Re: Reloaders Bench
I absolutely hate benches that flex when you have to apply elbow grease to a press. So I searched the net and found a guy that used layers of plywood to build his bench. Mine is made of 4 layers of 3/4" plywood with glue between them and screws through the bottom three. Top layer is hardwood plywood - very smooth, very durable, and very pleasing to the eye. I actually built mine into a room in the finsihed basement of house, so 2X4 and C grade pine were not in the cards for me. Is it overkill? Yup, sure is. Do I like it? Yup I sure do. After years of flimsy stuff, this is the real deal. The site I found that I pilfered the idea from had tool inserts made of two layers of plywood (the bottom bigger than the top) that slid into inserts in his bench. He had an insert setup for a powder measure, one for a trimmer, and one for a cast bullet sizer, I believe. It sounds a little hokey, but when you see the pictures, it was a sweet setup.
If you are looking to go the minimalist route, this is probably not the best approach - eiather a simple handcrafted bench of look for one of those bench kits for sale. If you are looking for something way more sturdy, you might look in to the multiple layer plywood idea.