This is a question for those of you with multiple presses mounted on your bench... specifically progressives, or a mix of single stage and progressives.
What do you find is the optimal layout as far as a) spacing side to side, so that the 'footprint' of one press doesn't interfere with the operation of an adjacent press, and b) depth of the bench, front to back?
In the past I've always had a looooong open counter, about 24-30" deep. In large part, that was to accommodate being able to spread out case trays, etc. for prep, sorting, that kind of thing. So far, in my experience, the excess space behind the press ends up either being some what wasted, or accumulating junk.
Given that my reloading area is now co-located in the corner of my (woodworking) garage shop, I'm looking at building a dedicated, enclosed, reloading bench / closet just for the presses, with doors that can be closed to keep the dust out/off, and with storage below and above, possibly with a dedicated shelf (fixed to the wall studs) for the powder scale & trickler (FX-120i + AutoThrower + AutoTrickler). Presses would be a Forster Co-Ax, Dillon RL550B, and (hopefully) a Dillon XL750 w/ case feeder.
I'll still have a general purpose open bench area that can be used for sorting and prep work, so in theory, the bench area doesn't need to be as deep.
I've seen some of the bench designs with the t-track inletted into the bench top... which would allow the presses to be moved side-to-side as needs dictate... but I have some reservations about how well that setup would hold up over time, as the size of screws typically used to hold the track down typically aren't very big. Though I suppose one could epoxy them into the bench top as well - kind of a 'glue-n-screw' arrangement
Anywho, I'm curious as to what those of you with multiple presses think as far as what is a comfortable spacing & depth for your presses. What you have now, vs. if you had to start over from scratch...
What do you find is the optimal layout as far as a) spacing side to side, so that the 'footprint' of one press doesn't interfere with the operation of an adjacent press, and b) depth of the bench, front to back?
In the past I've always had a looooong open counter, about 24-30" deep. In large part, that was to accommodate being able to spread out case trays, etc. for prep, sorting, that kind of thing. So far, in my experience, the excess space behind the press ends up either being some what wasted, or accumulating junk.
Given that my reloading area is now co-located in the corner of my (woodworking) garage shop, I'm looking at building a dedicated, enclosed, reloading bench / closet just for the presses, with doors that can be closed to keep the dust out/off, and with storage below and above, possibly with a dedicated shelf (fixed to the wall studs) for the powder scale & trickler (FX-120i + AutoThrower + AutoTrickler). Presses would be a Forster Co-Ax, Dillon RL550B, and (hopefully) a Dillon XL750 w/ case feeder.
I'll still have a general purpose open bench area that can be used for sorting and prep work, so in theory, the bench area doesn't need to be as deep.
I've seen some of the bench designs with the t-track inletted into the bench top... which would allow the presses to be moved side-to-side as needs dictate... but I have some reservations about how well that setup would hold up over time, as the size of screws typically used to hold the track down typically aren't very big. Though I suppose one could epoxy them into the bench top as well - kind of a 'glue-n-screw' arrangement
Anywho, I'm curious as to what those of you with multiple presses think as far as what is a comfortable spacing & depth for your presses. What you have now, vs. if you had to start over from scratch...
