Minimum depth for bench

[uffduh]

Wife’s away this week so what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. What’s the minimum depth for a reloading bench? I have 48-60 inches width for the bench in a walk in closet off my den. I can move things around to accommodate my derrière depending on whether I need 18, 24 or 30” deep. We’re economizing here, not building a luxury post in sirhr’s barn. I’m in Houston so would prefer to not use the garage and the wife’s Pilates studio isn’t and option...yet!

This would be for a single stage press and space for associated stuff. Any messy bits like trimming and annealing, I’d presume to do in the garage.

If the answer is to just do it all out back and store powder/primers inside then that’s cool too (well, not in summer!)

 

[CJS-6.5]

I have 30 inch depth, but I think 24 would be just fine. You can also radius out a working area to gain moving room. 18 gets pretty small and I could see stuff falling off.

 

[CJS-6.5]

Some pics from when I was building it. I have put anti fatigue matting on the floor now.

 

[CJS-6.5]

A separate bench for scope mounting and such.

 

[12Bravo]

Given the width you stated, an 18" depth would work fine. I used an 18" deep bench for several years with no problems. I built a 30" deep reloading bench ( including the depth of shelves) a couple of years ago so I could also use it as a workbench.

 

[uffduh]

Many thanks, will do a mock-up tomorrow.