Bench suggestions

[15meter]

I tried both habitat restores in town this afternoon. They have turn into almost boutiques! Both had whole kitchens including granite islands marked at $10,999. Cheapest desk at either was $125 and the glue sawdust material.

That's a quite a change. The one here is still pretty basic and cheap.

[ulav8r]

I have looked at the Harbor Freight work bench in the store. It was broken and the top was only about 5/8" thick. For reloading it would definitely need reinforcement.

My first reloading bench was made with a 2x4 frame covered with some type of fiber board sheet goods. The top was/is 2 layers of 1/2 in plywood glued and screwed together, then covered with 1/4 inch masonite for a smooth surface. It is still solid, but I have a 25"x8' butcher block countertop that will be my next reloading bench. It came from Dirt Cheap about 1 month ago for $180.

[Minerat]

This is a little more spendy than your suggestion, but it is what I use for my loading bench.

Attachment 310663

https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Class...2-8997e41410bb

I've got 2 Dillon 650's, a Dillon 550 and a Lee APP mounted on it. It has worked great for me. I mounted shelves above it and it is a very flexible arrangement.

I bought mine at Sam's Club for substantially less than what they are asking for it on Amazon.

I have 2 of these. Got them a Sams Club. They show them on their web page with black legs or grey for $239+.

[SoonerEd]

This is a little more spendy than your suggestion, but it is what I use for my loading bench.

Attachment 310663

https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Class...2-8997e41410bb

I've got 2 Dillon 650's, a Dillon 550 and a Lee APP mounted on it. It has worked great for me. I mounted shelves above it and it is a very flexible arrangement.

I bought mine at Sam's Club for substantially less than what they are asking for it on Amazon.

This is what I use...bought mine at Sam's. It's heavy which is good. The rollout carts fit underneath if you need storage and you can pull them out if you need clearance

[Bored1]

I may have found the harbor frieght table on Facebook out of nowhere brand new in the box popped up last night. Hopefully I will be picking it up this morning. If not will probably go with the one from Sam's.

Now to decide how to attach my press. Inline quick change mounts are nice, but a bit pricey. May try the lee steel plates.

There I go getting ahead of myself. Let's see what happens with the table and assembly first! Thanks for the suggestions!!! Avoided some bad trial and error with the info shared!

[Sasquatch-1]

If your latest lead does not work out, try "govdeals.com". Their search engine allows you to enter your zip code and see what's near you. They will have everything from books to heavy equipment listed. They even have airplanes and yachts from time to time.

[MrWolf]

I may have found the harbor frieght table on Facebook out of nowhere brand new in the box popped up last night. Hopefully I will be picking it up this morning. If not will probably go with the one from Sam's.

Now to decide how to attach my press. Inline quick change mounts are nice, but a bit pricey. May try the lee steel plates.

There I go getting ahead of myself. Let's see what happens with the table and assembly first! Thanks for the suggestions!!! Avoided some bad trial and error with the info shared!

The quick changes are nice, they are what I went with. Saves room and the bench top becomes a lot smaller real quick.

[lightman]

If your lead on the Harbor Freight table falls through look up a company called Uline. They make equipment for warehouses, office and industry. Good stuff but a little expensive. I bought a lot of stuff from them last year when we moved into the new house.

[Kenstone]

I may have found the harbor frieght table on Facebook out of nowhere brand new in the box popped up last night. Hopefully I will be picking it up this morning. If not will probably go with the one from Sam's.

Now to decide how to attach my press. Inline quick change mounts are nice, but a bit pricey. May try the lee steel plates.

There I go getting ahead of myself. Let's see what happens with the table and assembly first! Thanks for the suggestions!!! Avoided some bad trial and error with the info shared!

I have a HF bench in my garage, not for loading though.
I found the screws supplied for assembly too small/weak, so I used better "construction" screws.
The HF benches sold today are a different/better design/better drawer runners, etc.

Some have assembled 2 of the drawers together by not putting the top-drawer bottom in, creating one deep drawer that I believe can be used for 1-pound containers of powder.
I also added a support under the center of the bottom shelf (front to back) to keep the front/back rails from spreading.
A pic of the HF bench behind another bench I was building.

Here's the thing that makes any bench rock solid:

A simple angle bracket, bench top to wall stud, but if you want to do it the reloader way:

You have to OVER build it with 3 or 4 BIG brackets!

[hporter]

Now to decide how to attach my press. Inline quick change mounts are nice, but a bit pricey. May try the lee steel plates.

I started with the Lee, it works much better with the steel plates than the wood. But the Inline quick change riser and plate system is so much better it is not even funny.

When I sold one of my Dillon 550's a couple of years ago, I put in it's place an Inline quick change riser. Now I can quickly swap between my Lee App, both of my Star Lube sizers, my Wilson case trimmer, and a few single stage presses I use. Oh, and a RCBS bench primer too.

It is a fantastic way to maximize the functionality of a small workspace.

[alamogunr]

I built my bench from plans published many years ago by the National Reloading Manufacturers Asso. I think that is right. I modified the plans in several details. Instead of 4X4's for legs, I cut 3/4 plywood to the height I wanted and glued 2 thicknesses together for each end. For braces I used 2X4's under the top and for a shelf brace. 2X4's were used as intermediate braces under the top and shelf.
The top was 2 pieces of a special particle board used in large transformers(humongous things) as both insulation and structural strength. This material was over 2" thick. Each of the 2 pieces weighed about 175 lbs making the top weigh approx. 350.

After a couple of years use, I needed to lift each end to be able to store some boxes on the floor under the bottom shelf. I used a bottle jack to lift the ends one at a time to slip the 1½" spacers under the legs. I'm sure by this time the whole bench loaded weighed nearly 500 lbs.

Not sure what the sons will do with it after I'm gone. It can be disassembled since I screwed it together with lag bolts.

[Polymath]

If I build another bench I am going to put a board all around my base to prevent cases, bullets and primers from rolling under it. The old knees can't handle getting down on all fours to dig something out of there.

[Baltimoreed]

You can never overbuild a reloading bench. Mine started as a 2x4 frame 3/8 inch lag bolted to my wall studs. The feet are diagonal 2x4 that are also lag bolted to studs and carriage bolted to the frame. The bench is corner cubicle and straight office desks. To make a flat top I used plow bolts. These are short bolts with a flat head and a square part that acts as a carriage bolt. I used a nut extension and another bolt underneath. Pictures tomorrow.

[Bored1]

The facebook lead paid off!!! Still new in the box. Had to wait on the person and a 40 min drive but oh well. Hoping to get it built tomorrow. We will see how this works! I did pick up some gorilla glue wood glue and some 2 inch braces to attach to the wall. Wife said go ahead, just remember you'll have to patch that later....

For shelves above the bench, if you had to do it again how would you go about it? Hutch style bench top shelves? Track mount shelves?

[ulav8r]

Track mount would be good. Keep the shelves separate from the bench. That allows you to mount a scale on a lower shelf at eye level and not have vibrations from the bench affect the scale.

[Sasquatch-1]

Wife said go ahead, just remember you'll have to patch that later....

Patching the wall is easy if it's drywall. It's matching the paint that's hard.

[country gent]

Another one to look for is one of the old metal desks. Solid and stable dosnt need bolted to the wall and has 5 drawers usually. Youwill want to stiffen the top with a piece of plywood.

I did one fora buddy did away with the legs setting on 2 2 x 6 boxes, and adding a piece of 1" plywood to the top. This I covered with aluminum flashing. I epoxied the flashing to the ply wood after the plywood was glued and screwed into place.

Another route with the top is to level it as close as possible, put 4-5 wraps of masking tape around the edges leaving it 1/8" proud. There are now self leveling epoxies that can be left clear or colored. Mix up what you need and pour onto bench top letting it level out. Play a heat gun or blow drier over the surface to help thin and level, this will also work out any air bubbles. When cured out you have a very nice surface easy to clean and very smooth. Very tough and resistant. Notes can be made with a wax pencil and removed when done

[Kenstone]

The facebook lead paid off!!! Still new in the box. Had to wait on the person and a 40 min drive but oh well. Hoping to get it built tomorrow. We will see how this works! I did pick up some gorilla glue wood glue and some 2 inch braces to attach to the wall. Wife said go ahead, just remember you'll have to patch that later....

For shelves above the bench, if you had to do it again how would you go about it? Hutch style bench top shelves? Track mount shelves?

A problem you may have is the HF bench legs hitting the baseboard before the bench top touches the wall.
You might need to mount a "back splash/back stop" board on the bench or wall to fill that gap.
Or cut off the feet of the bench that are contacting the base board, like this:

I quick measurement will tell you if cutting the legs will allow the top to touch the wall.
Good luck on the bench assembly,
jmo,

.

[38-72]

I bought a used steel case desk, the heavy-duty style with roller drawers. The drawer came in real handy. You can get them off of Craigslist, thrift stores, etc. I put thick plywood on top and then some laminate on top of the plywood. I used a light-colored laminate. Have used it for years with no problems.

[Shawlerbrook]

Ditto on the old metal desks. Built like a tank and with most offices going modular they are usually easily found and cheap. Just add a plywood top .