Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reloading bench

I started reloading in 1962 and have gone through several different reloading benches.

Absolutely the best one is the NRMA designed bench.


I believe that plans are still available.

Mine is over 30 years old.

It is super strong, but what I like most about it is that it is a simple takedown into several components by removing the 3/8 inch carriage bolts that hold it together.
This makes transport a lot simpler and getting through doors a breeze.
I flew helicopters for 26 years, and moved quite often. Having this bench really was a boon to my reloading.

Besides my two Dillon presses I have three MEC presses, a Pacific single stage press, a cast bullet sizer, and several other bench mounted tools.

Only using one tool at a time was a problem until I modified the bench with a key system for mounting the tools when I rebuilt the bench about 20 years ago.
(I had originally dyed the bench a dark walnut stain. This turned out to be a poor choice because it hid dropped powder and other small dropped objects.)
To alleviate this when I decided to modify the bench about twenty years ago, I simply added a ¾ inch maple laminated plywood sheet on top.
Before I installed the new bench top I cut out the key slot.

The largest tool footprint is my MEC Grabber, so I designed the key to accommodate it, and thus all others.

I ended up with an 11 x 11 inch ¾ inch thick key block with ¼ inch holes set 1 inch from the edges in each corner.
I glued an additional 11x11 inch piece of a Hemlock 1x12 on top of the plywood key to give the mounting bolts a little more material to work with.
The ¼ inch holes were drilled through the bench and the underside was relieved to accommodate ¼ wing nuts.
These were secured using fiberglass rifle bedding compound and are totally solid.


This is a picture of my bench with a key installed that allows the full use of the bench without having to work around any mounted tools.



Here is a good look at the key slot showing the modifications I made to allow shotgun primers to drop into a catch jar mounted under the bench top.



The cutdown Plastic Jar with spent primers.
Lid is screwed to the underside of the bench

I cut down a plastic jar and reassembled the halves to provide a low profile catch system that has a reasonable capacity.


Shotgun Primer catch jar installed on the underside of the bench
Also shown is how I installed the ¼ in bolt wing nuts.



One of my MEC 600 Jrs. set up for 20 GA. showing the modification for the primer drop.

To Be Continued