Want to make a wooden shelf rack for my dies

Give us more clues, please. Are these dies loose, in their plastic boxes, or mounted on turrets/ tool heads ? If they are in boxes, are they all the same brand or in boxes with mixed dimensions ?

To get something that looks like that pic involves some practice in wood working. Nice results can be had in your first attempt but expect to make mistakes and redo some things. Btw if you have experience doing woodworking please excuse my assumption.

A table saw is the best tool to get the material to the exact size and to get perfectly straight cuts. A circular saw with a straight edge guidewould work also. But if you’re asking how to make something like this and don’t have any tools, I’d say go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and get them to do the cuts for you.

So the “trick” is going to be building the box and placing the shelves. There are several ways to do that, so the hardest part for you will be getting it all square and such.

The easiest way would be to get the material used for bookshelves and closet systems with shelf holes predrilled. This way you have adjustable shelves! Then either cut the shelves to size or have them cut for you.

Then just build the main frame. If you don’t have any tools, I’d say the minimum you need are a square and a level. You can pick these up cheap at Harbor Freight if one is nearby. Then you have to decide if you’re simply gluing it, adding pins, nailing, or using another joining method. Again here your experience, tools, and budget help determine the options.

I have been debating doing something similar lately! The last few times I have reloaded, the die set was almost always on the very bottom of the ever growing pile! I also enjoy wood working, so it would give me another project. I’m not sure how I’d go about it though.

The other thing I have thought about it using an old dresser, and building slots within the drawers. A similar fashion to the picture posted about, but laid down in a drawer. I could also use the dresser for other equipment / component storage.

I guess it also depends on the quantity of die boxes you have!

I’m interested to see where this thread goes!

If all the dies are in mfg storage boxes I would build more of a open shelf or overhead cabinet. The covey hole would be hard to get them in and out and it would hide the labels if ones in front of the other. The factory boxes are designed to stack with the exception of Lee. For Lee you will just have to set them on the shelf if its the round ones.

Whatever you build, you will grow out of. Keep that in mind and make it extensible.

I'm with the shelf idea. Unless you have all the same brand of dies purchased over a time span where the maker didn't switch boxes like Lee did with round and square, you will end up wanting unequally sized openings or wasting a lot of space to accommodate the largest container

It's an unwritten law of hand-loading that the dies you need will always be on the bottom of the stack. Which is why when I had my loading room built we installed drawers under the bench with the die boxes stored label end up and easy to find. Each drawer holds forty die sets in a compact and easy to access space, as shown in attached photo.

If they are in boxes I don't see a need for anything complicated and I would leave them in the boxes. Each set stays together and doesn't collect dust. My bench has two shelves along the back with ends to keep things on the bench. I just stack the die boxes up to the bottom of the top shelf staring at the end behind my press and make another stack beside the first. So far there are three stacks. This method has been satisfactory for me for many years.

Offhand ,so do you have a fire arm for each die ?

CC

clearcut said:

Offhand ,so do you have a fire arm for each die ?

CC

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Do I? You have three guesses, the first two don't count.

Man you set the bar high!

CC

My first attempt - Okay but not enough & hard to access.

Next, I made stackable insert shelves. Much easier & much better.

BTW: You can do something similar with a wine-rack for powder.


Lessons learned: allow for more than you need & make sure die boxes & powder tops stick out 1/2" for easy grabbing.

FWIW...

So I went a different way entirely. I got a couple or three full sized shelving units from Home Depot. 4 shelf I think. Assembled them and bolted them together side by side. Then for each die set I got a Stearalite shoe storage box from WM. I put the die set, my Lee length trim parts, and any other things for that caliber in there along with some dummy rounds to set up the seating die and function check a firearm. Some even have the partial bullet boxes there. A P-touch and the box is Identified. I can stack those boxes 3 high on a shelf and have everything to load a specific caliber in one handy box as well as a place to put it when done. Full boxes of bullets and containers of brass in the bottom shelf for stability. Just another option. The shelf units cost ~$15 each and the shoe boxes ~$3.25 each when I did it. YMMV

And I thought loading for 21 different calibers was alot.

Offfhand said:

It's an unwritten law of hand-loading that the dies you need will always be on the bottom of the stack. Which is why when I had my loading room built we installed drawers under the bench with the die boxes stored label end up and easy to find. Each drawer holds forty die sets in a compact and easy to access space, as shown in attached photo.

View attachment 782167

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FROGO207 said:

So I went a different way entirely. I got a couple or three full sized shelving units from Home Depot. 4 shelf I think. Assembled them and bolted them together side by side. Then for each die set I got a Stearalite shoe storage box from WM. I put the die set, my Lee length trim parts, and any other things for that caliber in there along with some dummy rounds to set up the seating die and function check a firearm. Some even have the partial bullet boxes there. A P-touch and the box is Identified. I can stack those boxes 3 high on a shelf and have everything to load a specific caliber in one handy box as well as a place to put it when done. Full boxes of bullets and containers of brass in the bottom shelf for stability. Just another option. The shelf units cost ~$15 each and the shoe boxes ~$3.25 each when I did it. YMMV

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Here is your answer, of Lowe's or Ikea or Walmart.

I'm beginning to think storing in boxes is important. I got out my Redding .223 dies out yesterday & I was shocked to see a couple of specks of rust starting to form. For sure the boxes prevent dirt & dust, but I'll need to add some "moisture-absorber" packets & rub the dies & parts down with an oily rag....FWIW

I have nowhere near that many dies! Since I use a Lee Classic Turret, I bought turrets and storage boxes for each cartridge I reload for. If you flip the bottom of the storage box over, the turret with dies mounted will fit inside. Dies are pre-mounted, and protected from dust. I have about a dozen of these and my shelf is sized accordingly. I still have the original boxes, but I don't use them for storage; they are just boxed up separately.

It can get expensive but what I have done to get all my dies to fit in the space I have is I put them in RCBS boxes. I hate the Lee round tube deals and the Hornady die boxes take up to much space length wise, I can fit two RCBS boxes end to end on my shelf but only one Hornady box. So if the dies aren't RCBS I have purchased RCBS empty boxes ($5.00 at Midway) for the die set. If I had to replace all the boxes at once I probably wouldn't due to upfront cost but I did a box here or there as I acquired dies so it doesn't seem so bad.

I have done the same with one pound working powder jugs, the Alliant tall jugs don't fit in my space so I transfer the powder to a empty Hodgdon type jug and carefully peal the label off the original jug to put on the new jug. I purchase most of my powder in 5 or 8 pound containers now but I kept a hord of 1 pound Hodgdon jugs so I have a bottle when I get a new powder. The Alliant jugs make great shot storage bottles.

Muddydogs said:

... I have done the same with one pound working powder jugs, the Alliant tall jugs don't fit in my space so I transfer the powder to a empty Hodgdon type jug and carefully peal the label off the original jug to put on the new jug. I purchase most of my powder in 5 or 8 pound containers now but I kept a hoard of 1 pound Hodgdon jugs so I have a bottle when I get a new powder.

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Duh. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks for the idea!