TR Young 175 Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 (edited) I wanted to share my reloading area with everyone. I used Autodesk Inventor to design my bench, create the blueprints, and render the first set of design pictures. As you can see, I designed the top of the bench to have a jar mounted underneath, with a hole cut in the lid of the jar and through the table surface to use as a clean-up tool; I'd just use a whisk brush to sweep things into the hole and then I could unscrew the jar from the lid and be able to empty it. However, I decided to forgo that part of the design and just use a Dustbuster to sweep up any messes I happened to create. I ployurethaned the top and perimeter lip with Minwax Polyshades Honey Pine Gloss 410. I haven't yet coated the whole bench, but probably will in the next month or two, after the holidays. For my lighting, I simply drilled a hole in the top of the front-right shelf support arm and inserted a swing arm drafting lamp and I am using a compact fluorescent daylight bulb. Once that thing is on for about 20 seconds, it provides me with plenty of working light. The finished result is a rock-solid bench that has already proven it's self through quite a few rounds reloaded. I used 3/8" bolts for all the frame member mounting, and counter-sunk drywall screws to attach the top of the table to the bench. I didn't bolt the bench to the floor or wall, and my design has proven that I didn't need to anyway. This table does not move at all. I designed the feet of the bench so that there would be no chance of it rocking back and forth during the reloading process. I will be adding a Lee Load All II shot shell reloader pretty soon, too. And, if anyone is interested, I can email you the plans that I made for this. Just let me know! It was pretty easy to get put together. Here are my design pics in Inventor: I couldn't resist modeling some .45 shells/loaded rounds w/ Hydra Shocks and putting them on the table top! Here is a good look at what I was going to do with the jar on the bottom of the bench And here is the finish product: A couple pics of the Lee Loadmaster that I snagged for $150 And of course, a couple with "Ivan"! Edited December 14, 2008 by TR Young Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IndyArms 10,186 Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 AWESOME job! the top looks nice with the urethane to make it smooth... easy to clean.... 2X4 construction so it oughtta be MORE than rugged enough! If you plan to use the top ALSO for a gun work bench... I might have gone a little bit WIDER... BUT... only if you plan to use it ALSO as a workbench... when you put the shotty on top, there doesnt look like a lot of room to work on it, and not have it bumping into things... Hell... That just gives you reason to design another bench as the "workbench" to slip right NEXT TO that one... and then you can REALLY go to town with more shelves to fill up with parts and ammo!! Maybe a FELT covered top!! or a built in or a swing out gun vice... the sky is the limit bro!!! design a dream!!! LOL Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The_Vigilante 14 Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 Real nice!!! Now how about coming to my home town and doing the same job for me Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TR Young 175 Posted December 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 (edited) AWESOME job! the top looks nice with the urethane to make it smooth... easy to clean.... 2X4 construction so it oughtta be MORE than rugged enough! If you plan to use the top ALSO for a gun work bench... I might have gone a little bit WIDER... BUT... only if you plan to use it ALSO as a workbench... when you put the shotty on top, there doesnt look like a lot of room to work on it, and not have it bumping into things... Hell... That just gives you reason to design another bench as the "workbench" to slip right NEXT TO that one... and then you can REALLY go to town with more shelves to fill up with parts and ammo!! Maybe a FELT covered top!! or a built in or a swing out gun vice... the sky is the limit bro!!! design a dream!!! LOL What I was going to do is put a vice off the left side of the bench so that I have more room on the table to work. That way, I can secure from off the left side of the table and have plenty of room to work to the right. To be honest, the pics are a little deceiving; I actually do have alot of space behind the press to work. I just have a bunch of reloaded shells and some empty plastic trays sitting there right now. That takes away roughly a foot of space, but when I move everything but the press, I do have enough space to do my smithing. I am going to design and build a gun cabinet that will sit to the right of the reloading bench. I want to build it to hold about 16 long guns and have enough shelf space for all my ammo and various sundries... Thanks for the comments! Edited December 13, 2008 by TR Young Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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