What did you do at your reloading bench today?

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  • PowPow

    Where's the beef?
    Nov 22, 2012
    4,712
    Howard County
    Slider press mount idea stolen from Bob at MD Reloadr.

    How stable are the presses on sliders? Do the presses move any or vibrate during operation? My own bench needed to be bolted into the wall to address a bit of flexing that would cause rattles, and it is installed in a fixed mount.
     

    CanDoEZ

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 23, 2008
    2,592
    SoMD
    How stable are the presses on sliders? Do the presses move any or vibrate during operation? My own bench needed to be bolted into the wall to address a bit of flexing that would cause rattles, and it is installed in a fixed mount.


    Great question! I thought hard about that. There is no lateral play and when they extend they lock in place with only a friction lock. With just that I haven’t noticed any fore-aft play… yet. We’ll see after the first 1000 rounds or so. My plan if that happens is to drill holes and drop pin the slide in place. The table itself is a heavy beast so very stable.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     

    PowPow

    Where's the beef?
    Nov 22, 2012
    4,712
    Howard County
    Great question! I thought hard about that. There is no lateral play and when they extend they lock in place with only a friction lock. With just that I haven’t noticed any fore-aft play… yet. We’ll see after the first 1000 rounds or so. My plan if that happens is to drill holes and drop pin the slide in place. The table itself is a heavy beast so very stable.

    I might be a bit anal about any press movement whatsoever. :D Hopefully it performs to your liking. That's really what matters.
     

    Harrys

    Short Round
    Jul 12, 2014
    3,362
    SOMD
    My reloading bench doubles as my multi bench. I just finished up a holster for a buds K-40. Working on a shoulder holster for him too. He uses the K-40 as his back up and carries when he is not on duty.
     
    Last edited:

    CanDoEZ

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 23, 2008
    2,592
    SoMD
    My reloading bench doubles as my multi bench. I just finished up a holster for a buds K-40. Working on a shoulder holster for him too. He uses the K-40 as his back up and carries when he is not on duty.


    Nice leather work! Haven’t messed with that skill set since Boy Scout days…


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     

    Harrys

    Short Round
    Jul 12, 2014
    3,362
    SOMD
    Nice leather work! Haven’t messed with that skill set since Boy Scout days…


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

    Thanks, use to do it for our cutters back in the 70s when I was enlisted. I just recently started it up as a hobby to keep me busy during retirement.
     

    Sherman

    Member
    Nov 5, 2017
    25
    Loaded first 15 rounds of 6.5 Grendel 120gr gold dot under my new leverevolution powder, now to just get my upper fixed so I can finally test these reloads and my others that have been patiently waiting
     

    Reloader

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 23, 2007
    1,381
    Arnold, MD
    Sized and primered a bunch 357 and 41mag brass. Getting ready to work a load up for a Henry rifle in 41 plus I have a new colt king cobra coming this week.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Spent a couple hours last night installing the Primer Xpress into my press. Some notes about that:
    1. You need a fair bit of room behind your press for the Primer Xpress. Mine barely cleared. The movement is all left-right, so you don't need to worry about back wall clearance if it's tight. I found the noise to be a little worse than the case feeder/bullet feeder, but not remotely comparable to a trimmer setup.

    2. Removing the Evo priming assembly is undocumented, despite what the Primer Xpress instructions claim. There are two bolts (one on the top, one on the bottom) that need to be removed. You then need to disassemble the Evo priming assembly (including the slider) to remove the bolt that interfaces to the press arm. This is, to put it mildly, a pain in the neck.

    3. Installing the new Apex-style disc priming system isn't TOO hard. You do not need to disassemble your entire priming system to get at the press-arm connector. Just put in the top and bottom bolts, and then do the press arm connector bolt. I would "cycle" the press a few times to make sure it's working as expected.

    4. Configuring the disc priming system to work correctly, on the other hand, is a huge pain in the neck because they put one of the stop screws in the corner between the second guide rod bushing the priming assembly. I resorted to pliers in the end. I would STRONGLY encourage you to take all the time you need to get this exactly right and then lock it down. Incidentally, the black plastic spacer that you adjust for larger and small primers seems to have been a terrible idea, and they should have milled specific parts for small and large primers.

    5. Installing the Primer Xpress is simple - you pop the disc off, pull a bottom plastic spacer, and then just press fit the Xpress in. After that, it's just a few bolts and plugging things in. Unfortunately, I found that I needed to sand/file the "ramp lips" at the bottom so they wouldn't bind the disc. Doesn't take long, but I think I would have engineered this interface differently.

    6. After that, it's just rebuilding your press. I'm holding off because they sent me two large primer discs, and I'm loading purely 223 and 300 on this press (oops). wah wah

    This would obviously be a much smoother install on an Apex10 since it already has the disc priming system (unsure if it's precisely the same as the one I got, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't). If you're loading in volume on your Evo or Apex, I can't really see how this thing isn't required equipment. Only thing that would make it perfect is a primer cutoff, and, realistically, turning off the feeder more or less does that at some level.

    ETA: cranked out a bit more 9mm and 308 last night.
     
    Last edited:

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    My small primer disc came back in, so I was able to reassemble my Mark7 Evo. All seemed to go well. Getting the end stops on the priming system just right really is the key... press operation is extremely smooth right now. I'm rolling with the assumption that primer depth should be the same as before since the actual priming mechanism doesn't change, just the primer feed mechanism.

    I also got in a vacuum so that I could finish up my case prep toolhead. Ran a few cases through, and they got trimmed to a good 1.75". M-die then cleaned up the inside. I'd say that's successful. Cases were tight in the gauge (due to the expanded case mouths), but headspaced exactly correctly.

    ETA: set up 357 Magnum on my Lee turret, but I reconsidered and bought the gear to do it on my 650. Might regret that down the road, but I can reuse my MrBF including the spare 9mm feed die I have, and that's a pretty compelling option.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,602
    Glen Burnie
    Nothing recently, but I have a winter camping/shooting trip coming up in February, so I'll need to get on the ball and get some stuff loaded up. We blow through a lot of ammo in just 3 days.
     

    GunBum

    Active Member
    Feb 21, 2018
    751
    SW Missouri
    I got a set of .38-55 dies and looked at them. :innocent0

    The first week of January I’m moving my tools and reloading stuff to Missouri. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get the reloading bench set back up.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,602
    Glen Burnie
    I got a set of .38-55 dies and looked at them. :innocent0

    The first week of January I’m moving my tools and reloading stuff to Missouri. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get the reloading bench set back up.
    I got a set of .308 dies and a set of .223 dies, and that's about all I've done with mine too.
     

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