Getting organized

Monday was a BIG day, with the sofa-sleeper arriving in the AM that was too big to fit down the hall and had to go through the Office window on its back. Finally the room is mostly complete, with the vintage Macouillard Matson-Line menus on the wall and the Guatemala masks above the closet, there is now a guest-room that actual guests can stay-in.
After all that we made a Costco (beer-run!) supply-trip where I discovered the answer to my gun-room prayers; a large but not too-large metal locking cabinet that can house my books and reloading manuals and amateur gunsmithing nick-nacks and the stacks of empty brass and lead and junk that was stored in mu7ltiple boxes and strewn around the room. All neatly out of sight under lock and key- and I wonder if I should get a second one…. Phew! More bathroom hardware went on to replace the outdated finishes of the previous hardware and there are still a couple of lights to take-down and replace with new ones. And I ordered a fresh and new bar-sink and faucet to replace the old and worn units – so, ready for some upcoming plumbing work…

Reloading WorkbenchUPDATE: I’m still not really that sure-about or sold-on the Harbor Freight reloading bench. Once built it’s plenty sturdy, perhaps a bit long – but the holes in the top for the wood-working bench-dogs are a bit too frequent, and in order to mount the press where I want it (on the end) I neglected to mount the wood-vise, so they’re really not all that useful – unless I can find or rig a Y-fork rifle-holder and use some pair of holes as a cleaning station… If I mounted the press on the face of the bench then half the drawers will be compromised and unable to open, and while the multiple drawers are swell they don’t open fully, even though they are on full-extension “type” slides/glides, so some of the space is not very accessible – maybe it’s fine for a woodworker but it’s starting to piss me off just a leetle beet…

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17 thoughts on “Getting organized”

  1. Looks like a good base where you could screw on another top. All of the holes would be covered, but could be taken off or only partially covered at a later date. If going deluxe, some hard maple would be nice, but 3/4″ plywood would also do the trick. This way you would be able to make overhangs with any thickness or lip shape desired.

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    • Right, Ryan! I’ve got a piece of plywood for it, just need to sand the edges. Might need to drill another set of holes for the red press and move the green single-stage to another location… I looked at Maple butcher-block tops, for a 1-inch thick top they’re about $178 for a 25″x60″ top – Ash is $144…

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  2. Planning on driving your truck back to the South Bay sometime? I’ve got several steel items that I was planning on using to make work tables. Around 6 feet long, by approx 3 feet wide. One is wider than the others. I’ll measure them tomorrow. These are at least 1/10″ thick, with formed edges, that make them very stiff. No idea what they were originally intended for. Probably some sort of epoxy paint coating, never used.
    I figured to make wood or steel legs to set them on.

    They need to go.

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  3. I have a drawing (shocker, I know) of a bench I’ve been wanting to build, however, it’s not a reloading bench, just a movable work-type bench for my much neglected and totally disorganized garage.

    If I only had the time.

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  5. No, they aren’t useful for woodworkers either. Benches with drawers were popular in magazines (maybe the still are), but they usually get in the way of using bench dogs. Are the holes in the bench round or square? If round, there are “vices” that fit in the holes. Don’t remember the name off the top of my head, but they are out there.

    Also, benches that small (that is made of 2X4 and 2X6 lumber, aren’t heavy enough to take the abuse a good bench will. Is it strong enough for a reloading press? It doesn’t flex or feel like it is about to come apart? I guess the force is mostly straight down on a press, so maybe it will work out.

    Me? I have some old cabinets in my basement. I intend to reinforce the counter-top and install a press.

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    • Hi and THANKS Deb! I haven’t been wood-working in a while, and obviously the shavings from planing (using the dogs) and also just sawdust, would drop through the holes into the drawers – so they’re just good for holding some chisels and squares or what-not. I think it’s strong enough for reloading: the main press forces are vertical and pressures are contained within the press really apart from the load on the lever-arm which isn’t that super-duper – it’s easy to bend a decapping rod! The Hornady AP perss ram (the press I want) is like 4″ Dia. instead of the 3/4″ RCBS ram I have (shown in other pics), and it does all the work rotating too, making the motion smoother than the RCBS equivalent.
      If you’re goign to reinforce the countertops. you maybe could just replace them with some good butcher-block? 🙂

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  6. Is it possible to use a couple of the dog spaces to rig up a removable loading press / sled? And yes, you are certainly keeping busy.

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    • Good idea Dan! Like if I could put the press on a plywood base that registers with several holes using some kind of expanding plug/threaded thing? So that’s where 9×19 and The Rewst went-to! Linked.

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  7. It is not possible to mount a loading press conveniently on any bench smaller than a gymnasium. Just one of those unpleasant laws of physics. In better world presses (like automobiles) would materialize only when needed, spending all other time in some parallel universe.

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