New Reloading Bench!

dlee12

dlee12

Hey big man, lemme hold a dollar.
2A Bourbon Hound OG
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I figured it was time. My old one was just a workbench with a particle board top, gonna make this one nice. I am neither a carpenter, nor a craftsman, so bear with me.

Made my trip to home depot, shew lumber got expensive!
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All mocked up, gonna be shelves on one side and pegboard on the other. I also doubled up 2x4’s on the front, figured that would be where most of the stress would occur.
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Looks nice, I wish I had put a raised back on mine.
I had to put pegboard across the ends of mine to give it some rigidity, with just the legs, it moved alot during press operations.
 
Nice job. I sure hope you don't have to move that monster far. When I built mine it was in two pieces the back piece on yours is a separate part the sits on the bottom piece on mine and is connected to it so it can be disassembled for moving.
 
Dang! That's a big'un! I'm only a little jealous... 🙂 Lemme know if you have any extra shop space; I'll come pick it up.

If you can put a piece of plywood across the back horizontal beam and down the legs (even just one side), it will really help stabilize the "racking" side-to-side. My first woodworking bench was a solid maple top (now my dining room table top!) on doubled 2x4 legs. It wobbled a little, then got worse over time. So I eventually stapled a scrap piece of 1/4" ply across the back and it was solid & stable for the rest of its life as a workbench.

Looking forward to pictures of your completed set up.
 
Schattenreiter said:
Nice job. I sure hope you don't have to move that monster far. When I built mine it was in two pieces the back piece on yours is a separate part the sits on the bottom piece on mine and is connected to it so it can be disassembled for moving.
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Just about 10 feet into the finished side of the basement, anymore than that and it would be about half the size
Windini said:
Dang! That's a big'un! I'm only a little jealous... 🙂 Lemme know if you have any extra shop space; I'll come pick it up.

If you can put a piece of plywood across the back horizontal beam and down the legs (even just one side), it will really help stabilize the "racking" side-to-side. My first woodworking bench was a solid maple top (now my dining room table top!) on doubled 2x4 legs. It wobbled a little, then got worse over time. So I eventually stapled a scrap piece of 1/4" ply across the back and it was solid & stable for the rest of its life as a workbench.

Looking forward to pictures of your completed set up.
Click to expand...

Come on and get it, you load it yerself! I was hoping not to have to resort to the plywood backing, that’s one of the selling points for the kreg jig and using pocket holes, super strong joints. Supplement with some wood glue and it’s damn near immovable. I can currently sit/stand on the frame with no wobble! That was my test before I decided if I needed anymore bracing.
 
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Finished up the shelving today, and decided it looked so good it needed some color. Wife picked out the stain “Gunstock”, seems appropriate. Put on a coat of polyurethane on the top and bottom surfaces. And poly’d the rest of the bench.
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Great Work. Hopefully you've got good stash of components to give that bad boy a workout.
 
Bahamadon said:
Great Work. Hopefully you've got good stash of components to give that bad boy a workout.
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Slowly but surely getting there. Mostly only ever reloaded hunting rounds, but I’m just dipping my toes into pistol.
 
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Once everything got mostly dry, i put it all into position to make sure everything still fit right. Everything is done except for trim piece to cover the cut edges of the tabletop. Gonna give it a couple days to cure, then fasten everything down.
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I'm impressed. You are both a carpenter and a craftsman. The bench seems to be quite long. Would some legs in the center be desirable?
 
powwowell said:
I'm impressed. You are both a carpenter and a craftsman. The bench seems to be quite long. Would some legs in the center be desirable?
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Thanks much! I’m pretty tickled with how it came out. It’s right at 8ft long. So far, no flex anywhere in it, I can sit my 300 lb butt in the middle with no issue. The doubled up 2x4s seem to help quite a bit. I may add a center support at some point, but right now it doesn’t look to be necessary.
 
Finally got to put it to use the other night. still getting everything organized. Figured the best way to find out where I needed everything was to load a few.

Loaded some 9mm on a Lee single stage. No, I’m not loading hundreds of rounds an hour, but enjoying the process.
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Good job, that's a fine-looking reloading bench!
 
Tailhunter said:
Thats cheap. I’d have figured a lot more.
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Just plain pine 2x4’s for the most of it. The most expensive part was the finish sanded 3/4 plywood for the top.
 
Looks good. I quickly threw a bench together when I first got my press but I want to make some tweaks and redo most of it.
 
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