Tim's Reloading Bench

Tim needs a good reloading bench at his house. It can be fairly small and shallow. Because he needs to get working fairly soon, I decided to build it in two stages. Stage 1 is the bench top with a simple pedestal. Stage 2 will add drawers and a shelf underneath for storage.

Tim can do everything he needs to do with a turret press. He has a Lee Classic Turret Press. We settled on a 24" square top, with a 43" overall height.

In Stage 2, there will be drawers and an open shelf underneath the press for storage. We can also mount shelves on the wall above the bench if we wish as a seperate project.

Drawings

Stage 1

Stage 1 is complete! I am mounting the press on it now, and will deliver it to Tim today. It has ¾" plywood sides, and a ¼" plywood back. I stapled a temporary ¼" plywood front onto it, which will remain until Stage 2 is ready to be installed.

Top

The top is yellow pine, with the grain front to back, to provide the most strength against the leveraging action of the press. It is 24" square and 2½" thick. It has been secured to the base cabinet using angle-irons.

Cabinet

There are two leveler feet in the bottom of each side, for a total of four. The bottom drawer will need to be high enough that it doesn't interfere with these feet. I can put a skirt on the front below the bottom shelf.

Shelves

I should have room for five shelves (including the bottom). They will be an average of eight inches. The shelves will fit into 1/8" deep dado slots in the uprights.

Front Trim

The shelves and uprights will be made of 3/4" plywood. That will be ugly in front. I should make some trim strips to glue to the front edges of each piece of plywood. They will be roughly 3/4" square with a tennon. They will fit into a dado on the front of each piece of plywood.

Back

For rigidity, there should be a back. It will be 1/4" plywood. It should fit into a rabbet around the sides.