Building the Perfect Reloading Room

Bro, that is positively brilliant, and a badass use of that shop you have. Amazing idea and execution. It's like a Pinterest project for heterosexuals.

Thanks, I think they came out very well. especially since I just made it up as I went :p, someday I have to finish another room above my garage and I will go all out making the perfect reloading/man cave. Where they can be properly displayed.
 
Those Inline rails are tempting me...

It's one of those things where you say to your self, "ah that's so simple, I could probably jimmy something similar to that" especially since they are pricey. But the form is just perfect and modular, so I just caved; I did buy the 48" versions so I could potentially cut them later on if needed.
 
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Since most of my images in the earlier posts disappeared.... here are some 'memories' of how this looked like when it started!

Starting in late January with barn attic place full of crap. Uninsulated.

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Framing in a couple of curtain walls by early Feb.

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More walls, furring, window frames, etc.

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Putting in the ceilings (used outdoor tin, pre-painted) as my ceilings. Worked out fantastic. Great industrial loo, no sheetrocking, no taping No dust. Note the pocket door.

All insulated.

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Here is the reloading side, white ceiling. Insulation all up. furred out the original 2 x 4's to 2 x 6 to get a really good level of insulation in.

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Number 2 pine barnboard on all the walls. Looks great and smells fantastic. Left it unfinished. It will mellow into a golden brown over time.

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All the windows framed and starting to put them in during early May. Need to finish the floor in this side. Bamboo from Lumber Liquidators. Nice stuff!

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Last window about to go in (frame built, just have to cut out exterior wall.

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From here it was just a couple of weekends to build all the shelves and benches. And another weekend (Memorial Day weekend) to move all the reloading stuff in and bolt it all in place.

One of the best investments was a whole pile of Acro bins. Bought cheap off eBay. You can't have enough of them! Bought a bunch of different sizes and they are just fantastic!

I'll post some pictures next weekend now that it is 'in use.' Including some of the more interesting little tools I use.

Cheers,

Sirhr




 
Yeah, Mike. Turned out not to be the lens with crap on it, but I had some wide-angle outdoor setting. That turned everything into haze. I had some better pix, but I can't find them. I'll take the Leica down this weekend and get you all some so clear, you can read the firing pin imprints on the primers on the floor.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
Great stuff guys.

When my my dad and I were active reloading, I built a couple nice benches. One at standing height for the presses, and one low sitting height for tumbling prepping and weapon maintenance. One thing I did, because our basement floor wasn't perfect, is to only have two legs on the benches. The rear of the bench was supported by the wall and the two front legs were precisely trimmed to make a very level top. I didn't use a machine level but spilled shot didn't roll off at least.

I also added some 2-foot florescent fixtures under the benches to see what was stored underneath. I also set the bottom shelf so the 30-cal ammo cans just fit under the bottom on the floor.

benches were 4x4 and 2x4 frame glued and lagged, with a 3/4 ply top with edge trim as banding and a Poly finish. Being attached to the wall it did not move no matter what we did.

No photos- that was 15+ years ago. Maybe 20 now. I don't think I'll get that deep into it again. Just my .308's and probably buy the rest.
 
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Here's the direction mine went.
I've always built mine attached to the walls also.
A pile of free mixed cabinets and some clearance flooring.
Ended up using doubled up 3/4" luan for the tops and tongue & groove for the right side wall.
Never did take a finished pic of it
 
Thanks sirhrmechanic for the great thread and to everyone that has posted. So many good ideas. I'm new to reloading. I'm overtaking an extra bedroom for my reloading room. I came up with this design after looking at a ton of pics and threads. The bench is made from milled construction lumber. Top is 2 layers of 3/4" MDF with a 3/4" Melamine top layer. I would have loved to have had a solid core door like some of the other guys used but no such thing exists in my area any more. I mounted the press and vise to pieces of edge banded 3/4" Melamine. They are attached with long hand screws through holes in the top with screw on tee nuts underneath. I countersunk the holes for some stainless hardware to plug up the holes when either is not in use. 3/4" plywood for the Harbor Freight storage box cabinet and the drawer cabinet. Runners in the storage box cab are 1/2" Baltic Birch ply as are the all dovetail construction drawers with 1/4" Melamine bottoms on 100lb full extension slides. Hutch is 3/4" ply edge banded with pine with a 1/4' melamine back. Bench construction is done less a few coats of wipe on poly. I'm prepping the room for new paint. I'll post some more pics when I make some more progress.

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Orkan,

On your tumbler, does it vibrate and make a bunch of noise on the pullout or does being in the cabinet reduce the noise by a considerable amount?

Being in the cabinet reduces it by a large amount. I made sure to have a fan in there and one side of the cabinet is open for ventilation.
 
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Finally finished with the bench build. Finally. lol. Added a secondary bench that I bought at Harbor Freight. Installed my little pancake compressor in one side. Left the other side for storage of the Frankford tumbler and drier. Also installed the HF power strip on the back of the top. I put the last coat of paint on the gun room yesterday and got everything moved in and arranged. Guess there are no excuses now. lol...





















 
Amazon. I love the thing. Very bright and super adjustable. The clamp on mount that came with it was fine but my OCD forced me to make the little white oak mount for it so it could be in the center.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071ZFL133/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
.

thanks. I’m using a clamp on gooseneck which isn’t very versatile. I just ordered a light like yours and also a byb e476. One of these will pull reloading duty and the other for the drafting/craft table of the Mrs.

 
Absolutely beautiful work! I am jelus.
I did notice one thing about the location of the vice that may be a future concern maybe not.
I have used bench vices for 34 years on my job.
I sugjest that they be located so that the inside jaw be flush or slighly outboard of the edge of the bench itself, that way longer items may be held vertically if ever necessary .
Possibly a barrel to drip into a container?

I was thinking about the track type mounting systems i have used them in the past for changing tooling but not reloading work.
Is the mounting style you use preferable or just easier to deal with.

as room is allocated by the boss i will be building a reloading bench and may have to double as a rifle work bench as well.
I may put it on wheels so it will be easier to move into the dog house with me as evidently it's inconvenient for some to use the dinner table for reloading?
 
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Absolutely beautiful work! I am jelus.
I did notice one thing about the location of the vice that may be a future concern maybe not.
I have used bench vices for 34 years on my job.
I sugjest that they be located so that the inside jaw be flush or slighly outboard of the edge of the bench itself, that way longer items may be held vertically if ever necessary .
Possibly a barrel to drip into a container?

I was thinking about the track type mounting systems i have used them in the past for changing tooling but not reloading work.
Is the mounting style you use preferable or just easier to deal with.

as room is allocated by the boss i will be building a reloading bench and may have to double as a rifle work bench as well.
I may put it on wheels so it will be easier to move into the dog house with me as evidently it's inconvenient for some to use the dinner table for reloading?

Thanks. Good catch on the vise. I didn't consider something vertical in the vise. Don't think that's an issue but we will see. Can always remount on the base if necessary. I like the T tracks but just opted for the hand screws into the tee nuts for this application. I'd say what I did is not necessarily preferable or easier than the T track just a second choice. I might do some T track after I live with this for a while. As I was expanding necks and then turning them I could see that it might be better for the press to be farther to side vs in the center. Seems everything is a work in progress, lol...
 
The mounts you used look way better than the tracks, wont fill with powder and dropped primers etc.
I figure on having to move things around often, knowing that my bench may end up like swiss cheese quickly.
I'm thinking of cheating the system and using 2 rollaways spanned by the benchtop.
Will look utilitarian at best but if i mess it up I can replace the top.

I want it to be movable incase i relocate, by removing the top?
 
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Spent Saturday and Sunday morning in the reloading room... cranked out 2500 9mm's with the Square Deal. Fixing the advancing pall was a huge improvement! Also found out that I was using the wrong 'buttons' on the rotor for 9mm. When I replaced those with bigger buttons, things started to run like a sewing machine. Move to progressives has been fantastic. No regrets on waiting as long as I did... I appreciate them more! But once a Dillon is running right, it's a thing of beauty!

Thanks again, 1J04 for all the help getting started in progressives!

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
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