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Building the Perfect Reloading Room
- Thread starter sirhrmechanic
- Start date
Well, it's not perfect, but it works for me. Still want to paint the whole bench blue. Not seen the in the picture is a Lee turret press. I need to upgrade from that. It's not the greatest quality. The 4 slot die holders dont stay in place super well which is a pain when trying to be precise seating bullets.
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The inline fab stuff is good. I am limited on space , so I have my co-ax on the quick change mount so I can change out with my other press for depriming.
Plan to use the same idea to keep things organized with the inline quick change mount system on a small work space.
Still in the planning stages and getting ready to start building.
Myron
I'm fortunate to have a 35'x80' Shop out back, half of which is insulated and heated. Really nice in the winter, but does get quite humid in the summer (Ohio). I wanted to make a small area to do my 6.5cm loading and any precision .223 loading in my house, so me and my wife turned a room into a half office, half reloading station. Just build a simple bench, lagged to the wall with 6in screws. Defintely does not move much haha. Making some small organizing bins out of 1/2" MDF as well.
The one stipulation my wife had was that she didn't want bare walls like "a frat guys house", so I had to come up with some artwork of some sort, and she recommended photos of guns/ammo etc.
For my job (arborist), I take a lot of Macro photos on my camera of insects and fungal spores, etc. So I thought I'd take some close ups of ammo I reloaded and frame them on the wall. She ended up liking the idea. So below are a few of the photos I took that will be roughly 16x20 framed photos on the wall. For all you artsy relaoders out there lol.
The one stipulation my wife had was that she didn't want bare walls like "a frat guys house", so I had to come up with some artwork of some sort, and she recommended photos of guns/ammo etc.
For my job (arborist), I take a lot of Macro photos on my camera of insects and fungal spores, etc. So I thought I'd take some close ups of ammo I reloaded and frame them on the wall. She ended up liking the idea. So below are a few of the photos I took that will be roughly 16x20 framed photos on the wall. For all you artsy relaoders out there lol.
Starting with a blank canvas in a room I am creating over the garage! Looking for ideas on lighting and everything else within this thread lots of choices to be made. Floor has since been laid down and starting to plan where to put outlets light fixtures for running electrical and insulation is on the short list.
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Looks like a great bench! Do you have some info on what type of wood the top is made of (it looks laminated), where you get the blue rails, what are the white blocks that you bolt your tools to are made of, etc. Looking to build a reloading area in my basement. ThanksMy buddies bench he just built, I'm using him as a ginny pig. It works so well!
My wife thinks I only have 3 guns
Whatever you think you'll want for outlets, triple it.
For lighting, double or triple it. LED keeps the heat and the electric bill lower.
Add in storage that you can close up.
Add a window if you can and then consider heat and air conditioning.
I'm a retired electrician, FWIW! I would consider installing some recessed or can lights down the middle and a couple of strips of track lighting on each side. Switch the middle separately from the sides. Maybe even switch the sides separately. You could also do florescent strips down the middle. Either with T-8 or LED bulbs. But you will still need something on the sides.
Draw off or mark your proposed benches and storage on the floor. This will help locate the light fixtures.
Don't forget receptacles. Put one or two away from the benches in easy to reach areas for utility or housekeeping purposes.
Don't forget that the NEC requires at least one light over the stairway be on a 3-way switch, switched from both top and bottom of the stairs.
Liking the room already!
Draw off or mark your proposed benches and storage on the floor. This will help locate the light fixtures.
Don't forget receptacles. Put one or two away from the benches in easy to reach areas for utility or housekeeping purposes.
Don't forget that the NEC requires at least one light over the stairway be on a 3-way switch, switched from both top and bottom of the stairs.
Liking the room already!
awesome thanks for the information and will definitely keep that in mind as I lay things out!
Mother of God I want this room. The world is yours man!!! Can’t wait to see pics as it comes along.
I wish I had a whole room to work with. But since I don’t half the garage will have to do. Is a work in progress. Works well for me. Pictures only show one side of setup. The other side separated by a 3 foot walkway has a gorilla rack and large rolling tool chest with workbench top. I am new to reloading and so this is my first reloading bench setup. Have plans for a shop build behind the house some day. When that happens I have a plan for a dedicated reloading room. Someday...
Sterilite shoe box sized works phenomenal
About 550 308 sized cases will fit. Easy to stack easy to see....
Fyi dog fell asleep counting brass instead of sheep
Fyi best gun room vaccum cleaner I have tried. Even picks up spent primers when they go astray.
like the box idea. I have some and like them. Will need to get some more to store my brass. Better than a ziplock for sure.
My reloading room is still a work in progress, LOL.
Yes, it is about as blank of a canvas I can get, lol.
Made some progress yesterday with the help of some awesome friends and got the electrical ran for lights and outlets. I didn’t get a great picture of all of it but the plan is a U shape reloading area on the far wall. Went heavy with lights on that end and electrical boxes will be heavy on the right hand side where scales and case prep tools are planned. Presses will be on back wall of picture with the most head room for Dillon with case feeder and once furred in will add a couple more outlets not shown. Left hand wall will be a maintenance bench and went a little lighter on outlets should still have plenty of lighting.
I’m trying to decide if I want to sheet rock or also looking at possibly doing ship lap for walls. Next step in the meantime will be insulation.
I’m trying to decide if I want to sheet rock or also looking at possibly doing ship lap for walls. Next step in the meantime will be insulation.
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Yes I do, they are moving along at a much quicker pace than anticipated. They tell me I will be in by mid June but it sure seems like it’ll be quicker.
I think I am going to move the reloading room into one of the other bedrooms. The other one is a bit smaller muy it has a much larger walk in closet. This way I could shelve the closet all up and put a deadbolt on the door to lock up materials a bit better. It’ll never keep the professional thief out but it’ll be better and a standard closet with a sliding set of doors.
Here is the house as of yesterday. It’s come a very long way.
And as I said I may move it from bedroom 4 to bedroom 3 on this floor plan. I am single so I don’t have any spousal factor to worry about and I don’t need 3 guest bedrooms. So it’s basically pick the best one for me, lol.
Moved to a new place and managed to snag a room for Reloading/office use. Super excited about all of the bench space.
I was able to commandeer a small bedroom in our house when my son moved out. It’s only 10x12 but it beats being in the garage! Heat and A/C for the win!
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You can get those on Lowe’s online..
Home Depot. They weren’t super cheap but they are running a deal currently. I went with a 6ft and 8ft length.
Right now I move every few years so I can't build anything permanent just yet. I'm looking forward to when I retire and can come back to this page for ideas and build exactly what I want.
Looks great, I just finished a shop with a dedicated reloading room. I may do something like this.
I added a couple shelves to the benches to keep some of the clutter off the working surface. Found the hickory slabs on Craigslist and went from there
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Some really cool builds on here. I made a time lapse video of my small reloading corner in the garage a while back. I worked on it a little bit every chance I got. It took forever to complete but man am I glad it was finally set up. It's my favorite place to be on my time off.
I don't see any old jukebox or radio no tunes ? loading to some old sappy song keeping up with the rhythm make your own musical reloading to rush lol personally I go old country western sons of the pioneers cool water or don't fence me in but i love almost any old crackle song played on a record that's over 50 years old sound good to me , even audio books could be really neat . I like the look of all the set ups there are pics of wishing I had one maybe one day I will . good luck with yours . I also think if I could ever do It I would love to go large industrial ammo everywhere floor to ceiling creates of bullets and bins full of my favorites rounds .
Could you tell me how far the first rail is from the edge of the bench? Also, what's the distance between the rails? Thank You
Reloading table on the left with an old jeweler's box on top for all the small parts storage. With all the trophies spread throughout the room.
I’m in the same boat. I gave up my 3car garage for the wife’s kitchen, so I get the smallest upstairs bedroom. I feel sorry for the guys that have to move my safe up there
This is what alliant suggests: https://www.alliantpowder.com/getting_started/safety/storage_handling.aspx#recommendations
Short version is put it in a wooden box that has at least 1 inch thick walls. I would recommend FRT wood. You don't want it too secure or else if it does go up, it'll become a bomb.
There are ways to make it more fire safe, but this is probably the easiest and cheapest way to do it. If you use metal or concrete, you'll want to put a failure point in it. I was looking at building something but it just got too complicated very quickly. One inch thick FRT is simple to use, has a fire retardant treatment, and shouldn't become a bomb on you. If you really want to make it safer, do two layers of the FRT with an air gap in between similar to how rated shaft walls in buildings are built.
They ship consumer powder in containers that are designed to burn. Don’t store it by sources of flame/heat and live on
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