Quote Originally Posted by HoneyBadger View Post
Seems like lots of folks are building reloading benches right now! Mine is primarily for working on my guns, but has plenty of space for reloading equipment when I can afford to make that investment.


Top surface is 8ft long, 2ft deep, and 34 inches off the floor. It is 2 pieces of 3/4 inch plywood glued and screwed together, and also glued and screwed to the frame of the bench. It has 3 2x4s running the length of it for added (and probably unnecessary) strength and rigidity. In the first picture it looks a little out of square, but it's just the perspective.. It's definitely square.



Gluing the two sheets of plywood together for the top surface:

After applying the glue, I set the bench upside down on top of the top surface and ran 1 1/4" screws in from the bottom. There are no screws on the work surface, which is a nice touch I think.

It has a 4inch overhang on the front for mounting tools, vices, and reloading equipment.


I had an extra sheet of plywood left over, so I glued and screwed it to the bottom for added strength and a little extra height. The piece of plywood on the floor behind the bench needs a little trimming tomorrow so it can be glued and screwed to the top of the bottom horizontal 2x4s for a shelf. Eventually this bench will be up against a wall and that wall will have shelves and pegboard on it for organizing and hanging tools, guns, or whatever.



As it stands now, it probably weighs close to 200 lbs. I plan on loading up the bottom shelf with ammo and other heavy stuff so that the bench doesn't move when applying torque to the mounted tools, vices, and presses. I might add cross bracing later if it needs it, but this thing is really solid as is. After I add that last piece of plywood as a shelf, I'm going to take a belt sander to all the edges and round them off just a hair so that I don't get splinters or have hard edges.
Nice! But add some 2x4's in that bottom frame before you put the plywood shelf on, or it'll sag.