Reloading Room buildout

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GW Staar said:
Even room for a 3d Printer........;) Perfect!
Click to expand...

:rofl: You saw that, LOL... actually that is in the house, I kinda prefer it that way.

GW Staar said:
You may need more legs near the presses you add. But that's an easy add, where ever you find you need one.....heck you could even make a portable leg that you could place, move, depending on where you need support that session.
Click to expand...


Sooo.. I gave that whole thing alot of thought, I really wanted to have the open area under the bench for shelving for press storage, vice and other things. I am still and likely will be moving things into the room for the next few weeks, but, I had the wife and my adult kid get up on the benches when I built them to see how much drop or sag I would get and with 250lbs on the bench I got less than a 1/4" of drop, they are built with 4x4's tied directly into the framing of the room. I can always stick another post in if I need to but I'm hoping to not have to. I despise a bench that flexes when I am reloading.
 
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hightide610 said:
:rofl: You saw that, LOL... actually that is in the house, I kinda prefer it that way.




Sooo.. I gave that whole thing alot of thought, I really wanted to have the open area under the bench for shelving for press storage, vice and other things. I am still and likely will be moving things into the room for the next few weeks, but, I had the wife and my adult kid get up on the benches when I built them to see how much drop or sag I would get and with 250lbs on the bench I got less than a 1/4" of drop, they are built with 4x4's tied directly into the framing of the room. I can always stick another post in if I need to but I'm hoping to not have to. I despise a bench that flexes when I am reloading.
Click to expand...

I hear you.....but it most likely will flex a little on the long span. that's why I suggested a "removable" you can move around;) The other thing I wouldn't want to be without in my "office" is big drawers (picture below, before it got crowded).....so danged handy.....but you can always add them too if you feel the need.
IMG-0428.jpg

I DO like to sit to do most things so I have to have knee space. I do have a shelf under, but it's back a ways.

The biggest problem is you.......if you're like most of us, the hobby grows. I only have an 8' bench......more storage than that, but still.... At first it was a big plenty......now I have 2 progressives, a lee APP, a Rock Chucker, a Summit, and a bench primer......that's not counting the Thumbler's Tumbler and a Big Lyman Dry Tumbler.....and a Trimmer.......then came the 3D printer (in the house like you have)....and boy the gates flew open then....

Out came 5 feeder/collators! Bench is overcrowded now.....even with the raised horizontal 1.5" sq. tube rail to keep the collators off the bench.

You mentioned seeing into the collators.......the mirrors come next! :)

Feeder-mount-1.jpg
Bullet feeder getting "plugged" into the steel tube "Y" sitting over the horizontal steel tube.

Main thing is the whole dang thing is funner than ever! More the funner! Wish I could buy my neighbor's house and make it my reloading room! Ha! Have fun!
 
EB41CA3B-B819-432E-874B-94F76EBC2FBA.jpeg 654CD2F3-6483-43B8-8F32-27CA49869434.jpeg 23F37848-B962-4F1E-BD35-F3991B2B09C8.jpeg 5F7A15E6-F41B-4F5C-A0A2-0FD5CF52A117.jpeg 96C1DADE-D4D9-4BB0-9E84-DFB1DCF8398B.jpeg 21745CCE-59E8-40CF-9BD7-B551C8A0F6BD.jpeg 46CA93D9-B476-42CD-9FFE-88893C08FEDD.jpeg My wall mounted bench top is exactly 36” tall. It works perfectly for me for sitting down while reloading. The wife bought me a really nice office chair that’s adjustable. Since I’m retired, it’s truly my new office.

My island is 39” tall. But I have the 9” Inline fabrication base on one end and the smaller one (I think 4”) at the other end. The island has been used mostly for gun work. I have a couple different gun vises I mount on the the bases as well as a work vise. I also have a base that fits my shotshell presses if I wanted to stand and load but I believe that was a waste of money since I’ve never loaded standing and probably won’t start. Once Brownells has the barrel vise I want back in stock, I’ll get a mounting plate for that as well. That height has worked well. No bending over.
 
Walkalong said:
I feel lucky to have a 12’ by 12’ room for my gun stuff, some of you guys have really big spaces, I’m so jealous. :)
Click to expand...

A 12'x12' room dedicated? You are lucky! I'm jealous of that.....mine's the back wall of a 22'x 20' garage.....and the 8' bench is between two doors....so I can't add to it....so it just gets crowdeder and crowdeder. ;) I do have a little island hanging storage and very little on the side wall for ammo and components. Only the bench is singly dedicated tho.

My wife gave me a wall in her laundry/sewing room for my 3d printer......it's through one of the doors at the end of my bench. Feeling lucky enough for that.....:)

IMG-3449.jpg

I did get around to making an end piece to cover the raw edge....early picture.
 
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Walkalong said:
I feel lucky to have a 12’ by 12’ room for my gun stuff, some of you guys have really big spaces, I’m so jealous. :)
Click to expand...

My room in our last house was 7X9. My bench was across the 7ft side under a window with shelves framing both sides and over the window. It was my dedicated room but it was cramped.

My room in our new house is 13X18 with a fairly large walk-in closet. I plan to install a new top on my loading bench, going from 7ft to 8ft. I'll put another 8ft table in the middle of the room like an island. I've ordered some shelves to go in the closet for component storage and a 4ft book case will be at one end of my bench. Since I've been reloading this will be my 6th and hopefully final room. We'll see.............
 
lightman said:
My room in our last house was 7X9. My bench was across the 7ft side under a window with shelves framing both sides and over the window. It was my dedicated room but it was cramped.

My room in our new house is 13X18 with a fairly large walk-in closet. I plan to install a new top on my loading bench, going from 7ft to 8ft. I'll put another 8ft table in the middle of the room like an island. I've ordered some shelves to go in the closet for component storage and a 4ft book case will be at one end of my bench. Since I've been reloading this will be my 6th and hopefully final room. We'll see.............
Click to expand...
That sounds like a great space!!!

Mine is similar, 12.5’x18.5’. But my gun safe, my hunting clothes, and 3 hobbies; rifle, pistol and shotgun reloading, don’t really fit.

But I am so happy all my stuff is in one place. I no longer have to search 3 areas for my stuff!
 
hightide610 said:
Hello everyone! I've stalked the forum for many months searching for ideas and spending A LOT of time reading, so first time officially posting.

I am relatively new to the reloading world so I am quite novice in years but I am an avid researcher (comes from the technical background). 2 years ago we bought 10 acres in the country and I planned out what our forever home/homestead would be. In that plan was my dream shop (I've spent the better part of 40 years rolling ideas in my head about it) and always had the intention of having a dedicated gun building/smithing and reloading room as well as a three sided 12+ foot tall berm and in my property search of a minimum of 10 acres I need one side to be over 600' long with nothing on the backside for long guns (another 20' wide 12+ foot tall berm.

Shop is done and plans are in motion for the shooting areas now, but I need to get work on construction of the reload room. So I am looking for some help answering questions.

We are located in North/Central Florida, this is a particularly mild winter (so far) but today January 10th, 2022 it is 65 degrees outside and 82% humidity, August 10th of 2022 will be a VERY different story.

The shop is a metal frame and sided building 30'x30' with an eave height of 13', there are two 12' wide lean-to's on either side, one open for parking the horse trailer and one fully enclosed where I park my tractor.

The area that I am peeling off for my "hobby room" is the back side of that enclosed lean-to, which I am starting construction on at the end of this month. The room will be a fully insulated 8'x12' room and only accessible thru the shop area for security purposes.

Sooo... here are my questions:

  1. Dealing with humidity, I am putting a small 6,000 BTU A/C unit in the room, but, with the room only actually being roughly 96 sq ft, that is likely not going to have time to adequately pull the humidity down before it cools the room leading to several challenges. So I am planning on also adding a dehumidifier to it. My thought is trying to maintain 45-50% humidity, but I am not real sure how much is to much for storage of primers and powder, and are there other suggestions or things to look at to control humidity to keep powder from absorbing or steel parts from rusting?
  2. I have also considered a 300cfm commercial exhaust fan (like that would go in a bathroom only much larger and designed for continuous use), I actually have a brand new one in a box, but have had mixed responses to my thought of adding it.
  3. Because I am limited on counter space I want to put T-track in the counter and pick up a couple of inline fabrication ultramounts for presses, vices and other various items, but the only track I can find is 3/8"x3/4" aluminum which I fear will not have the rigidity to keep presses from flexing over time, what has anyone had experience with?
  4. Floor coatings, I'm kicking around garage epoxy, but also think anti-static mat would be a better option there. So any feedback there would be appreciated.
  5. This one seems crazy for me to even ask, but bench height? In the shop my benches are all 46", but I kind of feel like that may be to high especially since I am going to be using ultramounts. Right now I have a Lee Classic Turret, but down the road a nice progressive press with bullet feed and case feed options for handgun loads is a plan, some of those I've been looking at it would take a step ladder to check on which I don't want to do.

Here is the rough draft of the plan:


View attachment 1051061

Feel free to critique and suggest...

And for reference, here is the shop layout and why I chose it there:

View attachment 1051062
Click to expand...
If you're adding a, the the exhaust fan will cause a loss in cooling. Check on a dehumidifier. With a central ac (not a swamp cooler) it'll control some humidity. I turned my ac off this morning and humidity went from 40% to 68% here in nw Texas. Usually holds under 30% inside or less. The ac can provide less static charge. I was adding pics of my reloading space, but got 4 error messages.
 
small town life said:
If you're adding a, the the exhaust fan will cause a loss in cooling. Check on a dehumidifier. With a central ac (not a swamp cooler) it'll control some humidity. I turned my ac off this morning and humidity went from 40% to 68% here in nw Texas. Usually holds under 30% inside or less. The ac can provide less static charge. I was adding pics of my reloading space, but got 4 error messages.
Click to expand...


Yep, the plan was never to have the exhaust fan running unless I needed it (working with fired brass mainly). The A/C unit I have actually has a "dry" setting which is a de-humidification mode which is what it stays set on and the thermostat is set to 72. I am in the room right now and the temp is 72, unit is off and humidity is 38%. Its used 43kWh this month so far, given my electric rates its going to cost me less than $10/month to keep it at this temp/humidity.

Granted, its 92 deg outside right now and close to 70% humidity outside in May, the true test will be July, August and September, but if I can keep things less than 50% humidity in this room I'll call that a win.

In Florida if you can keep things at 55% in the house during those months you are lucky so I recognize this is a tall ask but we will see!
 
N555 said:
Outside, in a shed or detached garage.
Click to expand...

I built it in the shop which is a 30x54 metal building "man cave" as the wife affectionately calls it. shop is 30x30 and two 12' lean-to's, on is enclosed, thats where I built the room.
 
hightide610 said:
Thanks... that's the engineering side of me, the military side says "what is going to go wrong and how do I prep/fix it before it happens", still workin' on the later...

This is my shop bench, big fan of 4x4's for framing and 3/4' plywood... it took 4 people to move it into place when it was done.. so I guess you could consider it "portable" but... I can put a big block chevy motor on that thing and it ain't movin... that is FOR SURE!!

View attachment 1051072
Click to expand...

Small observation here mate, if you face the hammer the other way, it would match the Dewalt fleet....:)

Thewelshm
 
I purchased and older H & R 45-70 on the old action, a shotgun action I was told. No hot loads, but was wondering, if I had the chamber made extra long, could I load long bullets, up to 500 grain,. and maybe excperimeted
with paper patched bullets. Would that be ok
 
I've since did some changing on layout. Drilled some new holes and used T-nuts along with allen head bolts for r and i. Relocated the 2 550's with aluminum strap to hold on the Z-iron when not in use.
 

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hightide610 said:
So I have access to a pretty much unlimited supply of range brass, with all of the reading I have done, I thought it was in my best interest to put a decent ventilation fan in when I am processing brass.
Click to expand...
I would suggest you don’t want brass processing dust in your very clean reloading room. When I dry tumbled I would always run the tumbler with a solid lid and either in the garage or outside on a nice day. Then I’d switch to the slotted lid and separate media/dust outside, that fine dust will get everywhere it’s not supposed to. I switched to wet tumbling and do that outside as well. Just a suggestion. Good luck.
 
hightide610 said:
Hello everyone! I've stalked the forum for many months searching for ideas and spending A LOT of time reading, so first time officially posting.

I am relatively new to the reloading world so I am quite novice in years but I am an avid researcher (comes from the technical background). 2 years ago we bought 10 acres in the country and I planned out what our forever home/homestead would be. In that plan was my dream shop (I've spent the better part of 40 years rolling ideas in my head about it) and always had the intention of having a dedicated gun building/smithing and reloading room as well as a three sided 12+ foot tall berm and in my property search of a minimum of 10 acres I need one side to be over 600' long with nothing on the backside for long guns (another 20' wide 12+ foot tall berm.

Shop is done and plans are in motion for the shooting areas now, but I need to get work on construction of the reload room. So I am looking for some help answering questions.

We are located in North/Central Florida, this is a particularly mild winter (so far) but today January 10th, 2022 it is 65 degrees outside and 82% humidity, August 10th of 2022 will be a VERY different story.

The shop is a metal frame and sided building 30'x30' with an eave height of 13', there are two 12' wide lean-to's on either side, one open for parking the horse trailer and one fully enclosed where I park my tractor.

The area that I am peeling off for my "hobby room" is the back side of that enclosed lean-to, which I am starting construction on at the end of this month. The room will be a fully insulated 8'x12' room and only accessible thru the shop area for security purposes.

Sooo... here are my questions:
Since you are building this reloading room make sure you orient a flip up window in front of your indoor shooting bench so you can try your test loads without going out of the air conditioned room.
  1. Dealing with humidity, I am putting a small 6,000 BTU A/C unit in the room, but, with the room only actually being roughly 96 sq ft, that is likely not going to have time to adequately pull the humidity down before it cools the room leading to several challenges. So I am planning on also adding a dehumidifier to it. My thought is trying to maintain 45-50% humidity, but I am not real sure how much is to much for storage of primers and powder, and are there other suggestions or things to look at to control humidity to keep powder from absorbing or steel parts from rusting?
  2. I have also considered a 300cfm commercial exhaust fan (like that would go in a bathroom only much larger and designed for continuous use), I actually have a brand new one in a box, but have had mixed responses to my thought of adding it.
  3. Because I am limited on counter space I want to put T-track in the counter and pick up a couple of inline fabrication ultramounts for presses, vices and other various items, but the only track I can find is 3/8"x3/4" aluminum which I fear will not have the rigidity to keep presses from flexing over time, what has anyone had experience with?
  4. Floor coatings, I'm kicking around garage epoxy, but also think anti-static mat would be a better option there. So any feedback there would be appreciated.
  5. This one seems crazy for me to even ask, but bench height? In the shop my benches are all 46", but I kind of feel like that may be to high especially since I am going to be using ultramounts. Right now I have a Lee Classic Turret, but down the road a nice progressive press with bullet feed and case feed options for handgun loads is a plan, some of those I've been looking at it would take a step ladder to check on which I don't want to do.

Here is the rough draft of the plan:


View attachment 1051061

Feel free to critique and suggest...

And for reference, here is the shop layout and why I chose it there:

View attachment 1051062
Click to expand...
 
Finally was able to complete my Reloading bench and much need storage space in the reloading basement… here are some pics.. enjoy….
 

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I've been soul searching on a better way to organize and/or have a better floor plan. Keeping everything against the wall leaves the rest open, but moving the reloading area to the middle lets me go all the way around. While i just revamped the way the bench area is set up leaving 10' of open bench for building long guns there is nothing better than the ability of getting all the way around. Having a gap behind the bench for items to possibly fall off is unacceptable. A backsplash so too speak is in the works.
 
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