Righto, finished my bench today.
I needed to have the bench top in two pieces so I would fit in my vehicle easily. This makes it harder of course, as you lose the strength of the single piece of timber. The portable bench top, being made of MDF is not overly strong, so it does not have enough support for two separate pieces of timber.
Here is the end result. I have added a shelf in the bottom, located by captive bolts with wing nuts for ease of fitting and removal. The "stunt" rifle in the photo is my recently acquired Tikka 17 Rem project gun.
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Two sections of timber, with a steel support to hold them together.
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The MDF flexes even with a small weight on it, so I have used two small pieces of box section ally to make it more rigid.
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I like to use the big sandbag when I can, instead of the adjustable gun rest. But of course then you do not have your height adjustment. Also, the gun rest would move easily on the hard laminex top. So I have used a piece of ply with some divots in it for the gun rest legs to sit in. It has a rubber sheet glued to the back so it will not slide, yet it can be moved to where you need it. It also has some nuts countersunk into it, so that the legs off the gun rest can be fitted, and then it serves as a height adjustable base for the big sandbag.
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Seems to me that it will work well. A milk crate is about the right height for a seat.