Reloading bench set-up

[mgdavis]

My Dad just built a bench in his garage to mount a couple presses to, now I'm trying to decide how I want to mount them.

The bench is 70"x24", and I have two single stage presses (RSBC RS and RS3) to bolt on. What say you on how they should be spaced? I was thinking that 18" would be good to have between them, but that's just a guess. Dad and I are both right-handed.

[Jim147]

I go about two feet between presses so I have plenty of room for a scale and two reloading blocks.

I ran a deck screw down to just hold one of my presses in and then set my stuff up so I knew where to mount the other press and then bolted them down.

jim

[Grandpa Shooter]

I have all my presses mounted to 2 by 6 boards and bolted through the bench.  Each set of holes matches exactly so that all I have to do is undo the wing nuts, pull the board and press up and set another one down and redo the wing nuts.  Four presses=One set of holes.

[Jim147]

I have all my presses mounted to 2 by 6 boards and bolted through the bench.  Each set of holes matches exactly so that all I have to do is undo the wing nuts, pull the board and press up and set another one down and redo the wing nuts.  Four presses=One set of holes.

That's a good idea.

I used to have my presses mounted to two bys and I just clanped the one I needed to my desk. Now I have two presses in one building and four in another and one here in the house. I'll have to think on that a little.

jim

[AJ Dual]

I saw one guy who posted his setup on another forum. He had his presses mounted to plywood sheets cut like big flat dovetails. He'd slide them in to a corresponding mortises in the workbench. If he wasn't reloading, he'd put in a blank dovetail board with nothing on it to get maximum workspace.

[mgdavis]

I saw one guy who posted his setup on another forum. He had his presses mounted to plywood sheets cut like big flat dovetails. He'd slide them in to a corresponding mortises in the workbench. If he wasn't reloading, he'd put in a blank dovetail board with nothing on it to get maximum workspace.

I saw that bench as well. I liked it, but it'll have to wait till the next time round.

I like the wing nut idea too, I think I'll incorporate that.

[coppertales]

The plywood dovetail would work fine for the smaller presses but would not be sturdy enough for the large presses, like a RCBS O press.  The top of my reloading bench is two sheets of 1/2 inch plywood screwed together to a 2x6 frame bolted to the wall.  My presses are about 16 inches apart.  2 ft would be much better.....chris3

[41magsnub]

I saw one guy who posted his setup on another forum. He had his presses mounted to plywood sheets cut like big flat dovetails. He'd slide them in to a corresponding mortises in the workbench. If he wasn't reloading, he'd put in a blank dovetail board with nothing on it to get maximum workspace.

That sounds awesome and is something I could totally do for very little cash!  I'm not overloaded with workbench space and I could easily rebuild the top of the bench to do this.  Right now it is just 2 layers of 1/2" and 1 layer of 3/4" particle board glued together on top of 2 Gorilla rack sections.  The first 2 layers raise it up enough to get over the top of the corner posts, the third 3/4" has an overhang on all sides and is tough enough to hold my little vise.  I could redo this making the 3/4" top modular on at least 1 side.

Or I could just do something similar with a sheet of plywood for the reloading portion that either clamps or uses prepositioned bolts and wing nuts too for less effort but also less cool factor.