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| Article by Ernie Burdick | |||||||||
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How many of us have a nice clean, uncluttered garage or
basement? A place where you have a full 6' long reloading
bench? I don't know about you but I sure don't. Long ago
my garage became a storage facility. In fact, my car
has never even been in the garage! The garage is
home to the mountains of camping equipment,
holiday decorations, auto shop tools, car parts,
bicycles, etc. As a sideline it also serves as a general pantry for grocery items and all kinds
of stuff. George Carlin once said that we as people are
defined by our stuff, one man's crap is another man's
stuff. We accumulate stuff at a pretty good rate too!
Heck,
just look at our hobby! If you have been collecting for
awhile you probably have more than a few mil-surp rifles and
all of the accessory related stuff to
go along with them (much to my wife's
dismay). Before you know it you have accumulated
over 20 years of stuff. You try to have a garage sale
to thin out the stuff. I am sure you can
all relate but sometimes it is very hard to part with
our stuff. The bottom line here is simple, too much
stuff
equals no reloading bench. I've been shooting since I was 12 years old. I shot .22s mostly until I reached the age of 22and then I bought my first big caliber rifle and handgun. A Winchester Model 94 in .30-30 and a Ruger Blackhawk in .357 cal. A buddy of mine then introduced me to reloading your own ammunition and I was hooked! I love to do my own reloading and it was great to see the article about the Lee Classic Turret Press by Mark Trope. I've been using Lee equipment for over 20 years and I love them. I started with the Lee Hand press and Lee powder measure dippers, when I didn't have a reloading bench. I still use it today when I don't want to break out all the rest of my equipment.. Later I broke down and I got a small "C" press by Lee with their anniversary package (see fig. 1), which included their reloading manual. |
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| Then two years ago, I purchased their then current, turret press (see fig. 2). I had been using a Black & Decker (TM) Portable workmate bench as my loading bench. I wanted to make a portable loading bench for use indoors, out of the heat in the garage in the summer or the cold in the winter. I started thinking about it and came up with an idea on how to make one cheap (around $50.00), durable and up to the task of reloading. My new requirements were simple, I want to do my reloading in my office. It must be portable and can be taken apart so it can be put away when not in use. It must not take up a load of space and it must not damage our hardwood floors. So here is my design for a portable reloading workstation. I got all the materials from my local hardware and lumber store. | |||||||||
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A list of materials is as follows: 1 - 36" dia. x 1" plywood circle 3 - 12" dia. x 1" plywood circle 2 - 1" dia. pipe flanges (see fig. 3) 1 - 24" x 1" dia. steel pipe with threaded ends (see fig. 4) 1 - 24" x 1" foam pipe insulation (see fig. 4) 1 - Small shop bin (optional) (see fig. 5) 2 - large 1" sheet metal screws (for the bin) 10 - 1-1/2" lag bolts 10 - 1-1/2" wood screws 4 - 2-1/2" bolts 4 flat washers 4 lock washers 4 nuts (see fig. 6) wood glue Staple gun 36" square piece of rug remnant |
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| First, find the center of the 36" plywood circle, using a string and pencil compass, draw a 12 inch circle. Smear the wood glue on one side of a 12" plywood circle and glue it to the 36" plywood circle, inside the circle you drew in the previous step. (fig. 7) | |||||||||
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Smear wood glue on another of the 12" plywood circles
and glue it to the remaining 12" plywood circle. Next, on the opposite side of the 36" circle, draw a 6 " circle in the center. Locate 5 equally spaced points on the circle (72 degrees apart) and mark them. Using a power drill, drill 5 pilot holes for 5 - 1-1/2" wood screws. Screw the 5 screws into the 36" circle. These will reinforce the strength of the two circles. Repeat the above step for the 2 - 12" plywood circles. Set both sets aside to dry over night. Place the piece of carpet remnant on the bottom of the 36" wood circle so that it covers the circle completely. Using a staple gun with 1/2" staples, staple the carpet in place. When that's done, us a utility knife to trim the carpet around the wood circle. (fig. 8) |
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| Flip the 36" wood circle over so that the 12" circle is on top. Locate the center of that circle and mark it. Using your string compass, draw a 3" circle. Mark 4 points (90 degree apart) and drill 4 pilot holes, these are for the lag bolts which will be used to attach the cast pipe flange to the wood. Repeat this for the other 12" wood circle. At this time I realized that I needed to have a square in order to attach the reloading presses and bin so I cut 4 sides so now I have a 9-1/2" square with rounded corners. (fig. 9) | |||||||||
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| Attach 1 cast pipe flange to the 12" wood circle and the other to the 9 1/2" wood square using the 8 1-1/2" lag bolts. (fig 10 & 11) | |||||||||
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| Next attach the 24"x1" pipe to the base (36" wood circle). Slide the foam insulation over the pipe. This is mostly just for looks but it does make it easier to grab hold of. (fig. 12 & 13) | |||||||||
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Screw the top (9-1/2" wood square to the top of the
pipe, just snug it up so it isn't loose. (fig 14) |
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| Attach the small shop bin to which ever side you like using the 2 Sheet metal screws. (fig. 15) This is a great place to put your shell casings as you are reloading. Add an optional second one to the other side and you'll have one for you finished cartridges. Some may ask why have a single stage press if you have a turrent press. I use the single stage press for my Lee factory Crimping die. Once all my cartridges are all loaded, I just spin the workstation around and use the single stage to apply the factory crimp to the case. | |||||||||
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| Using each press as templates, mark where the holes need to be drilled to mount the press. Drill pilot holes for the back mounting holes so that you can easily screw in the lag bolts. Drill straight through for the front holes and use the 4" bolts and use flat washers and locking washers and nuts to secure the bolts. (fig. 16) | |||||||||
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Since the top is square and small, all the pressure used
on the press is kept close to the pipe, in the center of
the large base, so it doesn't want to tip over. Here is
the finished project. (fig. 17, 18, 19 and 20) I also use a spray polyurethane to seal and protect the exposed wood surfaces. You could also paint the parts any color (like camouflage) if you wanted to. |
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| Article by Ernie Burdick |
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