Last summer life was busy planning a wedding with my soon to be bride and doing all the necessary things that surround that. This spring we decided to take over a part of the house that we were renting out , cease renting it and renovate it to fit our now growing family (due in December). One side project I've started is building a permanent reloading bench and work area. This is all being done on a extreme budget and with the way our economy is its actually made it a fun project as it's given me a break from everything else.
My first step was to source material very cheap or free is the goal here. I have access to non typical pallets which are custom built using very wide boards a friend of mine gets. Next not having a good table saw I made a bolt on fence for a spare circular saw I have. The fence was made to cut 5 1/2" boards. After squaring up the ends the boards would be glued and laminated to other boards creating a bench that should end up being about 21" deep and 10' long. The top will weigh maybe 200 lbs when I am done.
Between pulling out old insulation and dry wall ice been taking little breaks and planning boards down ,squaring them up and cutting them to odd lengths to make a stronger laminate trying my best not to double seems in one place.
One thing I have learned is you must absolutely apply the same clamping force top and bottom or you will get a cupping on the side with more force.
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| The Attached fence sled has a secondary handle to help apply side pressure to keep things square. |
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| Not to be used in this orientation but this gives a good view of the fence. |
A few more pallets are needed to finish up the top but I'm not in a rush. If I got this done before the rest of the house I'd never hear the end of it. Part 2 when I start building the base.
