press heights and handle angles

[bradaz11]

what height do people have their presses mounted from the floor? I keep seeing posts where those that say they look into the press to check powder throws got me thinking, I really struggle to see into mine.

do you load stood up or sat?

I sit to the side of my press, looking at the side of it, to get a comfortable handle throw, but have seen videos of people who work directly in front.
so what sort of angle do you guys have the handle set up to? mine with the handle up and ram down it is at 12 o'clock, or pretty much parallell to the ram, so when ram is at top of stroke, handle is around 5 o clock

wondering if i need to look at a height change

[phaedra1106]

My bench sits on two 70cm high drawer/shelf units with a steel Ikea 70cm leg directly under the bench where the press mounting plate system is so the press is approx 73.5cm off the floor.

I did look at the Inline Fabrication bench mounting system that you use standing up but I have too many physical disabilities to do that for long enough!.

[sclg]

Mine is mounted on a bench about 1m high. I tend to sit down for resizing, decapping, etc and stand for filling the powder and putting the bullet in!

[WelshShooter]

My bench in the shed pre-dates my reloading, so I had to work with the bench I had rather than build one to suit. Historically, I used a barstool to reload from, with all powder activities (off the press) done standing up. The problem I had was that when standing, I would need to lean over to fully lower the arm of my press which is uncomfortable when loading in any quantity.

Over summer I decided to give my Rockchucker IV an overhaul to make loading more ergonomic and productive. I measured the current distance from the floor to the bottom of the handle when fully lowered, and then measured the distance my arm hung which would be comfortable. The difference was around 3", therefore the mini-riser from Inline Fabrications would be great because this rises the press an additional 4" off the bench. This meant that I would be able to use the press from a seated or standing position. In addition, I bought from Inline Fabrications an ergonomic roller handle, primer catcher upgrade, a case kicker and some bins for catching ejected brass.

My original press was mounted to a scrap piece of steel to spread the pressure along the press on the top and underside of the bench. This plate was smaller than the surface area of the Inline Fabrications mount and I therefore needed to replace this plate. I bought some steel sheets, drilled the holes to the bench and the steel and went ahead and spray painted the sheets black. After the complete set up, the steel sheets look like a good match to the IF mount system. See the pictures in my follow up posts.


Before

Equipment from Inline Fabrications

Underside of Bench Before Install

[WelshShooter]

Side View of The Press & Sheets Installed

Front View of the Press Showing the Gain in Height

Underside of the Press with Sheet in Place

[WelshShooter]

Case Kicker and Primer Catcher Installed (left bin for cases to be sized, right bin for ejected cases)

Powder Hopper Clamped to Arm (temporary solution while I figure out a way to make a quick release clamp to the bench using the Uniflow Powder Stand)

[dromia]

I usually blu tack a piece of mirror onto the inside of the press frame if I can't see directing into the case.

[WelshShooter]

To summarise, the press now feels great to play on, whether I'm seated on my barstool or standing upright. The ergonomic roller reduces the height of the throw, but there is a bit more horizontal play - but this matters not to me. The roller handle is much better than the standing ball, as the arm slowly loosens over time despite locking the nut down with a wrench.

The case kicker is a nice feature, though there are better options out there. The Inline Fabrication case kicker has a sprung steel sheet which rides the ram, and you set it up such that it partially covers the shell holder when the ram is lowered. Therefore, to mount a case you will need to raise the ram such that the spring steel sheet clears the shell holder. This isn't a problem for short rounds such as .30carbine, .357 magnum and maybe even .223, but it becomes a bit of an issue with longer cartridges such as 7.62x53mmR or 8x57mm Mauser sicne you may have issues with clearance to the die.

The primer catcher is excellent! I also use (not pictured) a press upgrade made by Fullbore UK member 1066 (thread here https://full-bore.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=31671), which are magnetic inserts which go into the ram. The combination of these two items prevents primers flying around the bench and conveniently catches them all via the tube and plastic bag. Work with small pistol primers, small rifle primers and large rifle primers with no issues.

The bins and arm are a nice addition. There are three holes in the back for dies, so you can load the three dies ready for swapping into and out of the press. The bins make for very fast processing on the bench, I can fit maybe 40 x 6.5x47 Lapua cases in there or roughly 100 .357 magnum cases. Bigger bins can be used.

[dromia]

On my original Rockchucker I put a plastic drinking straw into the priming channel in the ram to ensure that the primers drop nicely into the catcher.