Reloading bench wood top reinforcement?

[Freezebomb]

Tired of fighting humidity and the heat so I moved my reloading gear into my office. Picked up a harbor freight Yukon mobile workstation and removed the wheels. Only doing brass prep and sizing on it with a rockchucker. Purchased an inline fab quick change for mounting the press.

Question is if I need to reinforce the top with butcher block or something or if I should be fine? Just curious on others experiences before I start driving screws. Thanks! Pic is what I have now while I wait for the mount.

 

[nettle]

How thick is the top now?

 

[Bill Norris]

That stuff is fairly durable but it might pay to put a layer of good plywood on top of it.

 

[Freezebomb]

How thick is the top now?

About 3/4 of an inch. Feels pretty solid

 

[archerforkids]

Run it as is for a while. You can't do anything to it that can't be corrected of you start seeing distortion. But.....keep an eye out for distortion. And don't mount your press via wood screws. If you can access the bottom, use some tee nuts on the bottom. Upside of the tee nuts is they will stay put if you want to remove and reinstall press as needed.

 

[JEFFPPC]

My loading room counter/ bench goes around 3 walls. Top is double sheets of glued and screwed plywood cover in outdoor carpet. Under the front edge runs angle iron. Attach s press, barrel vise whatever with bolts or C clamps, no give. You can stand on it and jump....no give.

 

[Freezebomb]

Run it as is for a while. You can't do anything to it that can't be corrected of you start seeing distortion. But.....keep an eye out for distortion. And don't mount your press via wood screws. If you can access the bottom, use some tee nuts on the bottom. Upside of the tee nuts is they will stay put if you want to remove and reinstall press as needed.

Thanks. Great advice

 

[archerforkids]

If you feel energetic, while you have it off cut a kerf in the back and epoxy a piece of 1/8" flat steel in the kerf. That's how we reinforce natural stone.

 

[6MMsteve]

put plates on the top to mount the press, plate on top, plate underneath, it will be fine...that way you won't pull the bolts when running the press

 

[nettle]

Should hold with anything mounted to it with bolts and nuts. I wouldn't use anything mounted with wood screws.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Should hold with anything mounted to it with bolts and nuts. I wouldn't use anything mounted with wood screws.

That’s what I would do too. Just make some oversized washers out of strap for the bottom against the nuts.

 

[AlNyhus]

Take a look at the RCBS Accessory Base Plate. I use it with threaded studs for my various RCBS presses. With threaded studs, it's easy to remove the press from the plate when you don't need it.

Buy Accessory Base Plate-3 and More | RCBS

Shopping for the Accessory Base Plate-3 - Learn more about the latest Press Accessories and other hunting or shooting gear at RCBS.

www.rcbs.com

 

[Freezebomb]

That’s what I would do too. Just make some oversized washers out of strap for the bottom against the nuts.

Looks like the bottom of the wood top is blocked by the metal cabinet but should be an advantage. Drill through it and bolt it up to it and the quick change mount. (Probably adding a co ax some time this year)

 

[Freezebomb]

Take a look at the RCBS Accessory Base Plate. I use it with threaded studs for my various RCBS presses. With threaded studs, it's easy to remove the press from the plate when you don't need it.

Buy Accessory Base Plate-3 and More | RCBS

Shopping for the Accessory Base Plate-3 - Learn more about the latest Press Accessories and other hunting or shooting gear at RCBS.

www.rcbs.com

Got that on my current setup. Really liked it. Moving to a quick change mount since I’ll be adding a co ax soon. Great suggestion

 

[B y r o n]

So looking at the manual it appears that the existing top is held on with 8 screws or bolts.



My guess is with thread inserts set into the bottom of the board. If you just want to add thickness, cut a piece of 3/4" plywood to the same size. After removing the top lay the plywood on top of the cabinet and mark the location of the holes. After drilling the holes you just need longer screws or bolts to go through the plywood and into the top. Just make sure they are not to long or they come through the top.

Now if it was me I would figure out where you want to mount your press or accessories. Before assembling the top recess T-nuts in the bottom of the plywood and drill holes in the top for the bolts to pass through. Now assemble the top, add glue for additional stiffness, and bolt down your press or mounting plate.

Enjoy your work.

 

[Webster]

Tired of fighting humidity and the heat so I moved my reloading gear into my office. Picked up a harbor freight Yukon mobile workstation and removed the wheels. Only doing brass prep and sizing on it with a rockchucker. Purchased an inline fab quick change for mounting the press.

Question is if I need to reinforce the top with butcher block or something or if I should be fine? Just curious on others experiences before I start driving screws. Thanks! Pic is what I have now while I wait for the mount.

View attachment 1514867

I would think it's OK as is. You are not beating on the surface. Butcher block is just more wood on top of wood. I see it as just adding weight. Would the bench move from working the press? Like someone else mentioned try it as is. You can modify it later if you want to put more money into it.

 

[chromatica]

That is not a lot of space to work with. You are going to need to move your presses and tools around to fit whatever job you are doing. I would install a butcher block top that is 6 inches deeper than your current surface. The overhang in the front will allow you to clamp presses, powder measures, primer tools to the work surface. and then easily remove them.

I can tell you from experience that 3/4 in plywood flexes too much. My butcher block surface is solid as a rock.

 

[TTE]

Tired of fighting humidity and the heat so I moved my reloading gear into my office. Picked up a harbor freight Yukon mobile workstation and removed the wheels. Only doing brass prep and sizing on it with a rockchucker. Purchased an inline fab quick change for mounting the press.

Question is if I need to reinforce the top with butcher block or something or if I should be fine? Just curious on others experiences before I start driving screws. Thanks! Pic is what I have now while I wait for the mount.

View attachment 1514867

to each his own ...... but that thing is not big enough for me to chamfer cases on

 

[jxb]

yeah if it was me I'd do one of two things. Either put a piece of solid 3/4" under it or over it would work if you want to protect that nice finish.
OR
what I would do is get a piece of butcher block at HD that's a little bigger than this top so you have say 2-4" of overhang. Enough to give a little more room and save your knees too and attach it to the existing top. It will be really solid.
Then either use quick detach mounts so you can swap tools around or cut two grooves for heavy duty T track and then you can just make your own mounts to swap out. Hint, if you space the T track in 10" or 12" centers, you'll have enough leverage that you won't pull out the tracks or even come close to unless you're doing swaging or something really heavy duty. pic attached is a bit outdated, but not for the mounting part. I leave the press mounted all the time (I'm a lefty) and only mount all the others as needed so the bench is open for other tasks. Yes that's based on the NMRA bench, just a few upgrades? Since it was going to be in the house it was said it should look more like furniture than something that belongs in a shed. Anyhow, it works and so happy I did the T track thing as I can mount most anything on it, press, accessories, vice, whatever and when done I have a nice clean top. The wood fillers for the slots are a great idea too (not my idea), even H380 doesn't get down in the tracks. Hope this gives you some visual ideas for building out that top and maximizing your rather limited workspace.

https://www.ptreeusa.com/ttrack_track.html scroll down to "Heavy Duty T-Track"
The butcher block that HD sells is thick enough you can cut grooves for this track without degrading it especially if it's securely attached to your original top.

 

[Webster]

Tired of fighting humidity and the heat so I moved my reloading gear into my office. Picked up a harbor freight Yukon mobile workstation and removed the wheels. Only doing brass prep and sizing on it with a rockchucker. Purchased an inline fab quick change for mounting the press.

Question is if I need to reinforce the top with butcher block or something or if I should be fine? Just curious on others experiences before I start driving screws. Thanks! Pic is what I have now while I wait for the mount.

View attachment 1514867

For 50 years I have been reloading on an old big teachers school desk. The area I work on is about 30" wide and 20" deep. Powder measure on the far left, press far right, scale in the middle 15" from the fromt and a trimmer mounted on the right edge.