I am going to build a reloading bench out of reclaimed barn wood.

Should I use a thickness planer, Or is it ok to use a hand planer? Also what should I stain it with after? I want it to look like natural barn wood so maybe no stain and just poly?

Any input is appreciated

Right hand, firm grip and no lube!!

Your name is fitting

Damn, you beat me to it!  

Fast and furious

Lol!!!

use rem oil to finish it.

I honestly do not know what is sitting in the back of my grandpas place. I know next to nothing on what kinds of wood should be used.

However, There is a plethora of old barns and buildings around me that are always being taken down, And the wood sold off. So I could see almost any kind I am sure.

i'm just a wee novice, but I can at least attempt to tap into my very limited experience thus far...

you'll want to assess the amount of warpage and twist in the "boards"... you can minimize the amount of material needed to be milled away by ripping boards and crosscutting them to sizes that are close to the final dimensions...  you'll need to decide what kind of joinery to do on making a frame and then making the top and attaching it...  doing mortice and tenon joinery for the frame would be good IMO...  decide on what thickness of legs and rails you want, and you can mill/cut boards and laminate using wood glue to get the desired dimensions... for the top, i'm assuming you'll get boards milled to rough dimension, squared up edge-wise (jointed), and then you can laminate together edge-to-edge... if the final thickness of the top isn't too substantial, you may want to include some dowel joinery or biscuit joinery in laminated the boards together...

now, for milling boards square and removing twist, you can do it manually, but this is where a good work surface, bench, comes in very handy...  being able to clamp things in place in ways conducive to using hand planes is key!  ask me how I know!  you can use hand planes, winding sticks, a small carpenter's square, and a marking gauge for the milling...  

that said, a power planer (benchtop or larger?) and jointer would probably make things go much faster w/ less elbow grease...

as for the finish, ...you might want it to be resistant to oils and stuff, so perhaps do an oil finish, or gel stain, of your liking, followed up w/ a couple coats of poly...?

One item to caution you on, barn lumber WILL have metal in it. Nails etc and it will fuck up planer blades. You may want to be extra cautious standing behind the planer as well if you try it

Ol' Norm Abrams uses a metal detector wand over all reclaimed lumber for this reason

You can't just run it through a planer first.  



The #1 most important thing to do with recycled wood is go over it with a specialized metal detector for woodworking.  Nails or bits of wire and other metal will wreak havoc with planer blades.



Before planing, you must run one side through a jointer to get it straight, then plane the other side.  If you just plane without jointing when there is a wave in the board, you will plane in the wave on both sides.  

Where are all the ARFCOM woodworkers? I just bought two Craftsman planes at a flea market for $20. Picked up an adjustable table with peg holes as well. This sounds like a cool project. Barn wood in Iowa where I grew up, was usually soft wood for the most part. What kind of wood do you have?

I was thinking about building everything but the top out of barn wood.

I have a account that has about 50 butcher block tops stacked up in storage...

Could be pine or hemlock.  I don't know if chestnut would have grown much in MI, but if it is its a too valuable to use as a reloading bench.  Old barn wood can be brittle too, from exposure to the elements over the years.  If you are going  to have some shelving or drawers it would be good for that.
How thick are the boards?
Looks like you will be using a glued up top for the bench top, not the barnwood.

A couple of hand planes are all you need to flatten and smooth the boards, but like others said if you want to use a thickness planer or jointer check it with a metal detector first for old nails.
You might be able to just take a small amount off the surfaces to maintain some patina.

You can use any kind of wood you want, provided that the framing is adequate to support the load to be placed on the work surface.



If it's 1x cedar you have then you're going to need to joist the shit out of it as it's very soft and flexible and wont span far. This is usually the most common reclaimed barn siding, that or redwood, and both have similar structural properties. If you can find 2x or better you'll be much better equipped for a table top.



I personally wouldn't waste my time with 1x, but if you got the materials for free and insist on using them you should probably put down a plywood substrate, 3/4" at least (if not 1 1/8") and joist it every 16". If you use 1 1/8" you could get away with 2' centers.



 

Oh and you'll need to run it through a planer. Each piece before you adjust thickness. Make sure there aren't any nails in there, planer knives are $$

Correct on all counts

 

True, but if adequately fastened the curves disappear.



Most people, myself included, get by ok without a jointer. If I were building $50k worth of cabinets I'd probably invest in one, but my 14" DeWalt has done just fine on smaller jobs for years.