New Workbench all done!

I bought a house this year, so I will finally have a dedicated reloading area in my basement. Beats the heck out of reloading in the garage in Wisconsin, either freezing my butt of in the winter or sweating bullets in the summer.


Plenty of space, dual benches, and lots of light


My old bench, about 52" long. Will be relegated to an area to work on guns, throw powder charges, or anything I dont want to do on my new bench. Uses an acid resistant laminate top so I can pretty much pour anything I want on it for cleaning and not worry about melting it. Vice comes off when not needed.


Storage! I still have some stuff to put on these shelves. 3/4" thick with rabbeted 1 1/2" thick edges, so plenty strong. Powder, bullets, brass, loaded rounds. The only thing I dont keep on here is my primers, as those are in my gun cabinet with a Goldenrod.


Gun cabinet, press storage rack and floor storage.


New bench. Measures 32" x 96". Weighs about 300# with a 1 1/4 thick acid resistant laminate top. Lagged into wall studs, no movement. T track set into top, for press hold down, allows me to put my presses anywhere I want along the front of the bench with only moments of setup time.


T-track set in the top of the bench. My presses hook over the front of the bench, and then are held down in the back with the bolts in the T-track. Makes for a nice tight setup, easy on and off.

Been a fun project for my son and I. Now to get some loading done.

kmw1954 said:

Excellent! I just finished rebuilding the top of my bench and added a steel plate for the Press swaps.

What part of Cheezeland are you in? I'm down by the Illinois state line.

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Northwest of Madison about 20 minutes, just outside Sauk City. Not too far away.

Chillydog said:

Very nicely done!

How far back from the front edge did you set the t-slot? Do you put a filler in it to keep small parts out when not using it?

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10" to center of track from edge. My original bench blocks are 12' X 12" and were just bolted through common bolt holes like what you see in the top of my old bench that fit all my old blocks. I wanted to do away with that but didnt want to build new bench blocks so thats where it ended up. Ive thought about trash in the T-track, but Im not going to worry about it really. A small chip brush should be good enough, or a cheap dust buster type vac if it gets bad.

jmorris said:

Looks like a good use of space. How are you liking the MEC?

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Its smooth, has good leverage, I like the floating shell holder, and I really like having an open front. I also set mine up to run left handed, even though I am right handed. My left hand is dumb, a simple mechanical motion of running the press stop to stop is perfect for my dumb hand. Then I can use my smart right hand for setting brass and bullets, improving overall workflow. I also converted it to use LnL bushings as I run a LnL AP so less dicking around there, but I plan on timing the bushing on the MEC to the height of the LnL so I can interchange dies without reseting them everytime due to differences in press heights. Just need to get a machinist buddy the correct dimensions so he can whip the bushing up for me on the lathe. I dont test run out (not willing to go down that rabbit hole just yet) so I cant say on that, but reports Ive seen on the web are good. I didnt care about no on press priming as I use the RCBS bench primer which is faster and more accurate anyway without needing special shell holders. My criteria for press selection was open front and able to be run left handed. I looked at a Co-Ax a friend has, but honestly it was a little cramped for me as I have gigantic hands. The other option was a Hornady Iron press but Ive seen a few negative reports with shell holders tipping, not to mention it was more money, so decided against it.

kmw1954 said:

We are going to be in Portage the 14-17. Hoping to get to Recob's that weekend also.

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Recobs is a great local resource to be sure. Last time I was in there, they had mostly everything on hand. If you are looking for something specific, and you call them to let them know what day you are coming to get it, they will set it aside for you. I used to live about 5 blocks from there, now its about 5 miles, but I buy all my powder and primers from them, and probably 50% of my bullets.

PM sent as well.