some in the past is a Black and Decker Workmate table with a 2X6 clamped into it with a press on that. Yes lack of tools is a definite handicap for sure. I know one guy that took a night school woodworking class just so he could build a gun display case as a project.:D
 
FROGO207 said:
The problem the OP has is that he is basically tool less and therefore locked into something pre-made. The other thing that has worked well for some in the past is a Black and Decker Workmate table with a 2X6 clamped into it with a press on that. Yes lack of tools is a definite handicap for sure. I know one guy that took a night school woodworking class just so he could build a gun display case as a project.:D
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Before I started mounting my press's 2x6 on a portable workbench (like your Black & Decker) I used to just wedge the sx6 with the press bolted to it into the drawer of an end table.

Open the drawer, insert 2x6, close drawer as far as you can with the 2/x sticking out of it. Put a belt around if it tends to open, but mine never did. Since the 2x6 was slightly lower in the rear than the front, the press mounted on the front of the board was inclined back just a bit. This suited me just fine as it made the height and my seated position just right. The 2x6 should be no longer than it needs to be to ba against the back of the drawer at one end and stick out the front barely far enough to mount and operate the press.

Powder, bullets and scale went on the coffee table close by.

Drop cloth went under everything. No lost primers or worry over spilled powder.

The only woodworking I had to do was to drill mounting holes in the 2x6 and countersink them for the times I wanted to mount the board on the top of a flat surface.

Lost Sheep
 
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You would be better off with a piece of plywood that you could bolt the press to and then clamp it to your kitchen table when you want to use it.
 
The Black and Decker Work-Mate: Hangs flat on/against the wall and with the press mounted on a short piece of 2X12 , makes a completely stable and portable reloading bench.

I have mine on the patio with my second press. I sit in a chair comfortably on the "back-side" of the table. The 2x12 overhangs in that direction C-clamped on . I thought I might need to add weight on the "step" shown, but didn't need it at all.
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I had an old and small wood desk I paid 5 bucks for I use. It's against a wall which makes it sturdy enough to prime with my Classic turret. The drawers hold dies, primers and misc. I did bolt a heavy and larger piece of wood on top which my wife grabbed from somewhere for free.

Otherwise I'd use 4x4's, 2x4's and a double thickness of 3/4" plywood for the top which won't cost all that much. You can even design it so it can be bolted together and taken down quickly and easily. This would normally have been my first choice.
 
I have managed to break the 3/4" top off a table reloading, using a RCBS Rock Chucker press.
The table now has a double layer of 3/4" plywood for a top and a 2x4" brace under the press area. 3/8-24 bolts hold the press on my bench now. And has been in service since 1978 or so.
 
I would put a lamp, a cigar ashtray, a cup of coffee and a magazine or two on it but that's about it. I make my loading benches out of stacked 2x4's, assembled with 3" drywall screws, further stabilized with long 3/8" lag screws, bolted to the wall with cedar 4x4's for front legs.
 
target has slightly smaller versions of that table. They are about as solid as a hollow core door. I don't think it would make a great reloading bench, or even a crummy one. Possibly an awful one.
 
Back in the day when I first started reloading, I used C-clamps as per my friend who taught me this trick, and would clamp my single stage to anything that would support the torq of the press, coffee table, kitchen counter or other counter, or the kitchen table. The trick to it is putting a towel under the press before clamping it down so it won't damage the surface.

GS
 
The bench from Northern Tool should be here tomorrow. So looks like I can finally stop trying to find substitutes and just use something that works.
 
Wear a helmet for when that thing fails at full pull.. lolz. I admire your desire to make full use of a given thing.
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Looks that way :D, but honestly it is as stable as my main very strong steel-reinforced bench.
I'm not very heavy, but I could easily put 100% of my weight on the press handle and the work-mate wouldn't budge or even flex.

I use it to size and deprime range brass for pistol. Many thousands of cases.

The truth.
 
1SOW said:
Looks that way :D, but honestly it is as stable as my main very strong steel-reinforced bench.
I'm not very heavy, but I could easily put 100% of my weight on the press handle and the work-mate wouldn't budge or even flex.

I use it to size and deprime range brass for pistol. Many thousands of cases.

The truth.
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Sorry, I wasn't directing that at you but the OP just to be humorous.. sometimes I get lazy or something and don't re-check the lie/landing of the/my post.
 
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