Here is my personal shooting bench project, which also has a requirement to be easily portable to a remote shooting site. It is very similar to one in the above link, about halfway down the first page, only a little thicker for stability, a little larger to accomodate some extra equipment, and some extra parts to make legs individually adjustable to level the table on unlevel surfaces. I also do the 20 degree angled leg bases a little differently, but the concept is the same. I cut everything on a CNC router, with holes for mounting a stop bar, LabRadar doplar chronograph unit, machine rest, and my air tank pre-located and they have T-Nuts installed on the underneath side.
Rough major material list is as follows:
Two 2’ x 4’ sheets of ¾” MDF laminated (wood glued) together to make a 1 ½” board. ($16)
One 10’ x 1 ¼” galvanized pipe, cur into four 29” pieces. Two will have threads on one end. Have threads cut onto one end of the other two. LOWE’s will cut and thread these for free when buying the 10’ pipe. ($28)
Three 1” x 12” galvanized pipe nipples to be used as adjustable leg pieces. ($15)
Three 1” galvanized pipe caps to go on nipples as leg feet. ($5)
Three 1 ¼” galvanized floor flanges. ($16)
Six 1 ½” #4 conduit hangars to store legs in when transporting. ($7)
One “T” level for two directions. ($3)
One aluminum carry handle for top edge. ($3)
1” x ¾” x 18” oak stop bar to pre-load bipod against. ($2)
Twelve ¼” x 20 T-Nuts for making stop bar adjustable. ($3)
3 5/16” x 18 T-Nuts for pre-locating machine rest mounting holes. ($2)
Three wooden leg bases (from 2” x 6” lumber) with openings engraved to seat the floor flanges at 20 degree angles. (~$6 each if oak, ~$1 each if pine, but they split easily)
Various screws and bolts to attach wooden leg bases and floor flanges, stop bar, and mount machine rest.
Air tank carrier was a stand-alone project, but designed to mount under the table for tethered use or secure storage and filling use while shooting.
I have made three of these benches, one from MDF, the other two from 2' x 4' white birch butcher block countertop material (you can buy this in 4' and 8' length x 25" wide). The MDF is significantly cheaper (about $16 vs $90 for the butcher block). Both should be sealed with at least three coats of MinWax Helmsman Spar Urethane if they are going to be used outside, but this is of PARAMOUNT importance for MDF. MDF will soak up moisture like a sponge, and it will never hold up if not sealed really well. Even bolt holes need their interior sidewalls sealed with a thin coat or two to ensure they don't absorb any moisture that gets down the hole, as it will start swelling. Q-Tips work great for this.
So far, the MDF bench appears it will hold up for some time, but to me, the hardwood tops will last for years. The MDF I'm not so sure about yet, but it looks really good so far.
If anyone has access to a CNC router with a 2' x 4' bed, and would like the tool paths, PM me. However, anyone could manually cut and drill all of this, but you would have to find a method of producing consistently angled pieces for the leg bases.
