how much wood to reinforce a chipboard reloading bench top

[wtr100]

a piece of 3/4 plywood on top of the bench and a piece of 1 x 4 used as a sorta huge washer
below each press has the old bench solid enough - should last me a while - unless I get into
boolit swaging!

[billt]

I've been reloading on both of these benches for over 30 years. OSB is stronger than plywood. It just doesn't look as good. I painted my second bench grey which hides the fact it's OSB. I've resized a ton of .338-378 Weatherby Magnum on this bench, and reloaded thousands of 12 Gauge shells without a single issue.   Bill T.

[TAB]

2 words....

torsion box


 


its what do for all my work tops.  I also put a tempered hardboard top on them.( the ply that is)  that way when its messed up, I just throw it away,  I'm out all of 10 bucks.

[bfm1851]

If you watch the big box stores you can find the laminated kitchen counter tops when they are discountinued old style or sometimes chipped. Get one of those, a 4 X 8 3/4" plywood and again if lucky two kitchen base cabinets, maybe chipped also.  Glue the counter top to the plywood, trim to lenght and set on the base cabinets. Great setup, comes with storage and looks pretty nice too. Did my whole setup for less then $200, I left the plywood full width size and put it to the back then bought a couple garage cabinets for more storage Also found on sale. Only wish I would have bought the 45 degree cut tops so I could go around the corner