New Bench Build

[HighlandLofts]

Finnish carpentry is time consuming to say the least.
I didn't go that elaborate, we cut everything with a circular saw. I did pick up some formica for the top today. I borrowed the tools to put it down. I also picked up some metal shelving for my empty cases so I can get them off my loading table.

You are lucky to be able to make yours twelve feet long.
Will you have yours up against the wall?
Mine is all formed in wall to b.v wall and is 28" deep with pegboard all the way around. It is a little to deep to get stuff I need hanging on the pegboar. if I were going to do it again I would of made it 26 inches deep.

Also there was a 2x2 on each side to hang clothes on, I left them in and made a shelf above the loading bench, that is to.high, I need a small stool or something to get stuff up there.
That shelf should of been about 4 inches lower.

I did build a shelf underneath that came in handy for storage. Plus I have a light under the top shelf. I have a light switch and two electric outlets on the left side and two electric outlets on the right side.

It's all fun, it's more funnier everything is at the right height and mounted in the right spot.
I spent a few hours up there last night and a couple of hours up there this afternoon.
I will be up there again when we get back from the grandkids Halloween party.

 

[MilesTeg]

I have a 9" bump out in the basement that this push into nicely.

I bought a light kit to fit in the upper overhang. I also have a work bench surge protector/power strip that will be going in the center bay. I found some metal peg board I really and thinking about putting in the middle.

 

[HighlandLofts]

You never can have to much pegboard, I bought a box of pegboard hangers from lowes and some individual hangers that worked out good for hanging my hand primer tools, dial calibers, scissors.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Miles
Any progress with your reloading bench?

 

[MilesTeg]

Miles
Any progress with your reloading bench?

Negative 2 young kids and Halloween has killed and more progress. I did just have a coworker offer his old reloading setup for $250. It looks to be a complete setup with a Lee turret press. When he said a red press I was hoping for a Hornaday. I'm on the fence if I will hop in the deal or not.

 

[HighlandLofts]

For me that would be what all comes with it.
I'm not into Lee products that much. I have a butt load of lee dies I will be parting with. I do like the old Lee auto primers, the Lee shell holders and the universals decapper die.

Even his reloading book I could do without, way to much slapping his own back.
I set them a letter requesting instruction pamphlet on how to set up their dies when I first got into reloading and the sent a catalog.
All I needed was an instruction pamplet.

When I got a hold of RCBS for a die set up pamphlet they put it out in the mail the same day.
Hornady has great customer service as well.

If it were me I would put that money towards either RCBS or Hornady products.

 

[MilesTeg]

For me that would be what all comes with it.
I'm not into Lee products that much. I have a butt load of lee dies I will be parting with. I do like the old Lee auto primers, the Lee shell holders and the universals decapper die.

Even his reloading book I could do without, way to much slapping his own back.
I set them a letter requesting instruction pamphlet on how to set up their dies when I first got into reloading and the sent a catalog.
All I needed was an instruction pamplet.

When I got a hold of RCBS for a die set up pamphlet they put it out in the mail the same day.
Hornady has great customer service as well.

If it were me I would put that money towards either RCBS or Hornady products.

That is 100% my thoughts also. Most of the stuff would be back up to my existing equipment. He called it a progressive but it appears from the photos to be the crappy lee one. I might just hold off and get a Dillon or Hornday.

 

[HighlandLofts]

A couple of weekends ago we went to a pigeon show at the county fair grounds, they have the pig barn, the goat barn and the sheep barn set up for a in door flea market. A guy there had a trunk with reloading stuff in it for $100, I offered him ninty and he took it.
There was two RCBS single stage presses, a RC11 press, a RS press, a set of RCBS 30 caliber Remington dies, a ser of RCBS 25/06 dies, a Lyman powder measure, a bag of 50 new winchester 7mm magnum cases, 2 berry 38/357 plastic ammo boxes, 3 - 100 packs of Winchester magnum primers, 3 - 100 packs of small pistol primers, a camo nylon a-frame holster, a set of craftsman calipers, an adjustable shooting stick, a rcbs loading block, 36 - 30/30 cases, a plastic hammer, a depth gauge, a new box of 177 caliber daisy pellets, a wood Cabelas rifle rest with the wood cam.lock to hold the gun in, a small sandwich bag of hex wrenches and kinetic hammer for taking bullets apart.

I really didnt need the stuff, but for $90 why not.

An older guy I know went to an estate sale a couple of years ago and hit the jackpot. There was two plastic totes mostly covered up with a old blanket. He asked what was in them, the woman said gun stuff. He asked how much, she said $25 and get it out of here
It was a complete Dillion progressive set up. He left his name and number incase there was anything else that they didnt pack. She called a couple of weeks later with more stuff, powder, primers, cases, loaded ammo, all kinds of reloading stuff.
One of them deals where the old man loved guns and the wife hated guns. He doed and she got rid of everything, the guns all went to cabelas right after he died.

 

[MilesTeg]

I got to work on it tonight. I have one of the cabinet box fully framed in. The second I'd about 20 minutes away from being done. I'm hoping to drill the holes for the lag screws tomorrow and I should be ready to lift the top on. The heads have a pretty large pan head on it so it kills my idea of using 45ACP brass to hide the screws. I will have to take a measurement to see if there is any brass i can use.

 

[MilesTeg]

I got a few minutes to work on it tonight. I fished up the last cabinet box. I will be lifting in place tomorrow.

 

[HighlandLofts]

There is a small lock shop/gun shop I stop in to on fridays after work, they have 50 caliber BMG dummy rounds for $5 a piece if you want any for draw handles.
One of my oldest Don's friends used them for draw handles in his gun room. They looked nice.

I think I have some 500 S&W brass I picked up at the pits we shoot at, I can dig them out for you if they will work. You can have them
If they won't work would something like 243, 30/30, 30/06 work?

I see you are indulging in a beer.

I just popped my first one.

 

[MilesTeg]

I'll make sure I measure them tomorrow so I can figure out what brass to use. Ya I'm an everyday drinker. I've cut down to 4-5 a night instead of 8-12.

 

[HighlandLofts]

I cut down to Friday night, some times Saturday night too.

 

[MilesTeg]

After the shopping trip I had to put up the wife's chair rail so I didnt get as much time working on the bench as I wanted.

I did get it in place and all of the lags installed. The pan heads were much larger than I had hoped. I ended up having to counter sink them with 5/8 bit. I will have to do some research to see what brass I can use to cover them.

I'm hoping tomorrow I can install the rest of the top framing and fit the plywood top.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Last night I cleaned off my reloading surface, dis mounted the two presses, the two powder measures. I got the formica cut down. I took some bullets apart with my kinetic hammer and left an inditation in the plywood top that I have to fix before I can glue the formica down. I might run over to lowes to pick.up the stuff when we get back from shooting.

I cleaned the leaves off of the roof, cleaned the gutters out and washed them, took four tarp full of leaves out to the garden. That was enough for one day, fuck it, time to go shoot.

 

[MilesTeg]

Well there's been some more progress. I got some ample time last weekend to get the plywood fitted. This was way more of an endeavor than originally anticipated. One of my first mistakes was locking the extra 2x4's along the center section before installing the T beam. This ended up locking a bow in the center section. Not a huge deal but would require me to do some extra work to fit the plywood. So I went out and bought a straight edge for my circular saw and went through the steps of doing a test cut measuring the offset so I can make an accurate cut. So now I'm theoretically ready go... well I measure 4 times and cut away. When I finished the cut I looked down and the piece and instantly knew I had fucked up, it wasn't even close. IDK if I had measured wrong, the clamp shifted or the motor riding on the straight edge threw it off. So I had to run out and get a new piece... which now doesn't match the other side.


The next learning moment was when I decided to fill the seam between the 2 halves. I did the mix the saw dust with wood glue to make a filler. Well it did really work to match the color. Second issue was I should have sanded the seam before filling the crack. Even with using a good putty knife and applying as thin of a coat as I could, it left a lot of extra glue. I ended up going through like (10) 60grit sanding pads.

So far the shelving and topper has went well. I got the uprights cut and sanded. I also glued and screwed the up board on it. I hope to get the header attached this week and the shelving installed.

I had a buddy drop of some bad 338 lapua brass to plug where the lags were installed. I do have to figure out how I want to cut the brass. I'm thinking about picking up a dremel and using a cut off wheel.

Lastly the wife has started the art work. She's unsure if she will be painting it on or try her hand at wood burning. Because this will be centered on the seam we are hoping this will hide the different sheets of wood. Any input on how we should finish the wood around it? We've tossed around burning it to bring out the grain or maybe dark staining it.

 

[2WheelGnnr]

like I say!!!! when it comes to finish work....Im finished!!!! LOL

I also say we are ranked 31st out of 20 in safety.

 

[MilesTeg]

The art work is all done on the bench. The wife has started on the topper and am waiting on the wood burning kit to come in from amazon. I need to get some work done on the cabinets so we can finish this thing.

We still aren't sure if we want to stain it or wood burn it with a torch. We did it on a scrap piece. The stain was too dark so I'm going to have to grab another to try.

 

[togmaster]

Looks good. I'd give it a light stain and a high gloss urethane finish.

 

[MilesTeg]

Ya the wife wanted dark so I went about 3/4 up the spectrum. Lol she want impressed so I might push for the light one. I have the crystal clear acrylic urathane so it won't turn yellow in time. I also picked up a dremel on black Friday so I can polish and cut down the brass I'm using to cover the screw holes.

 

[HighlandLofts]

When do you think you will be setting up the press and stuff.

 

[MilesTeg]

It depends. I haven't made it out deer hunting as much as I liked. So it might get put on the back burner. Today is Christmas tree day so maybe i can skip out afterwards to get some stuff done. I still need to buy some bullets. I made sure to use them all up before the move.

 

[MilesTeg]

Ok we cant decide if we want to stain it. Here's a couple pictures with the stain on the different woods. The one has a circle of paint on it see how it worked with the stain. Also the third picture is of the finished art work on the topper.

 

[HighlandLofts]

It seems a little dark. I would go.lighter color stain.

 

[MilesTeg]

The wife stained the bench part today. I still have to sand down the topper but we are hoping to get it stained and put up tomorrow. If I'm really lucky I'll get the sides on the cabinets.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Looks really nice, the lighter stain will.be great for you.

 

[MilesTeg]

Well I started assembling today and got a decent amount done.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Looks good.
My sons made two racks to hold dies & other stuff that would compliment your setup. I need to.build a set for myself once I see where I want to put them.







He used plywood and rounded the ends with a router. He bought the adjustable shelving hardware from lowes.
I.like the die sets sitting on their own shelf instead of being stacked up on one another.

When will you be set up.to go. It sure takes time.
Come spring time I'm sure you will have a ton of yard work to get done. That is only four months away, 120 days or so.

 

[MilesTeg]

If you look closely at my pictures the left & right sides are drilled for adjustable shelving.

I'm waiting on a splitter to finish installing the LED system. I still have to put 2 coats of poly on the cabinet faces. I'm hoping tomorrow the the shelf backer fit stained and one coat of poly. Then I will cut and stain the shelves themselves. I also still have to install an outlet behind the bench for everything to plug into.

So I have a decent amount to still go but I hope to be running by the end of the month. I have around 4-5k pistol rounds I want to get done before syrup season.

 

[HighlandLofts]

You better get it kicked into high gear. Today is the end of the month and also the end of the year.

It all takes time and money.
Then you get everything set and decide to move things around.
I have been prepping brass. I need to load up some more 44spl for the grandson.

I am going to modify my case trimmer to except a cordless screwdriver for trimming cases. I need to fine some 3/8 or 5/15 inch hex stock make the adapter.