DIY Reloading Workbench Build
Welcome back to Jim's Armory. In this one, Jim steps away from the pistol bench to build the bench itself. His new reloading equipment from Mark 7 showed up unexpectedly, and rather than keep overthinking upper cabinets, lower cabinets, and storage options, he decided it was time to just build something. Here's how he put together this workbench, from the tabletop to the finish.
Starting with the Top Jim built the whole bench around a prefab butcher block countertop measuring an inch and a half thick, 35 inches wide, and 8 feet long. He wanted a 2- to 2.5-inch overhang to clamp on accessories like camera mounts, lights, and magnifiers. Because the top is fairly narrow, he also wanted the widest possible leg stance for stability, so he minimized the overhang in the back just enough to clear the baseboard in the room. He settled on a 1.5-inch overhang in the rear and 2.5 inches on both sides and the front.
Building the Upper Frame With his overhang perimeter drawn out, Jim laid out and cut the frame pieces: one for each end plus five 18-inch cross supports. He set his table height at 36 inches, which meant cutting the legs to 34.5 inches to account for the 1.5-inch top. Working with grade lumber from the big box store, he picked through pieces to find the least ugly side to face out.
Because the top is so narrow and he wanted the legs pushed out as far as possible, he had to notch the 4x4 legs to fit. Without a better tool on hand, he made a series of cuts with a circular saw, broke the waste out, and cleaned up the notches with a chisel - a process he found tedious enough to be glad there were only four legs to deal with.
Attaching the Frame, Legs, and Shelf Jim decided to attach the frame to the tabletop before installing the legs, reasoning it would be easier to align everything that way. He installed the remaining cross supports flat rather than vertically, since he planned to lag-bolt the tabletop to the frame from underneath to keep fasteners hidden from the top.
Pro-Tip: Elongate one of your bolt holes into a slot rather than drilling it round. This allows for seasonal wood movement so the top doesn't split or crack over time.
He used 3/8-inch lag bolts, 2.5 inches long, with washers, which pass through the 2x4 frame and still leave about an inch of bite into the 1.5-inch tabletop. With the frame secured, Jim attached the legs using a framing square to keep them straight before driving the screws home. He then cut a notch for the last two end supports to clear the 4x4 legs, using a jigsaw, and drilled and slotted those holes the same way as before.
For the lower shelf, Jim built a simple frame using the same 18-inch cross supports, then cut a piece of plywood to sit on top. As he put it, this isn't fine furniture - it's a workbench.
Finishing: Sanding, Poly, and Paint Before finishing, Jim disassembled the top from the frame. The butcher block turned out to be full of holes, cracks, and some kind of filler material - rough enough that he says he should have returned it, but pressed on anyway. He sanded the whole top with 220 grit to smooth it out, then applied a water-based polyurethane in a satin sheen, which he chose because it dries quickly, is easy to work with, doesn't attract as much dirt while curing, and hides imperfections better than a glossier finish.
He also decided to paint the frame using leftover paint from prior work on his house, so it would match the doors. The first coat of poly raised the grain on the tabletop, leaving it bumpy, so Jim sanded it again with 320 grit before applying additional coats to get it smooth. He also flipped the bench to paint part of the underside of the frame, knowing it would bother him later if he skipped it.
Shopping List and Lessons Learned Jim sourced everything from his local big box store. He doesn't recommend the butcher block top he used - he had to dig through stock for over an hour to find usable pieces of the grade-two, non-treated lumber, and even then the material was rough.
Pro-Tip: If you're buying a butcher block top like this, unwrap it in the store and inspect all sides before you buy it.
Looking back, Jim thinks he could have skipped the half-inch plywood shelf in favor of the store's repair panels, sold in roughly 2x4-foot sizes - he suspects half-inch MDF would work fine for the shelf, especially if you're planning to paint, and a seam in the middle wouldn't matter. For fasteners, he recommends 3-inch screws for joining the dimensional lumber, plus the stainless washers paired with the 2.5-inch lag bolts.
Final Thoughts Jim describes the build as a fun, easy, and inexpensive project that only took a few hours - apart from the painting, which he spent a good stretch regretting before coming around on the finished look. The bench ended up narrow but sturdy, with a wide leg stance and enough surface to serve as a general-purpose workbench beyond just reloading.
Stay tuned - next up, Jim sets up all his new reloading equipment on this bench, so subscribe if you don't want to miss it.
