Im new to reloading and want to see if anyone has any pics of their benches and what size they are. Mine is going in a spare bedroom so it cant be too big but I dont wana be too cramped either. Thanks for the help

Mine's in 1/2 of a double closet. The other 1/2 holds my hunting clothes.

I used one as simple as a piece of 3/4" plywood clamped to a cheap computer desk before I got my present neck, which my Dad built by welding an angle iron frame and bolting 3/4" plywood to it. It's about 3' by 6' with a shelf below and a full width plywood cabinet on top at the rear. Dad built it offsome plans in a magazine; no idea which one. That thing is stout. Had to take out a basement window to get it in the house, and dang near crippled myself trying to horse it around.

Mine works out great. Here are some pics:

As you can see in the above photos, you can set-up a reloading area with minimal space and still be comfortable. Placing the beam scale at eye or slightly below eye level works out great too. You want your operation to be fluid and smooth.

I redecorated the spare room myself. its oly 10'X12'



I extended the bench top on the right to the wall for a little more room.

I built a little wooden boc to get the scale up to eye level, its moveable.

I work in Miami during the week but go home to Jacksonville on the weekends. As such, I stay in my RV Monday through Friday. It was completely unreasonable to be without my reloading stuff with all that free time in the evenings, so I built this bench -- custom tailored to the free space in my "master bedroom." The Fire Marshall may have something to say about me blocking that door...

If my wife had her way, mine would be in the closet as well -- along with all my taxidermy.

So he admits he's still in the closet. It's alright to come out, we already know!!

Fifteen years ago I followed these plans:

http://www.shotgunsportsmagazine.com/downloads/bench_plans.pdf

I have been very pleased with it.

That's the one my Dad built ( angle iron frame). No doors on the cabinet though.

Mamma was sweet enough to let me have some space in the spare bedroom. It only took 2 years of whining. I used two 30" oak kitchen upper cabinets (narrower than the lower cabinets) with 3 feet between them setting on the floor and made a countertop with a pair of 2x8's. I then bought some shelving track, the clip-on 6" supports and some 1x6's and put shelves above the counter. For added strength I put a 4x4 from the floor to the counter right beside where I mounted the big press. Holds most of my stuff and only takes about 14-15" of space along 1 wall.

It's nice you mention the extra support under the press as some guys don't do that and end up with a pretty flimsy reloading station. I've got a 4x4 set up like how you describe and also a piece of oak (3x3 I believe) for a diagonal brace going from under the press to the 4x4 and it is very solid.

I posted earlier in this thread that I built a bench using the National Reloaders Manufacturing Association plans. Here's a picture:



I used oak plywood and put a finish on it. Mine sits in an unfinished basement. No, it doesn't look like fine furniture, but some wives might find it reasonable in a spare bedroom.

I've built three benches along the lines of the NRMA plan -- two for workbenches and one for reloading.

Never could bring myself to spend the time making doors, though.

This was the set up at my old house........



load here


work on em here

This what I have at the current house, smaller room but still works.



closet, now gun rack and storage

I should add that I use 3x8 solid core doors for counter tops. I find them at our local discount home improvement place, about 35 bucks each, there super strong and finish up nice. Way better than plywood IMO

I used 2x6 planks and 1" AC plywood to make my bench. I use the prefabed library shelves for the powder and dies.

There are some really nice benches and reloading rooms in this thread. I built my first bench to fit one wall in our spare bedroom in my previous house and gave it to a buddy when I moved.

I found a screaming good deal on a Craftsman bench that fit between the lowest shelf and the wall on one side of the master closet back in 2007. I finally built a shelf to fit on the bench this week since I generally have crap stacked all over the place.

I suck at brass organization but I am getting better, I started using the ice cream buckets but I may switch to the shoebox style plastic tubs that were posted in the brass thread.

Some day I hope to dedicate a room for an office/reloading/checkering space and get this junk out of the bedroom.

I built my bench at the old house in an L-shape, 6feet on each leg. L-shaped made stuff down at the other end of the bench handy to reach from the main work station in the middle. I used 12/4 mahogany for the base (hey, I got it $6 bd/ft back then, which was only $1 bd/ft more than white oak) and recycled bowling alley lanes for the top. The bowling alley material was 2 1/2" thick maple made of 3/4x2 1/2 sticks glued face-to-face. Because I was a yacht carpenter at the time I went a little crazy and built it with mortice-and-tenon joints and half-lap joints, no nails or screws just epoxy. It was sturdy though- you could've parked a Volkswagen on it.

Since the divorce and moving into a tiny apartment, I had to scale down the bench size. This one's just 5ft.x2ft. (mahogany again) with simple shelves underneath for storage. Because it's in my apartment I finished it like a piece of furniture (which it is) Several large wooden chests serve for additional storage.

Frankly, if I were starting out all over again I would build a bench that sat as an island in the middle of the room, providing access all around it.

Don't limit yourself to 2x material and plywood from the big box store. If there's a hardwood dealer local to you, spring for some nice dry white oak, or maple, or even mahogany. Pricing it may surprise you in being not a heck of a lot more than a pickup full of 2x's at Home depot- and a heck of a lot drier, stronger, and heavier, all good attributes for a loading bench.

My dad built this one off the end of his utility room. We live about 1/4 mile apart on our farm, so we share the room. The room is actually a 6' x 10' closet. Solid core door for the bench top with shelves above and plenty of support below. The opposite wall has inexpensive cabinets and shelves available from any Lowes, HD, Target, etc. The second picture doesn't show all the shelves and cabinets below, but you get the idea.

Did I misinterpret, or did Swampy say he is in the closet. Swampy, come out of the closet already.

I used to load on a more conventional setup on a bench pushed up against a wall. Always wished I had access to all sides of the bench and learned the press is best mounted over the vertical uprights. This is what I built.

thats a sweet little set up.

That's exactly the design I would copy if I were to build yet another one. Nicely done.