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Posted: 1/26/2013 2:39:45 PM EDT
| I am setting up a reloading room and bench, I have noticed that all the benches that I have seen have wooden tops. My question is this "is there a reason that nobody has put a stainless top on the bench surface" |
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I've build many reloading benches in my life. I've planned and carefully thought out each one of them. Within a very short time, there has been a required change to how things are mounted to the bench in every case. A wood top gives you this flexibility.
I've often thought that the best bench would be a poured concrete pier with a significant footing. Only then could a bench be stable enough to run a progressive press without dancing with it. Even then, there would probably be significant harmonics in the press itself. But, alas, such a bench would not be very flexible. Make your bench top with 2 x X stock and cover it with TWO layers of 3/4" plywood. This will make more sense three years from now when you want to replace the top and only have to do the upper layer of plywood. |
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Quoted:
Mostly a cost thing. I used melamine. Use SS if you want. This. I took the advice of a few random threads I saw to use that material as a topper. The white really makes the work space bright and easy to focus on what I'm doing. Only thing I dislike is when powder hits it, it bounces a bit, but I'm unfamiliar if it would do that on other surfaces as well. |
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Ever seen a Dillon XL650 with case feeder, mounted on a Lee stand load 600 rounds an hour ?
Not sure how so many have come to swear every reload bench be mounted on steel piers, driven inside six feet of concrete, having butcher block tops built of railroad ties but I'm doing fine with less than a square foot bench top and three, tin foil metal legs. 
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Stainless is a bitch to drill into, and if you are like most of us and add shit to the bench you will go thru a lot of drill bits, unless u use some bleach..but still a bunch. It also sound loud and tinny. Get bad reflections, will warp unless its thick enuff or glued down... no need to reinvent the wheel 
A buddy of mine picked up some maple butcher tops a while ago, we made a couple of benches with them ...nothing like thick girthy wood  U can cut, notch and play with your wood 
   
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Op, how about this. I'm pondering this for my own bench this summer.
Melamine (I think is the name, the counter top shit?) top with t-track rails for mounting things. Stainless drawers and frame. I'd build the frame out of thin wall 1x2 rect. tubing, you can get that cheap. Use small pieces of heavy wall ss angle iron with a hole drilled in it to anchor into the concrete. Use what size of concrete lag you think is prudent. Also thought about maybe building it all in "wood" and using some stainless as beauty panels in various places to cover this "wood" that would have to be used. Or just using stainless drawers on a "wood" frame. Take it for what it's worth, I dislike "wood" very strongly. My background is working as a stainless welder when I started my career, so I have a bit of an obsession with stainless. 
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Quoted:
Stainless is a bitch to drill into, and if you are like most of us and add shit to the bench you will go thru a lot of drill bits, unless u use some bleach..but still a bunch. It also sound loud and tinny. Get bad reflections, will warp unless its thick enuff or glued down... no need to reinvent the wheel
A buddy of mine picked up some maple butcher tops a while ago, we made a couple of benches with them ...nothing like thick girthy wood U can cut, notch and play with your wood
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/54lariat/IMAG3030_zps429a3e9a.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/54lariat/IMAG3033_zps4192fefa.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/54lariat/IMAG3090_zps5d1e1c05.jpghttp://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/54lariat/IMAG3092_zps15bdce3a.jpg http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c233/54lariat/IMAG3095_zps7e0d5071.jpg That's nice! I am working on one with a maple top as well. |
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