Reloading bench - a construction guide.

Hi everyone. As we've all found on more than one occasion, space is an issue, especially for the reloader and shooter with all the crap we acquire, use, and store. Usually, we don't have enough space, unlike some lucky buggers!

I was sick of all my hobbies condensed inside one room in the house, so I decided to tackle the task of building a workshop setup, something I haven't had the luxury of having for a few years now. The goal behind it was to have all my reloading and shooting stuff in one convenient spot, keeping it clean and tidy (ha!) and centralised. On the way some other gear will get stored there too, namely tools and some camping gear.

First things first - where am I going to put this thing? The garage was selected. Trust me - this is the clean side.



That table is going across the garage to be semi-useful over there, but that space there adjacent to the beer fridge and other important things is where the bench is going. Once the table is gone and some stuff is shuffled, and I put in a 910 wide shelf in, I'll have 1700 left over for the bench top. 1700 it is!

You can't build a bench without timber though.



First thing there is some 12mm plywood for the top. I had a 2400x1200 sheet ripped down to three sections - two 1700x600 and one 1200x700. The two identical sheets will form the bench top and lower shelf, while the other piece will form a storage section.



The frame itself will be made of 70x35 structural pine. I've had 4 1700 lengths cut, and enough other bits to build a rectangular frame. I also had 6 legs 1000mm long cut from 90x35 structural pine. These materials should be plenty strong enough, and cheap, too.



Huh, strange... I don't remember that being there when I took the photo. Oh well.

Total cost of the timber, liquid nails (which I didn't end up using), screws and a new phillips no. 2 bit was just under $100.



Some old 30mm screws I've had for ages as well as some 65mm wood screws are the fixings for this particular setup. I ended up using another packet of the long screws.



The basic frame. There will also be a cross support in the middle there, I just can't do it yet because it would be in the way of the legs.



Again, the bench will be 600 wide. The long sections are 1700 long, and the timber is 35mm thick, so the end pieces will need to be 530. Some predrilled holes, and some 65mm screws, and presto. Frames! A bit of weight can stop any warping that may be present from the timber.



I didn't really document this stage enough, but in this photo the top has been screwed down after predrilling holes and whacking some of those 30mm screws in. Leg holes were then predrilled, and using 4 of the 65mm screws the legs affixed. I basically jammed them in tight, drilled, and screwed.





In this photo the cross support underneath has been screwed in. It's just a piece of 70x35 to provide a marginal amount of bracing.

The bottom frame has been screwed on - I had a bit of help for this as you can see, but I chocked the frame the right height off the ground (70mm, because I had 4 offcuts that size and I can store timber underneath it then. It's also a good footrest height off a tall stool.). The frame was then predrilled and screwed in to the legs, again with 4 screws each.

Wait... that wasn't in the second photo when I took it either... how strange.



The next stage is to put the bottom level in. This was accomplished by measuring where the legs are on the bottom shelf, cutting out where the legs will be, slipping it in and screwing it down with 30mm screws. To prevent serious warping, use enough screws.

To cut out the middle legs, as I don't have a jigsaw, I drilled some large holes in the 'middle' of where I was cutting out, and used my Leatherman's saw to get those tricky bits removed.

The final stage is to put the backboard on. Some clamps to hold it in place, a good predrill, some screws and she is ready.



Huh. Strange.



Once that is done, I attached the backboard to the wall with some synthetic screw anchors and some 30mm screws in some preexisting holes. I attached an old set of shelves, screwed some anchor blocks from offcuts to get my fluoro off the backboard (for the cable), attached it, and then filled it up with my stuff!



Huh... those out of focus shots sure do whack some strange optical illusions in.

Hope you liked that brief runthrough, and it has inspired you to get to it! The customisation is limitless - for instance I've screwed some bays in the back left corner for cleaning rods, and I am tempted to enclose the lower shelf.

Happy shooting!