Hey, I built something: Reloading bench from construction lumber...

[Terry Hatfield]

Hello all! After slumming for a while and not really building anything of any significance, I had need for a reloading bench. I have taken up competitive shooting and making one's own ammo is a requirement. Also very nice of Cheryl to allow me to over take a spare bedroom for such things so I set out to design and build a simple but solid bench to accomplish the task. I have a fair stash of wood but I really did not want to use it for this purpose nor did I want to spend the funds to buy nice hardwood so I endeavored to do it with construction 2x's from my local Lowes along with some pine cabinet grade ply, Melamine sheets and baltic birch ply.

As usual I really don't make formal plans but work from my own hand scrawled drawings and modify on the fly as necessary. lol... Hey, it works for me. The bench is far from fine woodworking but it will do what I want with a bit of style. Hopefully. The base will have drawers on one side and a bin to hold several Harbor Freight plastic storage boxes on the other. The upper hutch is a plain and straightforward assembly from 3/4" ply edge banded with pine and backed with 1/4" almond melamine in a rabbit. The top is 3/4" almond melamine backed with 2 layers of 3/4" mdf and edge banded with more milled 2x lumber.













I've used 2x's before so I planned ahead for waste during the milling process so I bought larger sizes than it seems would be necessary but actually are. I got 2x6's for the legs. Jointed and planed them before gluing up the blanks for the 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" legs.





Remaining parts and pieces of the base were also jointed, planed and cut to rough size from 2x's.



From the "I have already learned this lesson" file comes this pic. Stack and weight to reduce the tendency of these boards to have a mind of their own until I can resume work on the project.



100 years ago when I began woodworking I spaced everything in my shop to enable me to handle sheet goods by myself. Very handy when we are talking full sheets of 3/4" mdf.





Also get to cheat the cross cuts with my Exaktor sliding table.



Back to the legs after the glue is set for some more milling, jointing and planing...




More to come...

[Terry Hatfield]

On to the top next. The various layers are glued and screwed together and then flush routed to size.





And the edge banding glue up...



Milling work on the end panels is next. Stopped dadoes in the legs with regular dadoes on the rails. These will accept a melamine end panel.



The lower rails were cut on the band saw and smoothed and then the glue ups were done.



Initial assembly/fitting of the base is a project for the pocket hole jig.



I kinda like it.



More to come again...

[Terry Hatfield]

And with the top...





I debated about putting T track in the top for the various things I have to mount but decided that I would opt for screw on tee nuts on the bottom of the top instead. I started by making bases from edge banded melamine for the vise, press etc...





I drilled the appropriate holes and mounted the tee nuts.



I made up the hand screws from knobs and stainless all thread that I cut to length.



Worked out well. Easy on and off and super solid.



To prevent whatever from falling into/thru the holes, I countersunk the holes and used stainless bolts to plug the holes. These bolts are short and just sitting in the holes. Didn't see any advantage to actually screwing them to the tee nuts.



On to the HF plastic box bin. Super simple again. 3/4" pine ply with dadoes for the 1/2" BB runners and rabbits to hold the box together. All edge banded again with more pieces of pine.







To be continued...

[Travis Bochenek]

I have to say, from your opening paragraph I wasn't expecting much but man....That looks good!

[Terry Hatfield]

I have to say, from your opening paragraph I wasn't expecting much but man....That looks good!

Thanks Travis! Not expecting too much from my projects is a probably good plan.

[Terry Hatfield]

On to the drawer cabinet...

The box itself is more 3/4" pine ply with rabbit construction. I bought 100 lb full extension slides. I cut some spacer blocks to simplify the drawer slide installation. I installed them before gluing the box together to further simplify.





The drawers themselves are next. The Porter Cable dovetail jig makes quick work of it.



I'm using 1/4" melamine for the drawer bottoms.









And with the drawer fronts and pulls.



And dry fit in it's appointed place.

[Terry Hatfield]

And on to the hutch.

Bazillion dadoes in more 3/4" pine ply. A little glue. And a lot of clamps later...



I'm liking the way it's coming together.



And with the back dry fit.





Finishing touch for the hutch was a led drafting light. I made the mount for it to attach to the center of the hutch.





Next is the finishing...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Terry,

You do good work! Nicely done, Sir!

[Terry Hatfield]

I freely admit that I do not care for sanding and finishing. If I could get away with it every project would just be rough and naked but alas, that is not a possibility so I blow it all apart and get on with it. I want it to remain light so I opt for a few coats of wipe on poly.









The room that I have commandeered for my gun room is at the end of a hallway with a 90 degree right turn so the plan is to transport the parts and pieces and assemble it in the room.

And here we are with the finished product. I also bought a rolling work bench from Harbor Freight for more storage and work space. After using it for a bit I am quite pleased with the end result.





And these are the fruit of my labor. Kinda handsome if I do say so myself.



And this is what caused all of this in the first place. My custom .308. We did the paint work in my shop.



I am very much challenged with learning the long range shooting craft but I am having a ridiculousness amount of fun doing it.

IMG_1121 by TerryHatfield, on Flickr

Hope someone finds these posts entertaining and/or helpful!

[Terry Hatfield]

Terry,

You do good work! Nicely done, Sir!

Hi Ken! Thanks. It was a fun build.

[Jim Becker]

Terry, that looks like a very good design for what you wanted to accomplish. I know from FB posts of another friend who reloads that "stout" is a requirement and you certainly embraced that here! I really like how you handled the below table storage areas, too.

The only problem I see is...a lack of any purple on it. LOL I'm frankly surprised by that, my friend... At least the "range tool" has that purple thing going on...

[Travis Bochenek]

Love the rifle, sick paint job! Send me some of that .308 to test in My Scar 17

[Von Bickley]

Super Great looking bench....... Now lets see a target.

[Terry Hatfield]

Terry, that looks like a very good design for what you wanted to accomplish. I know from FB posts of another friend who reloads that "stout" is a requirement and you certainly embraced that here! I really like how you handled the below table storage areas, too.

The only problem I see is...a lack of any purple on it. LOL I'm frankly surprised by that, my friend... At least the "range tool" has that purple thing going on...

Ha! Decided to leave the purple to the weaponry and such. As I was building it my shooting buddies were telling me that I should screw it to the wall and such so it would be stable enough to properly perform the resizing and such. Little do they know the way I build things. lol...

[Bruce Page]

Sweet Terry! You always do beautiful work. Still have your race cars?