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schmellba99 · December 12, 2012, 05:24 PM

I managed to carve out one side of our master closet to use as my reloading/tinkering bench. Once my girls leave the house, I'll take over that entire area as mine and give my wife the entire closet back. Maybe anyway.

I used the beech butcher block from Ikea for my reloading bench top. It is 1-1/4" thick and is plenty strong enough for any press, but soft enough to work with fairly easy. I clear coated it with 4 coats of Minwax urethane, added some pegboard and am working on shelving both above and below the bench.

I opted to keep my bench relatively shallow - reason #1 was limited room, but mostly because the deeper the bench, the more crap accumulates on it that always gets in the way. I like a clean bench as much as possible.

I also drilled some holes and mounted some threaded inserts on the bottom of my bench, with all equipment except my LnL-AP being mounted on smaller blocks of the same beech butcher block as the top. All blocks have the same mounting pattern so that they are modular and can be put in any position on the bench, which is nice depending on what I'm working on at the time (my Dillon swager being the only exception due to it's configuration). Right now I can mount any 3 pieces of equipment at a time, but will probably add some more options as time goes by. Right now I have the following mounted on the modular blocks:

Forstner trimmer
RCBS Single Stage press
MEC 12 Gauge Press
MEC 20 Gauge Press

I will add a 16 gauge press one of these days, and if any additional "needs to be mounted" item pops up. One of the nice things about modularity is that you can change what you need when you need it.

For me, it works extremely well. Would prefer to not have the carpet, but I can live with it. I added a single power outlet and use a power strip to run any electrical. Right now I have room to spare on that, but one day I know it will be used up and I'll have to add another outlet.

December 12, 2012, 05:24 PM	#18
schmellba99 Senior Member Join Date: January 8, 2008 Posts: 803	I managed to carve out one side of our master closet to use as my reloading/tinkering bench. Once my girls leave the house, I'll take over that entire area as mine and give my wife the entire closet back. Maybe anyway. I used the beech butcher block from Ikea for my reloading bench top. It is 1-1/4" thick and is plenty strong enough for any press, but soft enough to work with fairly easy. I clear coated it with 4 coats of Minwax urethane, added some pegboard and am working on shelving both above and below the bench. I opted to keep my bench relatively shallow - reason #1 was limited room, but mostly because the deeper the bench, the more crap accumulates on it that always gets in the way. I like a clean bench as much as possible. I also drilled some holes and mounted some threaded inserts on the bottom of my bench, with all equipment except my LnL-AP being mounted on smaller blocks of the same beech butcher block as the top. All blocks have the same mounting pattern so that they are modular and can be put in any position on the bench, which is nice depending on what I'm working on at the time (my Dillon swager being the only exception due to it's configuration). Right now I can mount any 3 pieces of equipment at a time, but will probably add some more options as time goes by. Right now I have the following mounted on the modular blocks: Forstner trimmer RCBS Single Stage press MEC 12 Gauge Press MEC 20 Gauge Press I will add a 16 gauge press one of these days, and if any additional "needs to be mounted" item pops up. One of the nice things about modularity is that you can change what you need when you need it. For me, it works extremely well. Would prefer to not have the carpet, but I can live with it. I added a single power outlet and use a power strip to run any electrical. Right now I have room to spare on that, but one day I know it will be used up and I'll have to add another outlet.