Just about finished with my reloading room. New tile, paint, cabinets, and bench.

Thats a nice looking bench! Did you build it?

Hey that's a nice bench! But where are all the green and blue presses ? :)

By the way, a decent bench can be had for cheap: get one of the put-together workbenches from Home Depot, Lowe's, local lumberyard, etc.; - then do two more things:

1. Bolt it to the wall.

2. Screw a sheet of 3/4" plywood to the top.

Works great.

"BEAUTIFUL", I especially like the RED trim accent pieces. I think that Lee fits in with the decor quite well...

What are you trying to do, Mike - make the rest of us look bad? Will never work - too organized! :o

Thanks for the comments guys... This bench is from the plans offered by the National Reloading Manufacturers Association. It will even get neater than this... more pictures to follow.

Michael

Thanks for the comments guys... This bench is from the plans offered by the National Reloading Manufacturers Association. It will even get neater than this... more pictures to follow.

Michael

RD, nice reloading room/bench. Being a recent newcomer to the reloading game, I see I have a long way to go. Just got set up in the garage on my work bench. I too have a couple of red items on it. One of them is a vice...heheheheh the other is a 4 hole Lee turret press. I took everyones advice and disconnected the auto feature tho. I need to get used to how this thing functions and get a flow going first. I will be shooting my first reloads tomorrow. I started small...125 grn 357 regular primers 7.5 grns of W231. I used the Lee adjustable charge bar and weighed every 3 or 4th cartridge to be sure things were going as they should. I added the Lee factoy crimp die and see the difference right away next to the first few test rounds I did earlier this week. Those I will be using my newest tool to adjust. An eraser...The hammer style bullet puller...speaking of which, I didn't spend alot of time checking it out, but after a cursory look can't quite figure out how it works. The instructions were very unhelpful. It came with 4 collets but I can't for the life of me figure out even after a few attempts. Once again any assistance is greatly appreciated. I'll let you all know how the new reloads work out. I'm actually a bit nervous about shootin them but guess that's normal....especially till I get this down to a science.
Mike ...you want to come and remodel here for me??? hehehhehe great job ...mack

Using the hammer type bullet puller isn't hard to do - just really takes a bunch of whacks if the bullet has been crimped. Don't worry about the cartridge firing - it won't.

Find the collet set that will match the cartridge, in that when the case is pushed down into the collet nose first the rim will hang securely on the collet. The collet has the flat side down on the hammer chamber and the rounded side facing up. Tighten the plastic cap down snugly onto the collet, find a hard flat surface and give it a sharp rap. Again, with crimped cases it may take several to a bunch of raps. Also, the cap may need to be hand tightened to keep a snug fit. The bullet will eventually pull free and be dumped into the nose of the chamber, along with the powder. Unscrew to cap, pluck the case from the collet and dump the bullet/powder into a dish or can. Plastic margarine bowls work great. Some folks just loosen the cap to extract the case and let the powder trickle through the collet into a bowl. The bullet is a little difficult to shake out when pulling straight cased loads, so I just remove the collet and reinsert when needed.

I'm assuming your bullet puller looks like this one.
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/928957

The collets are flat on one side, domed on the other and in 3 pie shaped segments, with a rubber band holding the segments together. If your directions don't tell you which collet to use for which cartridge, pick the one with an inside diameter closest to the base diameter of a rimmed cartridge or the groove diameter of a rimless cartridge. Push the base of the cartridge through the collet from the flat side so the rim is through the collet. The collet should snap into the extractor groove of a rimless cartridge. Put the cartridge into the hammer head bullet first and screw the cap on tight. Pound the puller on a hard surface until the bullet comes out.

If you get in a rhythm and keep pounding after the bullet comes out, you'll spray powder all over the place. If you've got a light bullet in a long necked case, like a .222 Remington, forget it unless you've got an arm like Roger Clements. Some reloaders prefer using a shell holder instead of the collets. A very handy tip if you don't have a collet for a very large or small cartridge. Rimmed cartridges tend to bounce up through the collets, so push them down between swats. Hope this helps.

Bye
Jack

I'm assuming your bullet puller looks like this one.
http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/928957

The collets are flat on one side, domed on the other and in 3 pie shaped segments, with a rubber band holding the segments together. If your directions don't tell you which collet to use for which cartridge, pick the one with an inside diameter closest to the base diameter of a rimmed cartridge or the groove diameter of a rimless cartridge. Push the base of the cartridge through the collet from the flat side so the rim is through the collet. The collet should snap into the extractor groove of a rimless cartridge. Put the cartridge into the hammer head bullet first and screw the cap on tight. Pound the puller on a hard surface until the bullet comes out.

If you get in a rhythm and keep pounding after the bullet comes out, you'll spray powder all over the place. If you've got a light bullet in a long necked case, like a .222 Remington, forget it unless you've got an arm like Roger Clements. Some reloaders prefer using a shell holder instead of the collets. A very handy tip if you don't have a collet for a very large or small cartridge. Rimmed cartridges tend to bounce up through the collets, so push them down between swats. Hope this helps.

Bye
Jack

Thanks kdub, and jack...I just went out to try it again...worked like a champ once I got the tap down...instead of the collets that came with it I tried one the shell holders from my auto prime, worked much better...but after I got the hang of it I went back to the original collet. guessin I was just bein impatient....actually got it down to a few whacks on the anvil of my bench vise. Thanks for the quick response....mack

Hey RD, where's all the assorted debris on your loading bench? Yours doesn't look anything like mine! :eek:

And what's with the tile? How ya gonna lose any primers without shag carpet? You're going about this in a very non-traditional method, I must say!

My better half is fond of saying that I don't hunt......unless I'm trying to find a shellholder on my bench! She often thinks she's funnier than I do. :rolleyes:

PJ

papa...

I just got tired of hunting stuff down myself! The fellows carted off my carpet before I got to it myself as I wanted to take it out to the ranch and catch it on fire. I figured that when the fire reached the part that had been near my bench it would blow sky high from all the powder and primers in it!

Michael

It's getting there... got all three presses mounted and eventually all the dies will go to a storage rack on the inside of the closet doors. There ought to be enough Lee red in the picture to make some fellows ill!

http://cuero.nodial.net/~lindareamy/reloading/bench II.jpg

Michael

Where'd all that green plastic and iron come from? :p

It's getting there... got all three presses mounted and eventually all the dies will go to a storage rack on the inside of the closet doors. There ought to be enough Lee red in the picture to make some fellows ill!

http://cuero.nodial.net/~lindareamy/reloading/bench II.jpg

Michael

Nice, nice, nice.....feeling somethin green coming over me!!!
Nice job ther RD I am jealous, but ....maybe...just maybe after a bit I'll be there too....Finally got MrsMack looking out for gun shops etc for me....hehehehhe maybe if I start to spread into the house....mack

Whatta bench! You know if you kinda squint your bench looks similar to a reworked upright piano with the heavy legs and back :)

Love the red! I got the 4 holer and love it.


Perferator

I bet you could make a bench out of a upright piano. That would be pretty intersting!

Yeah - and you could even rig footpetals for the up and down stroke of the presses!! :D

Super job, congratulations.

Did you have plans you worked to when building the bench?

How do you expect to find anything will all that organization getting in your way?

Flash...

The bench was built from plans from the NSSF??? I am loosing things because everything just isn't piled up on the bench anymore~~~

Michael

Just to send some of you messy fellows over the edge... I got my door organizer installed and I've moved all my dies off the top of my bench to the inside of the closet door!

Michael

How do you EVER expect to find anything in such a neat room, Mike - !

I know exactly which pile to look under for anything I need. :p

After 5 hours of setup, I got the Loadmaster up and running. What a hoss... I must say that I'm impressed. My daughter is sitting at it right now turning out 45 Colt ammo for Lost Creek Joe as I goof off. I even noticed this will work on the 444 Marlin!

Michael

The lack of green paint is utterly disturbing. How can you load quality ammo on non-green equipment?

The lack of green paint is utterly disturbing. How can you load quality ammo on non-green equipment?

Yes, I'm a real rebel. No green stuff and no bolt guns! I love my Lee stuff! I'm back up to shooting 1000 rounds (actually shot that much this week). For the month or so my room was down I went through withdrawals and ran out of ammo. Live is good again ;)

Today I've used my Turret press, the Loadmaster, and a simple old Lee Loader. I'm working up some ammo with the Loader just to shoot in PMII.

In about 2 weeks I will dig the AR15 out of the safe, yes I have a gun that isn't a lever-gun, and get it ready to shoot in your match.

Michael

Ok Ranch Dog I was just looking for the piano keys there somewhere. All kidding aside a beautiful job. Been using that lee stuff for ever and it's still going.

Okay... now for the really good news. I spent a little over $200 for the cabinet grade lumber and the local State prison charged me $5 to build it per the plans in their furniture shop!

Michael

Okay... now for the really good news. I spent a little over $200 for the cabinet grade lumber and the local State prison charged me $5 to build it per the plans in their furniture shop!

Michael

We didn't know you were a convict. How long did it take you to build the bench? Don't say 5 to 10 but you got off for good behavior and finished up early.

Flash...
The inmates at the Steveson Unit here in Cuero built it in one day! Dropped the lumber off one afternoon, picked it up the bench the next afternoon.

Michael

Gee whiz! What a beautiful setup!

Flash...
The inmates at the Steveson Unit here in Cuero built it in one day! Dropped the lumber off one afternoon, picked it up the bench the next afternoon.

Michael

That's remarkable! Good for you.

That is unbelievable.. Much to nice to work on, I will have to hang my head when I go to my bench now. Very nice job RD

Thanks fellows! It still manages to get a pretty big pile of things on top but it is easy to put things away when I'm done.

Michael

;)

Hello

New to the site , just a few months, but that is a beautiful bench. Just wondering if you bulit it yourself. I just ordered the NRMA bench plans myself.

Once again , nice bench