A Pull-down Gun Cleaning Table

Having a place to clean my firearms has always been a problem for me. For a long time, I would clean them on the family room table, but I'm not crazy about getting solvent and oil all over the furniture. Most recently, I have been cleaning them on my pickup truck tailgate, not because it's the best place, but it's the least trouble. I finally decided that it was time to build something more convenient.

Because the background in my shop is so busy, I modified the photo a little so you could see the table in its open position.

Step 1 My Two Requirements

I thought quite a bit about how I was going to build a special place for cleaning my firearms, and finally came up with two things that were of most importance. Because I wanted to build the table in my workshop, I was restricted to space. So my first requirement was that the table be as little in the way as possible. I solved that by making it pull down from between the ceiling joists. (Note: my ceiling isn't quite eight feet high, and being pretty tall, it isn't any trouble for me to reach it.)

Second, I wanted the table to be as complete as possible, with places for oil and solvent, patches, cleaning rods, brushes, and other tools. You will see from the photos how I accomplished that. While I was at it, I made an area on the table top to retain the bolts, roll tins, etc, I would be dealing with. I also included a magnet to help keep things from rolling away. (In this photo, the top is folded down to the storage position, showing the hardware retainer and magnet.)

In this photo, you can see a shotgun barrel supported horizontally above the cleaning supply area.

Comments

[CHARLESCRANFORD]

What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.