The Gun Counter

And in theory I can undo the bolts, break it down for moving and reassemble it in a new workspace in an hour's time or so by myself. That solves some of the problems of getting it through doorways.

A) Old bowling alley is a good rigid surface for workbench.

B ) at least for a weightlifting platform, put on three layers of 1 inch plywood alternating the grain direction between layers, and gluing and screwing them together.

I lucked out when I built my workbench. The HQ building I worked in at the time was replacing all of the solid wood doors for the secure offices. My NCOIC and I snagged two of them on the way to the scrap dumpster and one of them is my bench top.

Been shipped all over the country and has supported reloading, gunsmithing/cleaning, electronics projects, model building and assorted odd jobs.

Nice one Soup

BDK wrote:A) Old bowling alley is a good rigid surface for workbench.

B ) at least for a weightlifting platform, put on three layers of 1 inch plywood alternating the grain direction between layers, and gluing and screwing them together.

That might be a great deal cheaper than trying to get a large butcherblock work surface.

No idea about machine use, but put it on top of 2x6's on 4" centers, and it won't wiggle when carrying/jumping/lifting large weights on it.

Bowling alley is, of course, quite cheap but harder to get on a regular basis.

I will say that my home platform, built by a childhood friend and carpenter, which was framed with 2x8's, and backed with 1" plywood sheet, felt more solid that the usual competition platforms which were just the glued and screwed plywood in a metal frame.

But, that might have been more about the wiggle inherent to the metal

Greg wrote:That might be a great deal cheaper than trying to get a large butcherblock work surface.

Ikea.

HTRN wrote:

Greg wrote:That might be a great deal cheaper than trying to get a large butcherblock work surface.

Ikea.

That had not occurred to me.

Ikea sells butcher block counter tops relatively reasonably priced. Another option is Grizzly industrial, but that can run into some real money..

Bally Block "wood welded" tops are pretty fantastic. I have no clue on price though. We've got a few benches at work that have been there for years getting abused with that stuff for the top. Look ugly as sin now, but still solid as can be. Most of the new benches we've been building have UHMW surfaces. I kinda like it, I might end up with a new bench in the garage with it.