Looking Good! :thumb:
But beware, it will take over the garage if you let it.
But beware, it will take over the garage if you let it.
Finally upgraded my reloading setup
Aside from a handful of .38 spl shot shells I haven't reloaded anything in a few years. (Life happens!) I decided just before Christmas that it was time to dive back in, but I needed to update my equipment. When I first started reloading we lived in a small apartment and I had no place to dedicate to a bench setup. I opted for a Lee hand press instead. It was slow but my entire setup fit inside a .50 cal can. Fast forward several years and we now own a decent size home and I have a garage for my play room.
I started researching presses, trying to decide single stage, turret or full blown progressive...... Well, it turns out Brownells had the Lee Classic Turret Deluxe kit on sale for $169.99 with free shipping. I liked the balance of speed and control it offered. I place the order Christmas eve and the press arrived Jan 4th. As luck would have it I had this week off! The last thing I needed was a place to mount it. I had enough scrap laying around to throw together a decent bench. I don't like the way the stain turned out. That's why I only did the top. I'll sand it clean and go with something a little lighter later on.
After getting everything mounted I was able to crank out 100 rounds of 38spl and 100 rounds of 45acp in a couple hours last night. Today I went to town and bought 100 Hornady 230gr XTP's and loaded 50 of those. I still need to buy an extra tool head so I don't have to swap out the dies each time. But for now I'll be fine. I have to say, my favorite thing about this press is the powder measure. Before I was weighing every charge by hand on a Lee balance beam! That was tedious. Here is a pic because I know you guys are visually stimulated. LoL
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I started researching presses, trying to decide single stage, turret or full blown progressive...... Well, it turns out Brownells had the Lee Classic Turret Deluxe kit on sale for $169.99 with free shipping. I liked the balance of speed and control it offered. I place the order Christmas eve and the press arrived Jan 4th. As luck would have it I had this week off! The last thing I needed was a place to mount it. I had enough scrap laying around to throw together a decent bench. I don't like the way the stain turned out. That's why I only did the top. I'll sand it clean and go with something a little lighter later on.
After getting everything mounted I was able to crank out 100 rounds of 38spl and 100 rounds of 45acp in a couple hours last night. Today I went to town and bought 100 Hornady 230gr XTP's and loaded 50 of those. I still need to buy an extra tool head so I don't have to swap out the dies each time. But for now I'll be fine. I have to say, my favorite thing about this press is the powder measure. Before I was weighing every charge by hand on a Lee balance beam! That was tedious. Here is a pic because I know you guys are visually stimulated. LoL
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
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It doesn't have much room to take over. As it is, I need to remove the lags holding the shelf behind it in place so I can slide it down and make room on the wall for the bench.Looking Good! :Thumb:
But beware, it will take over the garage if you let it.
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
Truer words were never spoken. I started out small with a single stage and very portable setup I could stash away easily. Now I have a variety of powders and load more calibers than I ever thought I would along with now having a progressive press right aside the single stage and would like to possibly get a turret.Looking Good! :thumb:
But beware, it will take over the garage if you let it.
Once you open the door to the hobby and you get comfortable with it, it makes you want to do more and are less shy to buying firearms of any caliber. Before you know it, you have a notebook full of notes and you're loading 6 or 7 different calibers, have buckets of brass separated by caliber, and enough ammunition laying around to make any liberal nervous. Ask me how I know
I liked olfarhors' setup so much I saved a picture. It's a very nice space saving setup.
Credit: olfarhors
I messed one of those little squares up. I now have spares. Ain't like they're expensive or something.
Haven't had a problem with it, since. I cannot remember how I messed it up, but it WAS my fault.
I messed one of those little squares up. I now have spares. Ain't like they're expensive or something.
IIRC it has something to do with reversing the die rotation. I messed mine up, asked Lee for a replacement as I couldn't find the one that came with it and never installed it. I just flip the dies with my weak hand...maybe someday I'll try the auto indexing again. The issue that I had with it was when I would charge a case, lower it and the press would index to the next die. If I took the case out to dump in the scale, I twice forget to index around to recharge the darn case and made a squib. That hasn't happened since I stopped auto indexing.
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