Swaging has been out of commission

Been out of swaging biz for a while. I have an old steel drawer office desk that i use for a reloading swaging bench. It did fine for reloading and for most swaging. I have some lead that is a little harder than pure. (dont know how hard i didnt test it but it does swage) well I was swaging away and all of a sudden my desk top broke..... well not completely off but weakened enough that I was out of business for a while. Well I am down here at the farm and I thought I had some scrap steel that I would sandwich the desktop with steel and then mount my Walnut Hill press on that. Well I looked around and all I had was some 3/4 plate and I really didn't want to fire up my torch to cut it off so I got to looking around and I found some Rough sawn 1x6 Oak boards I got one and sawed it in two dug through my bolt drawer and found a bunch of 5/16 Carriage bolts nuts and washers. I do believe that If that press breaks that oak I may as well quit ... What say you?

Just to be safe sell me your press for pennies on the dollar

1 x 6 rough sawn oak should be there for a while. Especially if it has seasoned for a year or five. It's bound to be better than what they make those desktops out of.
If that gives up, use the 3/4 plate and your worries will be over LOL!

Reload3006 wrote:...I found some Rough sawn 1x6 Oak boards I got one and sawed it in two dug through my bolt drawer and found a bunch of 5/16 Carriage bolts nuts and washers. I do believe that If that press breaks that oak I may as well quit ... What say you?

Sounds great! Post some pix.

I use a 2x8 mounted to the wall and suspended between 2 old kitchen cabinets. It works great. If nothing else get some 3/4" plywood. That, along with the original top should be more then sturdy enough unless you're swaging pure copper. I would use some large washers to prevent the possibility of the bolts pulling through.

Sasquatch-1 wrote:I use a 2x8 mounted to the wall and suspended between 2 old kitchen cabinets.....

I would love to see pix of that.

EdgarEg wrote:

Sasquatch-1 wrote:I use a 2x8 mounted to the wall and suspended between 2 old kitchen cabinets.....

I would love to see pix of that.

I will have to take some pictures. may take a day or two to get them posted. Mind you when you see the pictures, I am a slob at heart.

It was really simple, I just screwed som 2x4 stock to the studs in the wall then screwed the 2x10 into those. I also ran a 2x4 from the shelf to the floor for extra support when using a lot of pressure.

I will have to get brave enough to clean up my Pig sty before I take any pics. Got the oak bolted down didnt go exactly as I had planned because the thickness of the Oak and desk top interfered with the toggle on the press So I had to take the bottom sandwich off. That Oak is amazingly strong it still flexes too much for my taste but I did get a lot of cores swaged and seated in some 45acp Im making. pointed up a dozen good looking bullets. But I'm back in biz anyway at least for now.

Here is the picture of my messy reloading area. Don't ask how I get anything done.