Hey guys, I'm looking to build a reloading bench for my FIL for Father's Day but I don't even know where to begin.

I figured the OB would be a good place to start looking for plans.

TIA

Reloading benches are very personal things, there is no cookie cutter design, and they are never, ever, "complete".

What are you starting out with? Room, cubby hole in the garage, corner of the barn....?

Its going in a room that is about the size of an average walk-in closet. Probably somewhere around 4'x10'.

First and foremost is a very stable table top. After that it is all about storage. The more places to put stuff/hang stuff/hide stuff the better.

As to plans, I'm no help.

If you can get a Butcher Block, that is the ideal top.

For mine i used 2x12s, side by side to make it ~2' wide.

Here's a good collection of Reloading Bench Pictures to give you an idea. They cover every setup from small in closet benches to huge reloading rooms.

Here is mine. It is in a walk in closet, so probably fairly close to the same size you are working with.

I used a butcher block top from Ikea (beech, I think) because I wanted soemthing a little more upscale than plywood due to the location. I put a lot of pegboard up, and use a system of removable blocks that equipment is mounted on (except my LnL) so that I can re-arrange where things are based on my needs at the time, and completely remove them from the bench to give me a large working surface.

I still need to add some shelving below, and on a large area of the wall above the long side one of these days. Like I said, they are never complete.















You can also google "thefiringline.com reloading bench thread" and you'll get about 150 pages of different pictures of user's reloading setups. Some make mine look like a rickety bench made of scrap lumber on the back porch, some are so minimalist they are actually impressive with the thought process of keeping it small and simple.

Getting my new bench set up. Just waiting on Dillon press and goodies to come in.



It is going to be nice to load in the AC this summer.

[This message has been edited by MasterAggie (edited 6/3/2013 9:16a).]

[This message has been edited by MasterAggie (edited 6/3/2013 9:16a).]

Harbor Freight has a pretty heavy made Wooden Workbench for ~$150 if you're looking for something premade. I've seen them up close and they are built plenty sturdy.

I've kept mine that i made when i was in school. but if I were to do it all over again, it would look something like this:



You can cheat by buying a harbor freight wood workbench and then adding the shelves and reinforcing the legs. Its really nice to have a place to store all the dies, and other components.

The one I'm talikg about from harbor freight has really nice felt lined drawers