Pull up a Chair

The coffee is hot and the snacks are from Molly's Kitchen .

Friday, March 12, 2010

Not Enough Bench Space

Not Enough Bench Space

As always we eventually run into a problem of not enough bench space. When I started reloading I purchased a Lee hand press, from what I read about this I thought this seemed to be a good Idea.
The down side of the hand press is that you can only do one operation at a time. So if your going to re size and de-cap for 30-06 you set the die up and re-size the number of rounds you want and remove that die and insert the next die to set the primer then add powder and install the next die (bullet seater ) and complete that step. This works if you have a few rounds to load or a lot of time.
After looking at different reloading set ups, I decided to purchase a Lee Classic turret press. This press will accept three or four hole turrets. By indexing the press you can go from re-sizing, and decaping to setting the primer, then index the loader, add powder, index, set the bullet, index, crimp and your done. One of the things you need for this loader unlike the hand press, is a place to bolt the the loader down. Now if you don't have the bench space you need to get creative. As this photo shows. A while ago I had removed a shelf on a swinging bracket from one of our base cabinets from the kitchen. It was intended to put an appliance on it. When you needed to use the appliance, mixer, blender, toaster..... you opened the cabinet door and swung the shelf up with the appliance on it up to counter top height. When you were done, release the locks and swing it back into the cabinet and close the door, Out of sight out of mind. With a few modifications to mount the loader on this shelf, I installed it into my work bench lower cabinet. When I want to reload I can open the door swing the loader up reload my ammo, swing it down when I'm done and its out of sight and out of the way.
I also needed to find a place for my case trimmer, And like the press where to put it. Then I looked at my bench vice and said why not.