The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I started of with a black and decker work mate with a Lee turret press bolted onto it. I used to set it up in the back kitchen then shove it under the stairs when I was not using it.

Have been using a cheap screwfix folding workbench for the past 18 months. Bit of offcut board screwed to it firms it up.

Have bolt holes drilled for my Lee 1000, MEC 600jr and Redding T-25 presses and have used them all on there with no issues, aside from the Lee Collet Die for .308 that I was having to put huge amounts of force into. However, that may have been an issue with the Redding's design/leverage. Sold that and bought an RCBS neck size die and no more issues.

Press, case block, case box and bullet box on the workbench, scales on the worktop and it seems to work.

HALODIN wrote:Out of interest, why haven't you got room for a desk somewhere?

Pesty wrote:Ideal. I'll try for something like that

Just realised I gave away some marble kitchen top off cuts that would have been perfect.

Because I'm not Donald trump or any other number of people with huge houses and a spare reloading wing.

Anyway I do have a room for a desk ( all mentioned in my first question) it's got a desk in it. It's quite a nice and expensive desk that I don't want to drill holes in. It fills the room so no place else to put anything else.

The folding woodwork work bench sounds practical as does mounting it on a pice of wood and g clamping it to the desk. I'm sure I'll work something out with the ideas from above, .

I haven't read through all the posts. Anyone mentioned a good case cleaning tumbler? I am a wet tumbler now.

Case cleaning can be a difficult one, the media tumblers such as the Lyman 1200 I still have to this day are noisy and take ages to clean cases. I would leave brass in for 12 hours and it would still come out with marks around the neck and I have used worn out kitchen Scotchbrite pads to remove heavy tarnishing on more than one occasion. Media tumblers are around GBP65-80

I experimented with Ultrasonic cleaners however the bottom end of the range offering I used did not seem to fully do the job and I had to keep restarting it every 8 minutes. Ultrasonic cleaners start at GBP30

Stainless steel media wet tumblers such as the Thumbler do work however they seem to self destruct with time and fitting/removing the lid is time consuming and get it wrong and you get leaks. I know these types are very popular and the Rebel seems to get good reviews from the people who own and sell them however you are now pushing GBP275-300

Finally there is the LEM Electromagnetic type cleaner and I currently use one of these mostly because time is short for me and I just want to clean cases with the minimum of hassle. Mine sits on the work surface by the sink in the workshop and is easy to load with brass and fill/empty of water, I can even lift the lid off and grab a handful of cases to see how they are looking whilst it is operating. Cost is around GBP365

There are other workable alternatives including stick your brass in a sock and bung it it in the washing machine and an wide mesh container in the dishwasher is always worth a try and can give very reasonable results for small amounts of brass.

I even know someone who has used our polishing stations in the past to clean and polish brass although this only does the outside and it needs a good wipe over with acetone afterwards.

Cheapest solutions are going to be a work our scouring pad and a dishwasher.

I used to use a pillowcase in the washing machine for years. Never got them shiny though and there was a white residue around the primer pockets. Probably should have rinsed them a few more times.But who needs shiny brass, clean is good enough.

Like you I've tried all those methods except the electromagnetic, sounds interesting but expensive.

I have a cheapo stone tumble for the steel media wet method that I picked up for £20 and it works fine but you cant do more than abut 70 cases at a time. Initially with wet methods I worried about chemical reactions stripping the brass if you used acidic additives but all seems well.

Mind you a brasso polished case can look pretty.

Did you use any conditioner with the pillowcase in the washing machine? - no, sorry , only teasing...

I have been using my Wamadet for the past 36 years without drama, but then I only load small numbers of several calibres. I find with rifle cartridges that I have to weigh each charge by hand as the rifle loadings (25.0 up to 43.0 grains of Viht N140) do not meter well through my old RCBS measure, bought for pistol calibres of course.

HB

How about a hand press, really convenient, great for depriming at leisure …

A steady hand.

How do people go about reloading multiple calibres? I am going to be reloading .44 mag and probably .357 mag too, but long term I would also like to get into longer range stuff and will want to reload .223 and .308. Is there a way I can buy one set-up now that with some basic readjusting and new dies will work for the rifle calibres too?