Need some ideas

[JimFromTN]

I am thinking about building a new reloading bench for my house. It needs to look good enough that it could go in an office and your wife won't have a stroke and scream at you to get it out of the house. In other words, it can't look like a work bench. I have done this before and it turned out great but I painted it because I used cheap wood and I am a novice at wood working so needless to say there was allot of wood filler and it was nowhere near perfect. I want this one to have a nice wood grain finish. I have a solid wood exterior door that I plan on cutting down and using for the top. The legs will be 4x4's. So far, sounds like a workbench for the garage. I plan on wrapping it in 1/4 inch oak plywood. Basically, cover either side to give it a desk look and put a 1x3 oak band around the top. I am trying to decide what to cover the top in. I could put a oak plywood over it or I could cover it with some kind of material, preferably black. It needs to be extremely durable and resistant to solvents. I have seen desktops covered with that black material but I don't know what its call and I don't know how tough it is.I thought it would be neat to cover it in that green gun cleaning mat material but I can't find a source and I don't know how well that would work out in the long run.

 

[EastTNHunter]

4x4s will be treated and will tend to warp and twist more easily, so I would rip down 2x's and nail them together before wrapping with oak.

 

[JimFromTN]

Do you think if I can get some untreated 4x4's I would have the same problem?

 

[slinger]

https://m.lowes.com/pd/FashionWall-47-7 ... oard-Wall-

I put this on top of my workbench. It looks good, is cheap and if it gets beat up you can just pull it off and replace it.

 

[DaveB]

I will tell you the most common complaint about a Bench is " I did not build it large enough".

I just use an old desk that happens to have enough overhang and weight to do the job.

Storage is a big part of any bench. Powder, primers, brass, bullets.

 

[TNRifleman]

You can go the rough sawn cedar route. It looks great and would be plenty sturdy. The pic below is a unit I built a few years ago. The bench part in the middle is cedar 2x4's that I planed down a bit to make them smooth. It looks great and is very functional.

 

[JimFromTN]

I like the cedar look. Thats definitely a consideration. Need to check availability at the local lumber yard. My biggest complaint when reloading is having everything fall over because the top wasn't stout enough to handle the torque involved with resizing brass. Thats why I am going with the solid door for the top. Even with that, things will still be rattling. I will be building shelves with doors for storage. The shelves actually scare me the most because if I do use oak, its going to be pricey and if I bugger it and I use allot of filler, its going to be obvious. I have had lots of practice with pine but its cheap.

 

[TNRifleman]

The cedar can be bought at both Lowes and Home Depot

 

[JimFromTN]

This is the first one I built. Want to do something similar except bigger and a natural wood finish

 

[Hunter 257W]

I know how to build for strength, know little to nothing about furniture finishing. Either way the top needs to be real strong or it will flex when sizing cases. Your solid wood door with a nice oak plywood sheet on top as you stated sounds like a move in the right direction. It wouldn't hurt to glue a regular sheet of plywood under the bottom of that door too. You really don't want any flex at all with that table top.

I envy you on getting set up for reloading in the house with the AC. That's one of my dreams for retirement. Whether mine is in the house or a shop with AC, I don't care but I would love to reload and actually be comfortable doing so.

 

[1 good shot]

What ever you put on top needs to be anti static
And easy to get spilled powder and case trimmings off of

 

[Jcalder]

When I built my table I used a 4x6 western cedar post where my press was to be mounted.

I put a piece of plywood down and put wood flooring on top of that. It still needs sanded and finished but I don't have a sander lol. Used screws and plenty of them. I doubt it flexes


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