I've read a few posts in the past, and I have a workbench for my guns. So I put together a list of wants for my reloading bench.

72x36 was my size limit. I had ordered one online, but the benchtop and the legs were never delivered and the company kicked its delivery date out to march 30th. I revised my plan.

I picked up some workbench legs off amazon, some adjustable feet (due here the 12th), and bought some wood from home depot. I ordered some hardware from grainger to mount the benchtop to the legs. What I will end up with is 72 long by 39 wide, by 3 inches thick top. With a metal surround, a shelf with power strips, and a light.

Some photos of what I picked up and the progress made.
Two 23/32 pieces of plywood to be cut down to 72x39, and one 1.5" thick 72x39 birch butcher block.




Testing to see how I want the amazon leg placement to go. Don't mind the paint colors, we are about to repaint the downstairs.



Squaring up the legs with a brace and a piece of steel to mount on the first piece of sized plywood. My Springer is at the door hoping I will go out and toss her frisbee.
So the legs will be attached to that piece of 3/4 by 1/2 by 13 flat head bolts.






Not shown here as my phone died. Is the top butcher block attached to the first piece of 3/4 ply. I squared it up, and clamped it down. I pre-drilled and countersunk my holes in the ply to attach the two together.
This is the bottom of the butcher block.


I removed the butcher block and its mated 3/4 and predrilled the bottom 3/4 to line up with the second sheet.



The plan for today is to take the sheets back apart. Mount the middle section of 3/4 ply to the top, and then mount it to the leg section. From there I can mock up the installation of the side rails, shelf, power rail, and light. Once that is done, I have to clean my office to get the dam thing to fit in here. Once the office is clean, I will disassemble it all, bring it in and reassemble it. There is no way it will make it through the door, so it has to come into the room in parts.

During reassembly, the bottom of the butcher block will be glued to its mated section of plywood. The screws in the ply will hold it together tightly. when it is dry, the leg section of ply, and bottom of the butcher will be glued together using their screws to pull everything tight.

When all the parts are dry, I can mount the sides, shelf, and light. From there it is a matter of figuring out how I want to design the lower shelf system.

*************edit**************
I mocked up the upper portion of the bench today. I have a lot of finish work to do, but it is ready for me to clean my office tomorrow and move in here Saturday or Sunday.

How the legs are mounted. The 2/3 inch bolts hold the bottom 3/4 ply to the legs. the torx screws hold the middle ply to the bottom. (mostly there to keep things as square as possible while I get everything screwed together.


Here it is with the tops on and a couple of screws holding it in place.



I was able to mount the shelf and the light along with the side fairings. They are held in place. I don't want to drill the final holes until I have the whole thing glued together.

With the light on



And finally, the test fit with all the shit off of it for now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DSgrouse,

Nice! How sturdy is it? I have a Global Industrial table that I've been thinking about reinforcing because it wobbles around a little less than an alcoholic after the bars close. The press I use the most is mounted on one of the short sides, and it loads the legs in a way that I would have figured the table was designed to be loaded from looking at the design.

These legs are from amazon, the top is grom global. It is not super stable as of yer. I have some leveling feet coming that should solve my problem

I answered via my phone and didn't have the mental capacity pre coffee. So here we go.

I am putting some foot master feet on it to help me level the workbench for my office floor.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Fu...ter/N-5yc1vZc29fZedm

So far it is pretty stable, but the weight is up top. I plan on adding two shelves on the bottom. So today I need to pick up the third sheet of 23/32 ply for the bottom shelf. I will nestle it in a couple of pieces of angle iron that I bolt to the cross members of the legs.

That should add quite a bit of lower lateral stiffness. On this shelf I will put my lead and brass. It should give me enough weight to shift the center of gravity.

I will add possibly two more half depth shelves under it where I can store my 4 and 1lb tubs of powder. They will be pretty easy to put up with some 2x4's

A lot more weight will be up top if you've got more than a couple of reloaders.

I had to put 100 pounds of linotype on the bottom shelf of mine to make it more stable.

That is a good point. Right now I don't have much gear. I will likely need to add weight to stabilize it. Hmm, bulk linotype or bulk lead bullets.

That is approaching almost too pretty - I'd love to pull my handle and not feel any movement.

Nice Job - Bet it was fun to pull out a few tools and work in a nice warm basement.

I don't have a shop, that is the living room.

That's a good looking bench, sir!

Nice pup!!!
.

Test fitting of the bottom shelves.





So now it is time to take it all apart, clean my office. I am going to reassemble the bench in my office, gluing the three pieces of top wood together and holding it together while the glue dries.

Very nice work. That'll serve you well.

Time to put it into my office. I had to move my other workbench around, but the space is ready. The butcher block and its piece of 23/32nd sheet of plywood. Because of a possible home renovation, I opted not to glue it right now. Figuring that the shit ton of screws will be enough to screw it together.



Screwing the bottom sheet of 23/32nd to the middle sheet with a sheet ton of screws.




The sides back and shelf with power and light put on.



Lower shelf put in place along with the rear stop for the upper shelf. Oh and fed ex is now 3 days late with my MF'n feet, hence the sliders under them.



The bench is in place with the lower shelf in.



My messy office, tomorrow will be a long day of clean up and sorting.


First coats of mineral oil on the workbench, I have about half a bottle left. Once this soaks in, I will put some paste wax over it.

Did that sheet metal shelf come with the feet? I've got the GI legs so I don't need those, but I'd happily use the snot out of that top shelf, and I don't want to (try to) fabricate something.

The shelf, the light and the side skirts are all GI.

I'll Link you to the sizes I bought, but they come in almost every size GI makes workbenches in.

The powered riser/shelf
https://www.globalindustrial.c...w-power-riser?ref=10

The side skirts, and if you have a big shelf like mine, they are well worth the money. You can hang the little blue trays you see in the photos on the lip
https://www.globalindustrial.c...stops-72-x-36?ref=10

The light is also from them and it is meant to be hung from bars that go over the workbench. I mounted it to the shelf with a couple of bolts and two L brackets.

https://www.globalindustrial.c...t-6-foot-cord?ref=10

Here is the bench with 4 coats of minner oil/beeswax and the first coat of paste wax.






It is coming along well. I am waiting for the fricken leveling feet before I wrap this workbench up. I have a shit ton of stuff to go in it and on it. Right now I would say it weighs close to 500lbs. I am pretty sure I can get the leveling feet on, I'm fucked if I can't. LOL

Good looking bench! Making me want to redo mine and change it up a bit since i started reloading ive learned what i want and where i want it.

The leveling feet arrived. Now all i have to do is clean up the massive mess I have made doing this project



I had thought that these feet would be static and locked to move in one direction only. They are not, you can tap them around to any direction you want them to move. Leveling them was a snap. Lifting the 500lb workbench not so much.






What they look like. Total overall height is 42 inches up to the deck. Just where I wanted it. as for the feet, they are rated for 1600lbs aside. I am not sure the legs of the workbench are rated that, but, it seems to work for now. Since GI, kept bumping my order, I had to make the call to go a different route than their bench legs.

I am getting it all together, though my other workbench is suffering from it.

Very nice bench. The suggestion I have is to put pegboard on the back wall to hang stuff.

Made enough space for me to sit at the CPU along with cleaning off my firearms workbench.