Quick-ish change press setup

[oafpatroll]

This is a cross past from Gunsite for anyone interested who doesn't go there.

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As my number of presses has grown bench space has become an issue. I previously made a quick change plate based setup for a Pro 1000 and single stage Lee press but that was triangular in shape and sized for the Lee footprints and my MEC 12G press is quite a bit longer in footprint so it didn't work on the plate.

Decided to spend the afternoon cooking up a solution as I now have 5 presses all of which I only use one at a time. Objectives were to have a rock solid mount and for the plate to enable storage of fully assembled presses on the wall in a standard bracket.

I initially toyed with the idea of making a 'shoe' style of fixture like the previous one that would have the plate engaging with c channel on three sides and then being locked in place by a single clamp on the fourth side but decided against it due to the need for precision fitting being required to make it really rigid and play free and the fact that mild steel bits wear pretty quickly regardless of how well they are fitted to begin with. A twitchy press mount does my head in so I decided to go more medieval and blacksmithy.

The plates and clamps are 5mm mild and and the presses are secured to the plates with M6 socket screws in countersinks. The clamps are secured with M8 carriage bolts hammered in from the bottom. If I feel lazy enough after a few press changes I may may replace those with bicycle axle or machine fixture style quick release cam nuts.

The combination of strap and tab clamps is to accommodate for two different lengths of plate. The 4 Lee presses all fit on the short plate but the MEC requires a longer one. Both slide under the strap which has springs under it to make clearance automatically and the tabs fit within the constraints of the operator side shapes of all three press types while exerting more than enough clamping force. I tried out the single stage press with only the strap clamp while full length resizing .270 Win brass and there was just a hint of flex so I added the tabs and it was completely eliminated.   

The clamp bolts have washers under them that were ground flat on the plate side and then drilled, countersunk and screwed to the bench top to locate the standard width plate so there is zero play side to side.

I didn't get to it today so I still need to finish off the MEC and single stage press plates and bend up and weld the wall storage brackets from some perfectly sized C channel that I have left over from a data network installation business I had. They will go on the wall and my mother in law has generously volunteered to make me waxed cotton covers for them. Will be lekker as I'll be able to mount them on the wall fully assembled and ready to go with none one the roundphuckery that comes with a forest of presses getting in the way of everything or the need to disassemble presses for storage.       

[Treeman]

looks like you also need a warehouse to home and use your equipment. I genuinely can not get another press or even a scale in my workshop - no more plans will help me. I am now having to take apart pack away and pack out to use stuff. I have no wall unused and no open space, every inch is used.

[Rumple]

Great idea with the plates.

With the kids out of the house I annexed one of their rooms and moved everything out of the garage onto a desk. Friend of mine gave me an off cut of a kitchen top and I fastened it to an old desk. I need to move the load all over to the right and add a bin and bracket for the loadmaster.

[big5ifty]

The clamping system on the plate is genius. Much more rigid than the commercial systems on offer.

Well done.

[oafpatroll]

Great idea with the plates.

With the kids out of the house I annexed one of their rooms and moved everything out of the garage onto a desk. Friend of mine gave me an off cut of a kitchen top and I fastened it to an old desk. I need to move the load all over to the right and add a bin and bracket for the loadmaster.

My daughter leaves for varsity next year and I considered taking over her study and turning it into a press and reloading gear gallery but decided against it. I like the time alone in my workshop and the amount of work required to convert the study far exceeds this plate exercise. I don't intend living here much longer and I'd need to reverse the work anyway as it wouldn't show well.

[oafpatroll]

The clamping system on the plate is genius. Much more rigid than the commercial systems on offer.

Well done.

Thanks, I'm glad I went this route as it's rigid as hell, simple and free. Every bit of it came out of stock at home and I won't even need to buy paint. I normally overcomplicate stuff so this was a nice change.

[janfred]

Looks like you've used almost a thousand words there. Some photos would not go amis. Would save you typing a few thousand more.

[oafpatroll]

Looks like you've used almost a thousand words there. Some photos would not go amis. Would save you typing a few thousand more.

What do you want to see that isn't in the two in the first post?

[janfred]

Might be difficult to believe, but I have trouble picturing in my mind what you describe.

[oafpatroll]

Might be difficult to believe, but I have trouble picturing in my mind what you describe.

I must assume you can't see the two pictures in the first post due to them being on a file share service. If that's the case you can pm me your cell number and I can WhatsApp them.

[Rumple]

Can you see these?

[DaavG]

Might be difficult to believe, but I have trouble picturing in my mind what you describe.

I must assume you can't see the two pictures in the first post due to them being on a file share service. If that's the case you can pm me your cell number and I can WhatsApp them.

I didn't realise there were photos as nothing shows up in post

[oafpatroll]

Pics are hosted on OneDrive so I assume they are being blocked by policies.

[oafpatroll]

Can you see these?

Thanks.

[janfred]

Can you see these?

Yes, thanks.