What or where to find bench top material

MDF said:
I second a wood top of some sort. A stainless table top is going to make noise every time you set something down.

I've used those jointed pine "project boards" from Home Despot for table and cabinet tops. They are soft wood but the top surface holds up pretty well when finished with polyurethane. Put a hardwood edge around the perimeter to protect the edges and corners.

For extra weight, laminate the pine project board to an underlay of MDF. You won't see the MDF if you edge the thing with hardwood.

A totally ready-to-go-without-any-woodworking solution might be a table top or counter top from Ikea. Their AS-IS clearance area can have some decent deals.

Of course, if you go the Ikea route for a reloading bench top, you'll only be able to load 6.5×55 Swedish on it -- nothing else will work properly with an Ikea top.
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I have the ikea butcher block top and I can confirm that non Swedish calibers can be loaded.
 
So far my new plan is to use the 2 cad tire benches I have. Level them together by shinning the top of the first one. Then a full sheet of 8ft mdf across both to tie them together. Then I picked up some t bar from lee valley and will mount both 650 to them so I can move them back and forth over 4 ft to gain extra room when need.
 
I started out with wood, was nice, clean, pretty to look at, but now I'v up graded to a concrete top. Its heavy has hell, but it makes for a great surface.
 
Solid core door , steel Commercial Door slabs , find them damaged / seconds , you can pick them up cheep ! The solid cores you can cut to size/ length with ordinary wood saws . The steel doors come in different lengths and widths new seconds can be found without holes , they make excellent work bench tops . If you need cheep light and strong shelfs folding closet doors work great .
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I got it all built up today and it’s not too bad. I’ll throw up a pic but it’s a bit messy since I haven’t organized or anything yet. Was focused on getting it done.
 
I was given a couple of section's of concrete form plywood. 1 1/2 inch's thick and sucked up the first 4 coat's of spar varnish. After 10 coat's it's very easy to wipe off
 
I'm still using two Crappy tire particle benches for some stuff but for holding my lathe I used a solid core wood fire door and built a 2x4 frame. Inthe middle of the room I slapped up a 4x4 sheet of 3/4" plywood on 2 of those folding steel legs in case I need the room. Solid as hell and can hold a few hundred pounds.
 
Don't have picture but I just put some laminate counter top material that was lying around the house. Just glued it down on top of the 2x6 the bench is built of. Nicer surface to work on than the bare wood.
 
I just use 3/4" plywood doubled, give it a coat of clear matte polyurethane and add a slightly raised trim edge to keep brass and tools from rolling off. Very cheap and very solid... it will outlast you.
 
Double or triple up some 3/4" plywood (laminate them) - get one G1S and put on top - cover with poly or a real good paint.
Cut to the shape you want, easy to repair, and very very strong. Holds screws very well.
 
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