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It's what ever works for you.:)
My brother has a turret press and chides me about coming out of, "The Stone Age".:rolleyes:
My old RCBS jr. Is built like an anvil and will out live me but, the beam scale does
tend to stick a bit. :(
 
My current workbench in the garage is little more than a slab of MDF on brackets that the previous owner threw together probably while high, hungover, or both. Garage makeover planned but not today as we're replacing the AC equipment from 1999. I needed a good bench for reloading so I built this one. 60" wide by 30" deep at 36in tall.

It has simple 2x4 construction with plywood surfaces. Top is 2 sheets of 1/2 in plywood glued and screwed.
Shelf is 16" for legroom and 16" up for buckets or tubs to slide underneath. Held together with deck screws.
The T25 Torx won't strip like Philips does.

While the cardboard boxes aren't pretty, their straight walls maximize interior room. Almost all tubs and storage bins have slanted walls which are great for stacking but you lose some space inside

The rock chucker on the left is clamped to allow repositioning while I figure out exactly where to place it. It has the Hornady LnL bushings that let dies swap in quick. The Lyman American is an 8 hole turret on the Lyman press stand.

Loaded my 1st 50 10mm 180gr Flat Points today. First of many ....

Bench.jpg Reloading Bench.jpg Reloading Bench 2.jpg
 
My brother wants to buy a used Dillion 550 (I guess it is) with two adapters for .40S&W and 5.56mm. He says the price is good. I'm an RCBS man-- simple is what I like. I told him that Dillions require tedious adjusting before the first round can be loaded. I read that somewhere. What are the opinions of you gentlemen? Should a greenhorn whom has never reloaded start-out with a Dillon? I told him that you can get to pumping the rounds out so fast that you run out of powder, and then you have to take them apart to find which ones are not charged. I suppose you could weigh them to find that 7.5-grain discrepancy.
 
What keeps it from wobbling side-to-side? You gonna put a piece of 1/4" plywood on the back?
To make the bench fit against the wall better I changed the design in back. The picture doesn't show the modification I made. On the back side the legs are attached to the inside of the top and the shelf at each corner. The downside was I had to notch the plywood for the shelf to allow for the leg to pass through.

In both the original design and my modification, each leg is screwed to the side piece and the back of both the top frame and the shelf frame. It doesn't wobble. The lower shelf cuts down any movement by reducing "the length of the lever" in the leg. If they were only attached to the top there would be more movement potential. If this were mobile with casters at each corner, I would have added more reinforcement.
 
My brother wants to buy a used Dillion 550 (I guess it is) with two adapters for .40S&W and 5.56mm. He says the price is good. I'm an RCBS man-- simple is what I like. I told him that Dillions require tedious adjusting before the first round can be loaded. I read that somewhere. What are the opinions of you gentlemen? Should a greenhorn whom has never reloaded start-out with a Dillon? I told him that you can get to pumping the rounds out so fast that you run out of powder, and then you have to take them apart to find which ones are not charged. I suppose you could weigh them to find that 7.5-grain discrepancy.
You can use the RCBS Lock-Out Die with a progressive press. This device will allow the reloading press to cycle normally when there is a proper powder charge, but will "lock up" the press if there is too much powder in the charge, or not enough powder in the charge (including no powder – a "squib load").
I don't know how effective that is with a low charge powder like tite group.


With rifles, double charging is mostly inconvenient due to powder spilling. It seems to happen every so often when I'm distracted and forget to move the funnel on the loading block. I've started to "hold the funnel" during and after charging and will not let go till I have moved it.

With pistols, double charged cases are very dangerous so I'm very careful to always seat a bullet after powder charge.
I don't feel comfortable using a loading block. I use a turret press and work one case at a time.

I guess with practice I could get comfortable with a progressive. I'm not quite there yet.
 
My brother wants to buy a used Dillion 550 (I guess it is) with two adapters for .40S&W and 5.56mm. He says the price is good. I'm an RCBS man-- simple is what I like. I told him that Dillions require tedious adjusting before the first round can be loaded. I read that somewhere. What are the opinions of you gentlemen? Should a greenhorn whom has never reloaded start-out with a Dillon? I told him that you can get to pumping the rounds out so fast that you run out of powder, and then you have to take them apart to find which ones are not charged. I suppose you could weigh them to find that 7.5-grain discrepancy.
The 550 is probably the most versatile of the dillon presses. One of the good things/bad things about it, it has no auto-index, this makes it great for loading really long cartridges, but makes double charging pretty easy, it also doesn't have a good way to run a powder check on it.

5.56 is pretty forgiving, and you're less likely to blow yourself up because a double charge dumps powder all over the bench. I don't think dropping right into progressive reloading is the way to go. If you're going to get into reloading to save money, you're getting into it for the wrong reason. I've said repeatedly, reloading does not save you money, it lets you spend more time with your shooting hobby. 40, 9mm, 5.56 are the big 3 in terms of most produced cartridges (40 is falling out of style), the economics probably don;t make sense to get into reloading these right now, especially if he doesn't have a giant stockpile of primers.
 
With primers running .08-.12 each, affordable ammo is compelling vs reloading.
9MM is cheap enough to avoid having to reload. 9mm is becoming almost like rimfire.

I know a few folk who load .223 with a 550. Varmint bullets are reason you reload .223 vs buying loaded ammunition. Worth the effort though.
 

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