reloading bench?

[HawkCreek]

I'll start by saying I've never had room to set up a proper reloading bench but I'm about to move into a larger place so it's finally going to happen! I have an old solid wood corner desk, it's HEAVY and must be moved in pieces. It's been in storage for years and apparently somewhere along the way I lost the brackets to hold it together. If the brackets dont turn up soon I may have to build my own out of angle iron or aluminum. Aluminum would be easier as I dont have a drill press and would be doing everything with a hand drill.


Not my picture but the main body of the desk is similar to this one. Mine is taller with a shelf about 18" above the main desk, equally heavy and sturdy. It also has a light color plastic covering laminated to the top of the desk and shelf which seems like it'd make cleaning up spills a cinch.


It's roughly 42" along each side but being a corner desk makes it deep but limited it's usable workspace.

So my question is for the time and money should I buy angle and make my own brackets or just build my own bench from scratch? I can see this bench not being ideal as there isn't a long of room left for workspace once the press is mounted, but it's sturdy (it's heavy enough I don't think it'll move even though it wont be wall mounted) and it seems heavy duty enough.

[Fl0und3rz]

Congratulations.  I went the other way and am looking to maximize a small space.

The heavier and sturdier the better.  Give it a shot.   Maybe throw another sheet of 1/2" or so of plywood or particle board over the top to make the top more rigid.  Consider anchoring it to the wall, so that the thing doesn't walk around, because that sucks.

[HighlandLofts]

Nice looking corner desk, but it doesn't look like it would take the abuse of resizing brass. Bigger rifle brass takes a lot of presure.

[jasnt]

Use it till you have something better.  Or beef it up some like said above

[Yondering]

If I were using that, I'd want to mount the press on one side of the bench where it has vertical support, rather than at the overhang in the middle.

If it has to be mounted in the middle, I'd add a vertical support post. Flexible benches are no good and don't hold up long.

Also, the best setup for a reloading bench is to have it anchored to the wall as well, otherwise you'll notice everything wiggling around. Been there done that with what I'd previously thought were very solid benches, and ended up bolting them to the wall for support.

[Blacktail Sniper]

Another option that some have used, they always seem to be having a sale or discount coupons so might be something to consider if the one you have doesn't work out:

[JBar]

I bought that same harbor freight bench for reloading and decided to build my own. For under $130 I built one much sturdier for reloading purposes. I use the HF bench for my archery stuff instead.

[lamrith]

Something to keep in mind also is angles and leverage.  I have a feeling the way that corner desk is setup you will have issues with it wanting to flip on you.  As mentioned rifle can take a good bit of pressure.

One thing that may help regardless of what bench you use is to get the press up off the table.  I use a mount I got from Inline Fabrication.  That lets you move the press not only up, but if you get the tall version you can move the press more in to the middle of the desk which will help with stability.

[b23]

I use a mount I got from Inline Fabrication. 

I have both of my single stage presses on Inline Fabrications Ultramounts and couldn't be happier with them.

For the type of bench the OP posted a picture of, using an Ultramount from Inline Fabrication would make it considerably more solid than just mounting your press to the desk top.

[HawkCreek]

Reading through my original post I wasn't very specific. The picture is not what I'll be using only a similar style. The desk I have is 2" thick and solid (no pressboard). I removed the sliding keyboard tray from under it so I have room to add a few layers of plywood or 2x stock which I may do but I'm not convinced it will need it. It's certainly to heavy to tip over as its all one guy can do to budge it when it's assembled.

I like the raised mount idea. Seems like I could get that mounted more off to the side than just in the center and get back some room to work rather than trying to work around the press.

[2labs]

I use two file cabinets and a solid core door slab. Cheap and very solid.

[syoungs]

I will 3rd the inline fabrication mounts. Having a single spot capable of running multiple presses has been super handy. It also has been nothing but rock solid while re-sizing. If my entire area disappeared right now, the only item I would replace without a second though would be the inline fab mount!