The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I just purchased a Heavy Duty Workbench form Big Dug. I wanted something that wasn't going to flex. They have a workbench with 40mm Birch plywood top, which has a steel frame adjustable for height and width.

Also Screwfix do a product called a SIMPSON STRONG-TIE WORKBENCH KIT METALLIC GALVANISED STEEL, which makes it easy to build a workbench. You have to buy the timber for the legs and a suitable worktop for it separately. I have one of those too, which I am planning to use for a secondary bench.

I currently use a slightly modified Workmate, which is great for small spaces and portability, but does flex a bit when using the press.

Graham

£50 for a bunch of brackets?? You could just screw it all together

bradaz11 wrote:£50 for a bunch of brackets?? You could just screw it all together

Yeah but the OP said he wanted something DIY friendly. The SIMPSON kit is designed to make it easy to build a strong, square and level bench. Total cost for a strong bench using, say a cheap laminate kitchen worktop should come in under £100, cheaper if you have the wood laying around in your garage :)

Graham

Another option is an office desk, if you have a place that sells second hand office furniture local it might be worth a look.

Alan

...for completeness and bradaz11 :)

There are loads of examples online for DIY building a strong workbench, if that's what you wanted to do. In my opinion it is a bit of trade off between taking the time and making the effort to build something that would be suitable and buying something. I particularly wanted a bench that would be rock solid and not flex when operating one of my presses, so it needed to be strong, level and securely fixed to the floor and wall. Here are a couple of links to online plans that I considered when looking at reloading benches:

https://shotgunsportsmagazine.com/downl ... _plans.pdf

http://howtospecialist.com/workshop/how ... ing-bench/

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/201 ... ree-plans/

http://www.zjstech.net/gunstuff/reloadbench.html

Graham

I used a 'reject' kitchen work top from B&Q (£20), cut to length to fit man cave wall and battened to wall. Hardly cabinet making but all the mistakes are under the work top. I fitted a leg under the press position to take the strain. Takes my weight for lamp changing!! Just go for it! You may find you like DIYing!!
JohnG :cornwall:

I've built two myself now, and trust me, me and woodwork do not mix! I just got a heavy duty kitchen work top cut in half and then slots cut out of the corners of one of the benches at each corner for the legs. Then just got 2 1.8m 2x4's cut in half for the legs and bolted the whole thing together with angle iron and copious amounts of screws! The place I bought the worktops and legs from have a free cutting service and did all the 'hard' parts for me

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sclopetum wrote:

bradaz11 wrote:£50 for a bunch of brackets?? You could just screw it all together

Yeah but the OP said he wanted something DIY friendly. The SIMPSON kit is designed to make it easy to build a strong, square and level bench. Total cost for a strong bench using, say a cheap laminate kitchen worktop should come in under £100, cheaper if you have the wood laying around in your garage :)

Graham

Thanks I'll check the links in a bit. What i more meant was that for adiy novice having only the brackets probably isn't a huge help as you still need to get all the wood chopped and sized. The actual assembly is the easier part as once you have all the bits chopped you still need to align everything and could at that point just bolt or screw it all together

bradaz11 wrote:

sclopetum wrote:

bradaz11 wrote:£50 for a bunch of brackets?? You could just screw it all together

Yeah but the OP said he wanted something DIY friendly. The SIMPSON kit is designed to make it easy to build a strong, square and level bench. Total cost for a strong bench using, say a cheap laminate kitchen worktop should come in under £100, cheaper if you have the wood laying around in your garage :)

Graham

Thanks I'll check the links in a bit. What i more meant was that for adiy novice having only the brackets probably isn't a huge help as you still need to get all the wood chopped and sized. The actual assembly is the easier part as once you have all the bits chopped you still need to align everything and could at that point just bolt or screw it all together

I take your point, you do require some basic skills/knowledge to use the kit. However, it was the easiest DIY kit I could find for this type of application, and supposedly the design of the brackets should pull everything square and tight. There is a manufacturer vid here, which shows how it all works: https://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Sim ... kbench-Kit

Graham

While I am at it I thought I would just throw this in as well. One of the posts I read elsewhere when researching loading benches in particular, I can't find the source I am afraid right now, suggested using a light coloured material for the worktop. The specific reason for this was to aid in seeing small parts, and in particular for cleaning up powder spills, on the worktop. Others may have a different view on this, but it seemed to make sense to me.

Graham