Reloading press repair

Good bastards @Tommy and @Glycerine gave me a collection of reloading gear, including a Lee press.

As I was mounting it to the bench, I noticed one corner of the base was broken off, right through one of the three mounting holes. I mounted it anyway, and had a go at depriming/sizing a few cases, and the press was flaccid as. This would not do.

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I hatched a plan to repair the damage and reinforce the base using materials I had on hand (helps to have a decent set of facilities at work too).

I wish I took more photos of the process, but in short, I used Devcon (aluminium filled epoxy) to glue the broken corner back on, then once that had cured, used more Devcon to bond the press to a piece of 8mm Aluminium diamond plate, with countersunk bolts up through the existing mounting holes in the press.

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All that's left to do is drill new mounting holes in the corners of the diamond plate and mount the thing. Should be sturdy as.

That devcon makes an excelent bedding compound as well.

sweet, you'll be churning out ammunition in no time,
got another sack of 223 brass collecting for you aswell, forgot about it when you dropped off the scope mount.

Bloody clever mate - well done! :yaeh am not durnk:

Awesome fix not throw it away :thumbsup:

Nice one, that's a good solution as that die cast metal would be problematic to fix any other way.

Kj

Mounted. Solid as. Time to get cracking.

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are you done sizing/depriming all that brass yet? :)
should have a few rounds made by now?

Done depriming/sizing. Tumbler not quite ready yet, then there's projectiles, printed and powder to buy yet. Got enough factory ammo to see 2016 out.

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Devon was probably worth more than the press to buy new. I see someone broke one of the links for you too. ;)

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Originally Posted by kiwijames

Devon was probably worth more than the press to buy new.

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Didn't have to pay for either, so not complaining. :)

I think I may have shares in that press, ... can I drop off some components and receive some ammo? :)


Looks bloody good and solid. Neat repair and set up.

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Originally Posted by Beaker

I think I may have shares in that press, ... can I drop off some components and receive some ammo? :)


Looks bloody good and solid. Neat repair and set up.

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You're brave! Are you volunteering to be Guinea-pig? I haven't made a single round yet.

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Originally Posted by stretch

Done depriming/sizing. Tumbler not quite ready yet, then there's projectiles, printed and powder to buy yet. Got enough factory ammo to see 2016 out.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk

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dont forget to remove the primer crimp on the ADI and some of the mixed lot are crimped too.

what powder are you planing on using?

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Originally Posted by Glycerine

dont forget to remove the primer crimp on the ADI and some of the mixed lot are crimped too.

what powder are you planing on using?

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No idea what powder yet - as a reloading newbie, I'm open to suggestions. Yep, noticed the crimps on the ADI and the Geco too.

Looks really good , nice that you angeled it 45 , in the pic it looks as if the steel side plate is a little high , you may catch your hand on it , the RH side ?

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Originally Posted by ChrisF

Looks really good , nice that you angeled it 45 , in the pic it looks as if the steel side plate is a little high , you may catch your hand on it , the RH side ?

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Angled at 45 because the handle is 45 to the press body, so handle is now perpendicular to edge of bench.

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Side plate DOES sit high, because of the blending I did with the Devcon between the base and the side. Will take 5mm off the plate.

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Thats just there to catch spent primers, otherwise it serves no purpose. I replaced mine with a bit cut from an icecream tub lid