If you could build the "perfect" reloading room...

[geargnasher]

....how would you do it? I'm going to build a new one in the next year and I'd love to hear all the ideas you folks have about general setup, arrangement, materials, dimensions, whatever. Think about your current setups and what you'd do to improve them, that's what I'm doing.

I have a 12X16 space with a rough-finished concrete floor and ten-foot ceiling with shallow attic, and am planning to run a 100-amp sub-panel to the room to run all the "stuff" a reloader has to have. As yet there is no insulation or sheetrock, and the room will not have central heat/ac. Planning on an electric heater and a window unit. The room will be used for storing all my guns, ammo, components, reloading with eight press stations, four sizer stations, a casting station, a case prep station, a gun-cleaning station, and a general workspace for all those little "projects" like revolver shotshell making and mould tuning.

Here are some considerations: Knees getting bad and back not so great, I've always been a person who prefers to stand or sit on a stool to cast and reload, thus high benches, but I'm sitting down these days in a quality typist's office chair with good, upright back support. I plan to do everything I can sitting down in the new room.

Coffee maker. Must have a coffee maker. Possibly a mini-fridge.

What floor surface? I'm thinking good industrial low-pile carpet layed right on the concrete. Ideas?

Casting booth will be in the room, I'm thinking I need a fresh-air intake in the room and a high cfm vent-a-hood with panels on the sides going down to the bench and a panel across the top of the front to help capture fluxing smoke. Any ideas or pics of your fume-elimination setups would be great.

Bench construction/material/surface. I used to work for a custom cabinet shop and have the tools and knowledge to build just about anything regarding cabinets, benches, drawer banks etc, just looking for ideas about depth of reloading benches and configurations that work well for all of you. I'm thinking of all the useless clutter space behind the presses on a two-foot benchtop, wouldn't it be better to make the press benches along the walls only about 12-14" deep? I'm considering an island in the middle of the room as well, I've seen some setups built around an island, but I'd like to hear more about it.

Also any tips would be appreciated on the following:
Powder magazine
Primer storage
Walk-in gun/ammo safe
Lighting
Rifle rack configuration
Pistol racks

I'm looking for other little tidbits like making an eye-level shelf near each press for beam-type powder scales so they are easier to read, and using a press mounting system of some sort as opposed to bolting everything down directly to the benches. I've pored over the long "loading bench pics" thread and picked up lots of good ideas, but I'm always looking for more ideas and explanations as well as creative solutions to common problems with setups.

You get the idea, let's hear it!

Gear

[HeavyMetal]

First things first lets start with the floor:

I like the idea of some type of cushion on the floor in case I drop a die or something equally easy to bend or crack! I have had, and hated, a carpeted surface! Both powder and primers disappear in the stuff as will small parts off the press and or dies!

Instead I will suggest you cover that floor with a nice thick epoxy coating ( look in hot rod mags, lots of guys doing very clean garages) and then buy some interlocking mats to go on the floor under the press's! Harbor Freight is the ticket here!

Now lets talk work bench! Think you going to put a work bench against the wall of the building and waste space behind the press's? Bad idea!

Instead build you an island in the middle of the floor ( look at kitchens for ideas) and build it to suit the type of chair or stool your going to be most comfortable in ( height wise) then cover the island with one piece of 1/4 or 3/8's steel plate! My thought is attach this to the island as if you thought a Rhino might come try to pull it off!

Once secured to the island in this manner you should be able to swage bullets with no fear of moving the top or the entire island for that matter! The base of the island should be secured to the building floor using the same logic!

This will give you a very long area to mount everything you'll ever need on it. While your there add some of the akro bin holders so that you can have components or tools handy to each station as you use it! Drawers and or shelves can be engineered into the island design making it an ideal storage center as well.

Now the walls can be set up with cabinets and or book shelves and they won't be any longer than you need them to be to to hold what you want.

A small fridge for cold drinks and a flat screen with a DVD player built into it will give you a rough idea of my thoughts on a reloading room!

As you can tell I've given this some thought should I ever move again! Please note that I tried to suggest ideas but didn't really detail the ideas to much as each reloading area must be fitted to the end users needs.

Hope I planted some good ideas!

[geargnasher]

That's the ticket! How about a Lazy Susan in the middle of the island about three feet tall with multiple layers of shelves for storing die sets, press tools, turret heads, powder measures, powder measure discs, funnels, tricklers, measuring tools, dummy rounds, case gauges, etc. that can be accessed from any station on the bench?

I already have several hundred Akro bins in the shop, most are in a tall cabinet with doors I built just for the purpose, that's where I store all my bolts. I made some strips out of a couple of pieces of flat steel welded together for hanging them on the front of my shop benches, the plastic hangers that come with them are too flimsy to hold any significant weight. Same for the tool carts.

No carpet, huh? I had the same concerns, but I've been looking at the stuff they put in school hallways, and it's such low-pile that it won't absorb a primer or a decapping pin and an office chair will roll on it like a dream. My main concern was it will soak up gunpowder like a sponge, and I might have Magic Exploding Carpet in a few years even with frequent vacuumings. Solvent drips and lead spatter are other concerns. I have a tendency to drop everything I pick up at least once, and am a firm believer in baseboards and having toe-kick boards under every cabinet so things can't bounce off the toe of my boot and shoot way back underneath something. A soft surface that won't mar steel rifle buttplates or ruin dropped boolits would be a plus, the interlocking foam might be a good solution. I'm going to seal the concrete to help reduce humidity in the room regardless of what I put on top, did the epoxy thing to part of the shop and it's hard to beat.

One thought, Sears used to offer a 24'-square rubber garage mat that was about 1/4" thick, but it doesn't like heat.

Those of you who are using Formica for benchtops, how do you like it? Steel is good, but it's prone to rusting and I deal with it daily at work as a work surface, it's not very "warm" and isn't kind to things dropped on it. One of the few coatings that holds up on steel work surfaces is powder coat, and nobody locally does pieces that large.

Gear

[slim1836]

My shed is 12x20 barn style and crammed full of everything. I built a 4' square metal topped table on heavy duty casters so I can rotate it and have 4 work stations plus roll it to the double door opening when casting. A 4' square shelf below has a footlocker on it for ammo storage along with other boxes for powder and casting tools. A small squirell cage and 18" of duct behind my casting pot directs the fumes out the door nicely. One of these days I'll hook the duct with flex hose to a vent in one of the doors, but not until the shed is temperature controlled.

Slim

[btroj]

My counter top is 2 layers of 3/4 inch plywood glued and screwed down. I then filled the holes and gave it 3 coats of a good oil based garage floor paint. After 7 years or so it is discolored from oil and solvent but has not blistered or peeled. This was what I wanted. Was going to go with epoxy paint but it got too expensive real quick like.
I have regular bas cabinets along one wall. Some with 1 drawer and the a big door,some with 3 drawers. The bigger drawers are tall enough for even Alliant 1 pound powder containers. 4 plus pounders go behind the drawers. I have a small section about the area where my knee hole is, which is reinforced with 3 0r 4 2x4 across the opening. This wall cabinet holds cleaning patched, dies, shop rags, and bins for various small parts. Some of the drawers on the lowers hold cleaning supplies like brushes and jags, grease, etc. Wile another holds open 1000 count boxes of primers. I even have 1 dedicated to the Dillon with all the spare parts, tool heads, wrenches, and even my dummy rounds for setting seating depth.
The biggest problem I have is clutter on the floor. I need more shelving badly. I need it to be sturdy enough to hold all the 50 and 100 round ammo boxes I have. Once full these get heavy fast.
As for dead space behind the presses- this is a great location for some of the big Akro bins. I have some behind my Dillon that hold bullets I use for handgun and cast in large numbers but don't size right away. These also hold the larger numbers of cases I have for handguns. This isnt wasted space, it is space looking for a solution.

To me them key is having a space that fits your needs. I too sit on a stool when loading. I stand when using the Dillon but that is more because it is easier for me to run that way. I currently have a low pile carpet. It is similar to what most public buildings have. Easy to vacuum up spent primers. As for powder, can't say. I don't spill much of it so I don't feel it is a big problem.

I do wish I had a different place to put the tumbler. It generates more dust than I like. I am glad I can cast in the garage, this keeps that mess out of my loading area. Sizing is done at my bench but that is much cleaner a process than is castiing.

I will try to clean up my bench and get a few photos. I have the worlds largest collection of clutter there right now.

Brad

[Shooter6br]

Internet connection?

[Thin Man]

Gear,
Congratulations, you are going to have fun with this project.

My shop area is 10'x24' with windows on the thin ends. Heat is 220v electric and window fan cooling/ventilation. Work bench is 3'x16' along one wall, opposite wall is shelving for storage of various other tools (yard work, mechanical material, etc). With only one room, I have to make do. The remaining area, about 8'x10', holds a desk, book shelves for resource material, upright safe (bolted solid to wall) for temporary projects, tool boxes and other piles of material like long firearm transport boxes, etc.

First off, I have the fear of a fire in my shop area. Not sure why, but I still have it. Could be something about powder dust in the room along with the "arc" of various light switches being pulled, or applicance being pluged in and out. I keep all stored firearms and most ammo in another very strong and separate location. The shop has no special security plan built into this shop, but your needs may differ.

Floors. I have a smooth finished concrete (sealed) floor. Easy maintenance to sweep or mop, natural gray color helps with finding whatever falls. To support my back and catch whatever drops, I use two 2'x6' hallway carpets (end to end) in front of the bench. These clean with a vaccum, turn over to shake out what cannot be found, give comfort to my back and are cheap to replace.

Overhead lighting. With age comes the need for more light. Set in more fixtures than you need now, and put them on separate switches. Use what you need when you need it. This may save a later job of expanding your overhead light requirements, like I am now considering.

Wall outlets. Too many is not a bad thing. Place these for your convenience. By example, outlets at the wall bench are located 6" above the bench top (42" over the floor), more under the bench. They are also spaced closer together than a routine house room so I do not have to use an extension chord to power a hand tool. This will allow you to change where your final work stations will be located along the bench surface.

Work bench. Framed with 4x4 legs with 2x4 cross braces. Top of the frame is 2'11" deepx16' long. The top surface is 36" deep x 16' long, and is 3' over the floor. The outside edge of the top extends 1" past the frame (toward the user) to allow temporary mounting of many tools, also permanent bolting of others. The back 12" of the bench is covered by framed shelves, thus I have a 24" work surface. More on that later. The 36" high surface is very handy for either standing or sitting on a bar stool. Top is 3/4" plywood, split and doubled, glued and screwed together as btroj used. Stain and clear poly coating is 20 years out and has only minor damage from continuous use. The wood surface gives minor cushion for falling material, looks nice and does not show minor damage too badly. Under the bench I placed shelving (the remaining 12" sections left from creating the benchtop surface) at 18" over the floor to allow 2 layers of storage for bulk materials not immediately in use. Under the bench you would find bulk ingots, molds (large plastic boxes arranged by diameter), bulk powder and primers and brass, semi-retired tools and whatever.

Shelving behind the bench is framed 2x4 the same length of the bench, 12" deep. Here I keep the primers, powder, brass, j-bullets, dies, favorite loading manuals, etc, that I would want at hands reach. The area devoted to holding cast boolits waiting to be loaded has shrunk over time and will be expanded. I used 1x12 solid pine for shelves. Upright 2x4 braces are spaced 24" apart, stand 42" high, and are inleted twice to allow creation of 3 shelf areas at 14" spacing coming up from the bench.

Hope some of these ramblings help your project. If there is anything that needs clarification, throw out a PM and it will be on your way.

Thin man

[cbrick]

Scratch the carpet idea. Carpet was also my first idea in my current loading room and I found it impossible to keep clean, it was a constant eye sore regardless of frequent use of a shop vac. Carpet went in the trash after a couple of years. Next I tried the inter-locking rubber squares that were mentioned. Second bad idea, they don't hold up well at all and if a hot bullet or sprue fall to the floor it melts right through. Current solution that has worked well for several years now is the hard rubber floor mat that comes in rolls. Some places use it as runners at the door but I covered the entire floor with it. A bit pricey but not really too bad considering how well its worked and its several years old now and showing no signs of wear. My loading room is 8 x 22 and it cost $300.00 at a flooring place to cover the entire shop. It is completely impervious to both bore solvents and heat up past melted alloy temps. If you do this be certain to get the real rubber mat, not the plastic or vinyl junk.

Benches. You cannot have enough no matter what you think. I bought two of the 1 3/4 inch thick by 8 foot long hardwood benches from Costco adding 16 feet of bench space to what I already had, wish I had more. My main loading, casting bench is 6 feet long and it is covered with the same rubber mat that I have on the floor. The bench mat is about 25 years old now and in perfect shape, this is where I got the idea for using it on the floor.

Cabinets. Worse than the benches, if you double the amount of cabinets you originally planned on it won't be enough. Every place in your new loading room that has enough room for even a small cabinet put one there, all of the walls, under benches etc.

Lighting. My loading room is at the end of a rather long electrical run. I need to be a little cautious of current draw, I can run any combination of two major electric units such as casting pot & electric heater or in summer A/C plus things like lights & all the little things. I have a digital volt meter plugged into an outlet and as an example my casting pot will drop the voltage to about 114v (from 120), add in the heater and it drops to about 108v. Because of all this I was concerned about how much current lighting would draw. My solution was the electronic fluorescent lights that have no ballast. They were pricey ($50.00 ea) in that I have 12 of them placed over benches & around the room. The upside is very low current draw, I can turn on all 12 of them and the voltage remains at 120v. My first concern was a very well lit work room and they do this very well, I can light it up almost to needing sun glasses at night.

Plumbing. Have you given any thought to this? I added a laundry room type sink in my loading room, one of the better ideas I’ve had. It was originally intended for quenching bullets coming out of the convection oven but has been extremely useful for all of the things that a sink is useful for, washing hands after handling lead, washing those plastic bins you mentioned and all sorts of things. For me the sink is well worth the amount of space it takes and I can’t imagine my loading room without it.

The island is a great idea, I’ve often wished I could do that and add another bench but at 8 feet wide it’s out of the question for me. Besides another bench it’s also room for more cabinets.

Internet and cable TV connection. Being too cheap to pay the cable company for an additional box I simply split off the connection in the house and ran a cable to the loading room. The downside is that I have to go into the house to change channels. I have a swivel wall mounted flat screen TV that I can swing for viewing from different areas, this works well for me. For an internet connection I bought a wireless router with a 1500 ft range. Didn’t work, my loading room has aluminum siding and it blocks the signal. I had to run another cable that’s plugged into the router and run 200 feet to the loading room.

Building the loading room for me has become a hobby unto itself, I’m constantly changing this, adding that. It’s like collecting lead or bullet molds, never enough.

Rick

[375supermag]

My reloading room doubles as a hobby room for my teenage son and I to build model tanks and work on his model trains. We don't do much of that anymore, as he lost interest in the trains as he got older and I never have any time to build models, but I digress...

My reloading room is only a 12x12 room I built in the garage. I have one wall completely filled with cabinets for storage of all manner of things, including primers, powders, etc. One cabinet is 6ft tall by 4ft wide with double doors and lots of shelving. I have a 6ft base cabinet with an 8ft wooden countertop screwed down on it, giving me a 2ft wide spot to roll a chair under for a work desk. There is a 4ft long wall cabinet mounted above the countertop with a flourescent light mounted under it.

Another wall has a steel-framed workbench with a 3/4" plywood and 3/4" MDF top sandwiched together that I use for a reloading bench. It has a shelf underneath it and an attached shelf above it with a flourescent light mounted under it. The back of the bench is stacked with boxes of cast bullets. The bench is rock solid and never moves.

The other two walls are lined with a worktable and a desk in an L-configuration for reading and research and additional storage.

There are flourescent lights in the ceiling and task lights at every work station. The floor is vinyl...easy to clean, easy to find dropped things...no place for anything to hide. The room is heated and air-conditioned, but no windows.

I thought 12x12 would be plenty of room...it ain't enough. I could easily use another 4ft in one direction to build in a gun safe and for additional storage. I don't cast my own bullets...yet, so when I can secure a dependable supply of local lead, I will be casting in the garage. There is much better ventilation out there so that isn't all bad.

All in all, it isn't a bad set-up, but compared to some others it is pretty spartan. That's OK, it is functional and when I am down there, I have no distractions and can concentrate on the task at hand.

[buck1]

I also say scratch the carpet. A buddy of mine picked up a static charge from his and then touched the primer tube and set off the whole tube and lost part of his hand.

A nice deticated gun cleaning bench is very nice.

Pat Marlins rock a dock is great.

Lots and lots of storage...Buck

[gnoahhh]

All great ideas, some I had never thought of. My 2¢= I use 3/4x2" strips of maple, glued face-to-face, to make my bench tops (think bowling alley or basketball court). Rock hard, won't warp, heavy enough to absorb shock, cheap to make. Leave natural or slop a coat of oil on it. After a few years if you don't like the "character" it's taking on from working on top of it, sand it down to fresh wood and carry on.

As for heat and A/C, whatever you go with make sure that neither one blows air in the process. I made that mistake and found those gentle wafts of air played billy-hell with the sensitive balance beams on my powder scales. I had to build baffles out of plexiglass to shield the scales whenever either was running. Temperate conditions allow me to shut things off when using the scales, but that's not an option in the dead of summer/winter.

[HeavyMetal]

Gear:
If your worried about apperance there are several god epoxy based paints on the market you can coat the steel with, google POR15 for a great idea!

This stuff is used in several industries but I came in contact with it when I did a full restoration of my 66 'stang! Stuff doesn't like direct sunlight ( shine goes away) but it is tougher than nails and brake fluid bounces right off! Roll it on and give it time to "flow" out and you'll have a glass smooth no wrinkles finish plus they offer other colors besides black.

The steel plates I used are painted semi gloss white and nothing disappears on them. Trust me on this nothing will stand up to hard use and or mounting like this steel top!

I have a buddy that can break an anvil, he pulled my Dillon of the wood bench top twice in 20 minutes ( I'd used it same place for two years) Since I went to steel for table / bench tops all he's done is bruise his knuckles and wrist!

Go with Steel for the top of the island!

The suggestion of the rubber mats was strictly for under press's and gun repair stations for both protection of parts and foot comfort. For a casting area the epoxy coating I mentioned should cover the whole building floor and not have any matting near the casting area.

Like the Lazy Susan idea. remember every shop used to have the Gerber Baby food jar dingus? Hated the glass but set up with Akro bins?? COOL!

[plainsman456]

For insulating the shop use the spray foam.
I have a 16x25 shop and a small window unit works well in summer and a small portable heater with a wired thermostat in line works also.
I think the cost of the foam will pay for itself in no time.

[geargnasher]

I originally had the idea to make maple bench tops, I did that in our kitchen, finished with several coats of teak oil which seals it but doesn't build up on the surface. I like natural surroundings, I spend most of my life in a metal building with polished concrete floors and everything is powder-coated red, yellow, or blue, or is chrome plated, made of plastic, or rusty. 4/4 planed rock maple is only about $6/board foot straightlined on one side, so for about $12/sf I can have some nice countertops, but that's only one option and maple is really tough on the drum sander.

Internet. The wireless works fine out there now, but if I line the whole room with drystack cinder blocks filled and plastered it probably won't. I'll have to remember to run a Cat 5e line out there and put a couple of jacks in the room. TV, well, I don't watch much of it and when I do, it's usually with the Mrs. We have two-room satellite tv, so it would be easy to run a line off of the living room tv to the reloading room, another thing I should probably do even if I don't use it.

Sink. I've been pondering this, too. I can bring water in through the attic no problem and drop it through the walls or into a partition wall if I make one of those, same with the soil stack, but the drain will be a little more complicated. I do have a way I can sneak one out to the sewer line and maintain grade without breaking up the slab, so I think I'll lay in the plumbing even if I don't put the sink in right away.

Ok, Ok, I'll give up on the carpet idea! Anyone have any experience with the Sears rubber garage mat? Keep the ideas coming, this is one thing that needs to be RIGHT.

Good tip on air currents, hadn't thought of that. My current setup in the shop is out of the drafts, but a window unit will need to be baffled.

If there's on thing I've learned from my current setup, it's that you can't have too much bench space. It's even more important than walking area. Neither can you have too many electrical outlets and individual circuits in a working room, that's why I'm running a whole new, 12-circuit panel just for the reloading room.

Gear

[geargnasher]

HM, I'm very familiar with POR15, use it on battery trays and such. The only problem with it is if it gets a nick in it, it will begin to peel over time. It can be "feathered" and touched up, though, and is far better than Hard-Nosed paint or the glass stuff Eastwood sells.

The slab is getting sealed, but it's not very smooth, so I'm going to put something over it because it's going to be difficult to sweep even if epoxied. Has to be something caster-friendly too.

Somebody mentioned fire. I, too, have a constant paranoia about fire, more from outside the loading room than within, but either way it would be nice to fireproof it. Solid cinderblock walls and a 2" slab poured over 2x12 ceiling joists is about the only practical thing I can think of. I could try to "firewall" the room with several layers of sheetrock, but I'm no expert on that. The thermal mass of solid concrete is tough to beat, but it will make the room smaller.

Gear

[tryNto]

Might look into this Floor Covering...
http://www.bltllc.com/g-floor_main.htm

The Island Bench, with the Acro Bin Turntable is a great Idea.
I like the sink Idea also, with a small on demand water heater.

Take your time and do it the way you want.

[crabo]

What about your door? Do you want the whole room to be a safe, or just parts of it? Are you going to have any windows?

Is the shallow attic above the 10' ceiling? Seems like a lot of wasted space. I would like a way to utilize some of that space for storage somehow.

I like to use tubs for my storage. It allows me to separate my stuff into groups. I have plumbing, electrical, sandpapers, sheetrock tool, painting tools and brushes, and different types of tools and supplies, easy to access.

You also need a good stereo, a man has got to have some good music.

I also love the idea of the center island. I would try to keep from bolting anything on top of it and build a lower shelf, the size of the table top below it. You could probably use woodworker type clamps to bolt a gun vise or different things that are not permanent, but would help you do a particular job to the table top. I invision the island to be a project table.

[Wayne Smith]

Couple of ideas, assuming money is not an object. Agreed, ditch the carpet. I'd suggest you look at cork floring. Flexible, strong, and wears very well. Used in high traffic areas of public buildings. I'd want a refrigerator. Both for cold drinks, snacks, and as a constant temp area to store powder and primers. (I'm diabetic, snacks are important to me.) If you are not putting a safe in the room I'd build in relatively secure storage for my guns. A place to rack the gun for which you are creating a load, right where you are doing it. You don't want to run across the room to put the gun down. If you have it, a bench next to a window with a gun vice for bore sighting out the window.

[geargnasher]

What about your door? Do you want the whole room to be a safe, or just parts of it? Are you going to have any windows? Undecided yet. I have one outside wall that I could frame out for windows, I would have about a 75-yard view up the back-loop of the driveway and across a small meadow, but it's also the hottest and coldest side of the house. Thinking about just making the whole thing a safe, or, more likely, just building a solid concrete walk-in safe with a safe door, and a steel door/deadbolt going into the room.

Is the shallow attic above the 10' ceiling? Yes, but it's a sloping roof, 2' on the high side and the rafters going to the header on the other. Seems like a lot of wasted space. It's going to house utilities and keep the hot air flowing out during the summer. It gets as hot as 145 degrees up there in the summer, I'm going to insulate the rafters and the ceiling joists.I would like a way to utilize some of that space for storage somehow. I'm thinking two rows of upper cabinets on three walls, going clear to the top. I'll make a small ladder like libraries use for tall bookcases to reach the upper cabinets.

I like to use tubs for my storage. It allows me to separate my stuff into groups. I have plumbing, electrical, sandpapers, sheetrock tool, painting tools and brushes, and different types of tools and supplies, easy to access.

You also need a good stereo, a man has got to have some good music. +1. I like a bit of Milla Jovovich, Pink Floyd, SRV, ZZ-Top, Van Halen, or Rush at odd hours, sometimes even a good Sousa march or Euro-trash techno/rave/trance. Gotta have tunes.

I also love the idea of the center island. I would try to keep from bolting anything on top of it and build a lower shelf, the size of the table top below it. You could probably use woodworker type clamps to bolt a gun vise or different things that are not permanent, but would help you do a particular job to the table top. I invision the island to be a project table. I think the island is a go, the only question is if it will be reloading central or project/gun cleaning central, or if the wall benches/cabinets will be reloading central. I think the island would be best for all the presses, that way I can make shallow storage from floor to ceiling on at least one wall, that will make the room bigger and accomodate a bigger island. One wall for casting/sink, one for sizing, case prep, gun cleaning/'smithing, and hopefully a project station will find room somewhere.

TryNto, that's EXACTLY what I was looking for, I think we have a winner for the floor covering!!! Thank you!

Gear

[cbrick]

You also need a good stereo, a man has got to have some good music.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the stereo. I used a decent quality car stereo w/CD player & book shelf speakers but my shop was already wired with 12v. Some lighting and the ceiling vents were already 12v. The car stereo takes up very little space mounted under a shelf.

The cable TV company has channels of just music with no commercial breaks and no idiotic DJ's so this is what the TV in the shop is mostly used for. For me its the vintage country channel. :mrgreen:

Rick

[btroj]

Music is good. I have a stereo in mine but it is never used. I prefer the iPod and headphones.

What you need Gar is a walkin cooler to set up shop in. Electric bill would be rough bur you could actually stand the summers that way.

[geargnasher]

Yeah, forgot to mention Ozzie is reserved for case-prep duties, Trance is for casting, really helps the rhythm!

Gear

[blackthorn]

If you want to cover the floor with an easy-on-the-feet covering, go you down to an equestrian supply house and take a look at the large (stall-size) rubber mats. As I recall these mats are about 1" (or so) thick and you could put one of the "runner" type mats over the full size mat in areas where it is needed. One thing---Your loading/casting room will NEVER, EVER be big enough!! If you have a Home Depot where you live see if they carry the black plastic shelving "ends" that fit over verticaly placed 2x4's. These come in various widths and you just buy the size that gives you the depth, vertically and horizontaly, you want. On the insulation, I would use the green stuff that looks like fiberglass (but is not) made out of spun rock. You can hold a piece of that stuff in your hand and hold a propane torch blowing against the other side and you cant feel the heat! At all!!!

[HeavyMetal]

Gear:
One other idea to add if you like it: A folding bench!

Use the island as planned for reloading and do the shallow shelving but make a nice hinged Maple work bench that folds flat to the wall when not in use sorta like a Murphy bed!

This could be used for light gunsmithing and cleaning chores then folded up out of the way
for when not needed, heck get a little creative and you could have a fold away corner work station!

I know this works because I have the same set up in my garage work shop, made out of pine 2x4's, cause they were free!

Think on it I think l you'll like the idea.

[HeavyMetal]

Gear:
went into the garage work shop and did some research on the old floor coating advertisrs.

Check out www.ucoatit.com these guys have been doing all types of do it yourself epoxy coating for garage floors. Some of them are mighty nice looking.

If your worried about your broom finish it can be ground smooth or these guys may sell a thick coating that will fill your broom finish.

In either case it's free to look and you might like what you see.

[mooman76]

Mine would be a hardened shelter bellow ground which could double as a saferoom or to live short term if nessissary. Concrete floor with rubber mats in front of the benches. Dedicated benches for reloading, casting and workbench. I wouldn't need a safe because the room would be built like a safe and I would have racks all around the room for my guns. Sort of like in the movie Tremors. I would have all the hookups, T.V. Radio and such with a generator for emergency power. I would also have a window that I could open to test loads with a 500y range or better yet have a attached room with a window and bench for testing loads. I would have seperate cabinets made special to hold powder, primer, bullets, brass and extras. My reload bench would have storage for all my dies and everything needed to load. Same goes for my casting station and workbench.

[Fixxah]

Just build a new house and be done with it. Wow!

Sent from the Hyundai of the droids, the Samsung Replenish, using Tapatalk.

[Cherokee]

gear: you have gotten lots of good suggestions. Not sure I can add much but one thing I did when I finished my basement for separate shop and reloading areas was use 2x12's floor to ceiling as studs. Leaving the front open, they were dadoed for adjustable shelf standards and I added the 2x12 shelves. Agree on lighting and electrical outlets, the more the better. I have a center isle on which I have my Dillon 650 and some other items. Bellow the top of the isle is shelving for lots of stuff with doors. There is walk space between the isle and back shelves for easy shelf access. Other presses are mounted on my wall bench. My wall bench is deep enough that I have a shelf unit from bench to ceiling with sliding doors so I don't have to worry about door swing. I have old carpet in my reloading room. Easy to change if I need to, I'm not converned with stains or such. My casting is done in the separate shop area with a 1" thick rubber mat to stand on. Here are some pics that might help:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee102/DCS44256/Reloading/ReloadRm01.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee102/DCS44256/Reloading/Dillon650001.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee102/DCS44256/Reloading/ReloadRm02.jpg

My casting area on the bench top in the workshop:

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee102/DCS44256/Reloading/Smelt-04.jpg

[geargnasher]

Fixxah, I did! First I built a 36x48X 24 two-story gambrel-roofed pole barn/shop, parked my 24' travel trailer inside for living quarters, and used the upstairs for storage. Then I met the lady that eventually became Mrs. Geargnasher, now the barn is about a half-finished house, I'm bulding a new, 36X24 shop off one side of the barn, and when it's done I'll move the present shop out of the big central portion of the original barn and finish the space to make one helluva living room. One side of the original structure that is currently my metalworking shop will be divided in two to make a gun room and craft room separated by a hall in the middle.

When I origninally layed out the proportions and developed a structural plan for this place, my goal was to make it as versatile a building as possible, so it could be remodeled easily to accomodate anything the winds of change might bring. So far it's doing the job nicely. I left a place for an elevator to the upstairs in case I get old. Going up twelve feet to go to bed or get dressed won't always be as easy as it is now.

So, I have the enclosed space available as soon as I get the shop finished, but I've been thinking this out for several years now and I'm trying to get other people's ideas on things I hadn't thought of, you guys are giving me lots of good ideas.

Cherokee, good idea on the shelves. I prefer to gang-bore the uprights and use 5mm shelf pins rather than dado for the steel standards, that's the way I built the book cases and all the upper cabinets in the house, but not everyone has a 15-drill boring machine. Same principle, both work very well. Thanks for the pics.

Mooman, that's pretty much perfect, I've dreamed of just exactly that! Underground has it's advantages of constant temperature, fireproof, with the proper door would eliminate the need for safes, and modern waterproofing would enable it to be kept dry inside. I could actually do that, and have about a 300-yard range, but it would cost about forty grand and I'd have to build it about 75 yards from the house up on higher ground to get the necessary drainage system to function. Perhaps some day...

Gear

[Three44s]

Personally, I like the carpet in my loading room but the static thing is a bad deal ........ I have not encountered it and it would be easy to defeat it.

But before I went with carpet for my room for now (the carpet was here for free) I was ready to go with Original Color Chips .... do a search on that name. You'll be astounded on how much you can do with that ...... My room is a wooden floor and the water based epoxy was where I was going until I settled on the new unused carpet (short shag) and yes ......... PRIMERS lost are a bear!!

But it's quiet and warm .......

Now the Island.

I have one ........ I thought it was going to be the cats rear end ...........

I like the carpet much better!!

The island chops the center right out of your room. My space is 11X13 your's is bigger.

If you still want one .... go with a portable like I did ........ mine is built like an Abrams tank and may well end up outside for a SHOOTING BENCH ......... I'm tired of shooting off of pickup hoods in wind storms.

A bench on two walls is where I'm headed next.

Insulation ......... use it ...... you don't want temperature extremes on metal you cheerish and the heating and cooling will get under your wallet unless you insulate to the NINES!!

I've got enough insulation to choke a stud horse and it pays!

Shelving ........ you have a tall room and you ought to build some heavy shelves up high and then hang some lower ones under that.

PS ......... I'm jealous ........ you'll have a heavier sub panel than mine! ........ Figures .... you're in TEXAS!!! LOL!!

Best regards ........

Three 44s

[geargnasher]

Three44s, I paid out the nose to get my local electric co-op to put in 200-amp service, I don't like to know by the lights dimming when an appliance kicks on. My welders never starve for voltage, and every 110 circuit in the house is powered by 12-gauge, all the 220 are dedicated to each machine and have either 4-gauge or 6-gauge running to them, for 30 or 50 amp outlets. Overkill, yes, but the efficiency saves money in the long run.

Gear

[Recluse]

Cabinets. Worse than the benches, if you double the amount of cabinets you originally planned on it won't be enough. Every place in your new loading room that has enough room for even a small cabinet put one there, all of the walls, under benches etc.

Lighting. . .

Plumbing. . .

The island is a great idea, I’ve often wished I could do that and add another bench but at 8 feet wide it’s out of the question for me. Besides another bench it’s also room for more cabinets.

Internet and cable TV connection. . .

Rick

100% absolutely, positively concur about the cabinets. I have a 12' x 24' stand-alone custom-built shop and I have eight HUGE cabinets. Not enough. I brought in a large commercial double-door steel locker for more storage. Not enough.

Along with cabinets, you'll want shelves. Lots of them. Shelves are good for easy, non-secured item access. Great place to get sturdy-as-hell (SAH) shelving units is from grocery stores or convenience stores that are remodeling or going out of business. Those things are steel and DESIGNED to hold a lot of weight and stand up to a lot of abuse. I have one such unit in my shop that I store all my casting stuff, including cast boolits in and it doesn't budge.

Lighting is also essential. I have overhead florescent lighting, but I also have incandescent lights all around. I have an old antique lamp on my main reloading bench that gives me good soft light--important because it is far easier on the eyes when doing a long reloading session.

I have light racks over my gun-cleaning area, and a couple of "clamp" lights over my second bench. (in-progress bench where the new Dillon presses will go. This is going to be my "progressive" or speed bench. The primary bench is for single stage and turret loading.)

The thing about lights is that you can always turn off the ones you don't need, but when you NEED more and don't have them. . .

Plumbing. Yep. Yes. Do it. I added a sink to my shop and it was the best thing I ever did (besides air-conditioning and ceiling fans--but those went in during original construction). It's too easy to put off washing our hands after a gun-cleaning or casting session while we "do just one more thing." Having a sink makes keeping the bad stuff off of us easy and convenient.

Gear, this is Texas. Insulation and air-conditioning are necessities.

Island? Another great idea. I made an "island" out of a 4' x 8' piece of 3/4" MDB and two stout sawhorses. It's solid. I do my casting on it, long-gun cleaning, wood working projects, etc. If/when need be, I can take it down in less than two minutes. Perfect.

Internet and TV? Maybe and it's up to you. I have FIOS television in the shop. Often times I like to catch the Outdoor Channel or History Channel or a college football game while I'm in the shop puttering or cleaning brass or doing brass prep, sizing/lubing, etc. Nice to have. Internet, not for me. Otherwise, I might not ever come back in the house again.

Fridge? Must have.

Here's an example of a retail shelving unit I was talking about. It holds a LOT of my casting stuff.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_73384d6d86e772676.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=64)

Here's my work table "island" I described.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_73384d6d86e7d96cb.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=66)

:coffee:

[MT Gianni]

Great ideas. I would go with a small center island with rock-docks for my tools. I would want it big enough for two loading/sizing machines on each side. Size one side for sitting chores and the other for standing chores. I see the need for long benches but not for a lot of tools going at the same time. I like the idea of the rockdocks for that.
Great idea of cable/satellite for music. Don't scrimp on good speakers.
Get secure storage for primers and powder. OSHA required locking storage cabinets for flammable liquids a few years back. They are metal and have a secure closure and would work great in a gun room.
Set a few lugs in the floor to screw your gun cabinets to.
My "benches" are an old wooden study desk with a reinforced top 3' x 2' and an old metal secratary desk from work 6' x 2 1/2'. I don't see enough of the tops to be concerned with finish. The Formica top covering the wooden desk has neither chipped nor faded. My set up is perimeter in an l shape and it works for me. You might consider making your island off-center so that there is a clear path from the door to much of the room without a detour. I cast in a seperate area than I load in. My casting bench is 24"x30" and it is OK.
Have fun with the set up. Get some graph paper and play with designs before you commit to anything.

[geargnasher]

Recluse, you say it's 12x24 with a 4x8 table in the middle, how "cramped" is it on the side opposite the door? Room to walk behind the chair in the pic without turning sideways? I've been scale-drawing all afternoon (MTGianni, I have about thirty graph paper books filled with the layout of this building and shop, I'm already there!) and I can't seem to get even a 3x6 island to fit with anything approaching 2' benches along the long walls. I figured I'd make one entire long wall adjustable shelves, that would be nearly 16x10 just shelves. Then overhead cabinets like in a kitchen, double-row of doors so they go clear to the ceiling too, could do that on two sides, the last side would be split between casting vent hood, entry door, and gun safe. I'm still on the fence about a safe vs. walk-in room, but either is easily defeated by the right person so I'm leaning toward the much smaller stand-alone safe. A large safe. I've been reading the "safe" thread too. If I build a walk-in this room shrinks by over one third.

Gear

[tonyjones]

Gear,

For your fume hood look for a unit with multiple fan speeds. You will not need many cfm to pull fumes from your pot and you can crank it up as required when fluxing. The more air you pull over your pot the faster your tin will oxidize. You WILL need to size your HVAC to account for any air through the fume hood. Check with W.W. Grainger to see what they might have.

Window A/C units are easy for thieves to pull out of the wall/window and climb through. Some sort of burglar bars may remedy or improve this situation.

I would use 4-2'x4' fluorescent strip fixtures (lay-in or surface mount) for general lighting and get several portable light fixtures to direct light as needed. Something that will plug into one of your many wall outlets with a heavy enough base to be stable and a long flexible goose neck so that you can direct the light where it's needed and away from your face. Three to five of these would be nice.

Regards,

Tony

[Ilwil]

I would say ixnay on flat screens, DVDs, or any visual distractions in an otherwise reloading-dedicated room. Good stereo would compensate for it.

[geargnasher]

Excellent points, Tony, I didn't think about multi-speed fans, but you're totally right about that. I just put in a micro/convect/vent hood for the Mrs, the five-speed fan is a really nice feature.

Not sure what to do with the window unit, I might just get one of the portable ones and run the hoses outside through dryer fittings. I have decided to put in a window and hinge some locking expanded-metal shutters on the inside to keep honest people out. I also think I'll put the casting bench right in front of the window and the venthood over it, that way when I'm casting I can just crack the window an inch to break the suction.

If I make the island work I'm thinking of pendant lights over each press station in addition to overheads and under-cabinet lights and a handfull of gooseneck lights. It's starting to come together in my mind.

Gear

[tonyjones]

One thing about permanently mounted lighting is that you WILL find yourself between what you're working on and your light source from time to time. Portable lighting is a big help here. Track lighting also has it's advantages.

Tony

[tonyjones]

Gear,

If you have an open window in the wall above and behind your pot and the fan in your fume hood is running the air will go straight from the window opening to the outlet on the fume hood and may not pull fumes away from the top of the pot. When you're casting your make-up/inlet air should be sourced away from your pot.

Tony

[Three44s]

I thought and thought about a window for my load room ...........

I dropped the idea.

The reason is that yes ......... you can shutter up the ying yang and it's a BIG neon sign that there are valuables in there.

My load room looks just as boring as the other many feet of exterior wall on that barn.

I have one of those signs from the NRA ............ "My President Is Charelton Hesston" ........

.......... it is taped on the INSIDE of the man door to my load room ......... a door that's accessible only from inside the barn ........ actually a steel building with commercial man doors to the outside.

As far as an AC unit in the wall ........... that's a future porthole for theives.

My AC will go into the interior of the large room and if I need .......... I'll duct it to the outside on the end of the large room up high.

My wife's tack room is at the other end of the enclosed lean to that my load room is located and it has no windows by design.

I dearly miss windows ........... I can't afford theives ........ if I get too hot about what is going on outside ......... I'll invest in a series of those cameras and do the closed circuit thing ..... that will be security for the general structure when I'm not there as well.

But as far as video distractions and loading ......... not for me ........ MUSIC by all means.

Gear,

I was pulling your chain about the 100 amp sub panel. Twenty feet down the wall sits a 200 main in our barn and if I want a welder I will tap in there for it. My sub for just the load room is a 60 amp and though I have two 240 outlets there .... I'll not set up a welder in there.

I did set up for a ventilation for casting .... inlet air and outlet with a space for a hood right where I will cast.

For fire surpression, I went with 5/8" sheet rock and my carpenters hated me when they hung it on the ceiling! ...... we insulated the walls (some of them 14" worth) to the max.

Three 44s

[geargnasher]

I planned to hide the bars by putting curtains between the window and bars, within the casing opening. Part of the issue with security with the whole building is anyone with a cordless screwgun and a 1/4" bit and a good claw hammer can go right through a wall anywhere they choose in just a minute or two. They could also knock out the window and hook a chain to burglar bars and yank half the wall out with a pickup truck if they were clever enough. As has been said you can't stop a determined theif. I think the best thing in the world for protecting valubles is having a shooting range nearby, and using it often. I have a reputation for being somewhat of a gun nut here, the neighbors leave me alone.

For random hit-and-run burglars, it's tough to beat a good, obvious security camera system and an indoor monitor system, as well as perimeter motion-sensing floodlights that make the cameras and ADT stickers very evident at night.

I put 5/8" sheet rock on ALL my ceilings, by myself. Got smart on the 12' cathedral ceiling in the master bedroom and rented a panel lift. Best 50 bucks I ever spent. I'm going to be even smarter in the 11' living room, for the first time so far I'm actually going to hire someone else to do it for me!

Anyway, I think I have the basic layout of the reloading room done, I'll see about posting some pics of the drawings tomorrow and let you guys figure out all the things I did wrong :bigsmyl2:.

Please keep it coming, this is really helping.

Gear

[cbrick]

I would say ixnay on flat screens, DVDs, or any visual distractions in an otherwise reloading-dedicated room. Good stereo would compensate for it.

Nothing wrong with the TV in the shop assuming your smart enough to not stare at it when throwing powder etc. My TV is directly behind my main loading bench, I would need to turn around to see it. Right now I am in the house, in the dining room on the computer, the TV news is on in the living room and I can't see it but I can hear it, am I distracted?

Another point is that the vast majority of things I do in my shop is not loading ammo. I also have my complete loading, firearm & shooting library in my shop. Should that also not be there? Is it a distraction to read in the loading room.

Common sense in everything.

Rick

[cbrick]

Security for the shop. One security measure for me is that there is not a window in my shop, by design. Another is the simple fact that very few people ever get into my shop, also by design. The more people that know what's in there the more people they will talk with who will talk with some one else, sooner or later some one will talk about it with some one that you really don't want to know.

Shop as an out building. About 25 years ago I had built a shop at a house I had in town. It was an out building on the side of the yard near the rear of the house. It was fully insulated, dry wall, A/C etc., pretty nice on the inside but for the outside I did everything I could think of to make it look like a garden shed, even hung a rake & shovel next to the door. The house was robbed one day when no one was home, all sorts of things were stolen, TV's, jewelry, cameras. The garage was also hit and various tools were stolen. Everything they took were things that could be easily carried out in a hurry. The moral of the story, the garden shed (loading room) wasn't touched, the door hadn't been pryed on, nothing.

Rick

[Three44s]

cbrick's layout sounds a lot like mine.

The theives will go for the consumer stuff in our house and attached garage.

Our outbuilding is windowless ....... yes, it's dark inside but for the short time you are in the big section ... you either open the big roll up doors or turn on lights. The lean to sections are light up bright and my load room is white on white ....... two four foot flourescent fixtures ........ 150 watts and you need sunglasses!

Like Gear ...... we have kept a shoot first footing around here since Christ was a Corpral. I shoot 360 degrees from here ........... LOL!

About the only thing I can't hide are the horses and it would be common sense that some tack could well be hanging around in that steel building with horses standing under the roof of the open lean to's.

One thing I have is a lot of powder and primers.

I looked at dollars and risk. We have a pump house with 8" concrete walls and wooden roof in ground and that's my powder/primer storage amoung other things like things you don't want frozen but also not in the house.

I'll keep enough powder and primers in the reloading room or adjacent areas in the big steel building but it's all about risk. Put the most risk in the least expensive structure to replace or in our case repair. A roof on a 14'X14' and three big pressure tanks vs. damage a 100K plus steel building? Our pump house is a virtual bunker in the making. If it had a concrete roof .......... it would have been five stars. With the steel casing with cement poured in place it has the recess to install a second door with dead bolt right in front of it.

A good friend of mine is a former OSS operative. He looked at it and had a smash up idea for another ..... and real bunker/outside "armory"!

He said how about a man door with a concrete wall behind it and a hiden entrance somewhere else?

Talk about a bunch of happy theives as they finnally defeat a door to NOWHERE?

Three 44s

[blackthorn]

"I've been scale-drawing all afternoon (MTGianni, I have about thirty graph paper books filled with the layout of this building and shop, I'm already there!) and I can't seem to get even a 3x6 island to fit with anything approaching 2' benches along the long walls. "

See--not built yet and it is already too small! LOL.

[Recluse]

Gear,

Got back in town early this morning and read your comment about the 4 x 8 table and something clicked in my mind. Went out to the shop and measured it, sure enough it's 3' x 6'--I had cut the thing down to that size five/six years ago during a bathroom re-modeling project.

Nonetheless, it gives me plenty of room, is sturdy, and can all be taken down in minutes if I need the floor space for another project.




Another point is that the vast majority of things I do in my shop is not loading ammo. I also have my complete loading, firearm & shooting library in my shop. Should that also not be there? Is it a distraction to read in the loading room.

Common sense in everything.

Rick

Agree.

Things like sorting brass, brass prep, de-priming, gun-cleaning, etc. . . what's the harm in having a tv going in the background?

No arguing the need to stay focused when reloading, but for me, at least, having background noise/clutter helps keep my mind from wandering and keeps me focused on the task at hand.

Plus, there's just something cool and special about being out in your shop in the fall on a beautiful Saturday or Sunday afternoon with the football game on as you're puttering around cleaning guns or sizing boolits or other manly things.

My shop will never be without a tv.

:coffee:

[Big Boomer]

All good ideas on reloading/storage room.

Since my wife and I were building a new home in 2007, I took a little different line on how I would build my reloading room. While I have unlimited basement space, I
deliberately built my reloading room on a slightly smaller scale. Our house has a full basement with all exterior walls supported by poured footers with poured concrete walls that are a bit over 9 feet in height (i. e., no laid up concrete blocks anywhere).
Exterior is bricked. The basement is unfinished though it is plumbed and wired for a kitchen and a bathroom. Since I am 71 years old, the bathroom and kitchen won't happen in my lifetime, at least the way I'm thinking right now.

My reloading room is under the front porch of the house. The porch floor (gun room ceiling) is several inches of concrete (6" IIRC). Footers for not only the outside walls of the basement, but for the walls of the reloading room were poured accoring to the shape or contour of the front porch, with poured inside walls in the basement around what would be the reloading room. A heavy steel door is the only entrance to the reloading room. The basement floor is poured concrete, so the floor of my reloading room is the same. We have geothermal heat and A/C, and a vent was run to the room with a return air. No flames of any sort in the entire house (so far). The closest we come to a flame is the electric stove and ovens in the upstairs kitchen. We keep an automatic dehumidifier in the basement all year long.

Since I don't need any distractions, not even a radio graces my reloading room. I built shelves from leftover (from building the house) 2x12s to hold all my dies, brass,
boolits and j-word thingies, press gadgets, wrenches, boolit moulds, etc. Electrical outlets and switches are limited to the switch for the flourescent lights and an outlet for my Dillon XL650. Other presses are manual, a Hornady Pro-Jector and an old Lyman Spar-T turret press I purchased new in the '70s. All boolit pouring is done outside in fair weather. All my lead is already in ingots and outside the reloading room as are all unnecessary items.

I built a sturdy reloading bench at one end of the room out of 2x12 lumber. I mounted all my presses on lengths of 2x12 lumber as well as my Star lube/sizer. All of them function from the same spot on my reloading bench with C-clamps. I just switch them out as the need arises and tote them outside the reloading room to make space as the need arises. 'Tuck

[geargnasher]

"I've been scale-drawing all afternoon (MTGianni, I have about thirty graph paper books filled with the layout of this building and shop, I'm already there!) and I can't seem to get even a 3x6 island to fit with anything approaching 2' benches along the long walls. "

See--not built yet and it is already too small! LOL.

You got that right! It will never be big enough, but a man's gotta start somewhere and it will be a lot better than a couple of benches in the shop that I use now.

You fellas really have me second-guessing the window.

Turk, I'm familiar with the basement room under the porch, but only through the websites of companies who specialize in converting such into saferooms or vaults. Seems to be pretty common in areas that have frost heave to support the porch with footings as deep as the rest of the basement, I suppose the porch slab would float away over time if it didn't. Here in Texas we don't really savvy what a basement really is, since we don't need them. Too bad, I'd love to have a house built like those in the Northeast.

Gear

[cbrick]

You fellas really have me second-guessing the window. Gear

Besides security . . . Just think of the really nice cabinet that will fit where the window used to be. :mrgreen:

Rick

[geargnasher]

OK, as promised, some sketches, hope your monitors have better resolution than mine!

Gear

[Three44s]

Gear,

What we did with our rooms is we built the frame work for windows but did not cut out for it. We can add later if we just go nuts without them.

For natural light there is another option: solatube.com

I did not opt for that because I wanted our metal roof to let the snow slide unimpeded. Where you live .... I'd venture a guess that's not much of a problem.

We have two 10" Sola tubes in our house and you can sit on the roof and peer down into them with the defusers we have and not see anything but the light inside is still outstanding. Now they also make a 14" ....... I'd go with the larger one if we had it to do over.

Just don't sit under one during a LIGHTINING storm at night ...........

............... you'll swear you just had an Xray or some fool "popped a NUKE"!

Three 44s

[ktw]

OK, as promised, some sketches, hope your monitors have better resolution than mine!

Cabinets are nice, but I also like some pegboard space on the walls. I find the pegboard to be more flexible in that it can be changed from shelving, to tool storage or even to a gun rack as your needs change over time.

-ktw

[geargnasher]

Cabinets are nice, but I also like some pegboard space on the walls. I find the pegboard to be more flexible in that it can be changed from shelving, to tool storage or even to a gun rack as your needs change over time.

-ktw

That's why you make the backs of the cabinets out of 1/4" masonite pegboard instead of 1/4" plywood. :mrgreen: The shelves in the cabinets can be deleted or added at will due to gang-bored shelf pin holes in the partitions and ends.

Three44s, anything that involves cutting a hole in the roof says no to me. I even ran all my soil stacks into the soffits so I wouldn't have roof jacks on my metal roof. It isnt's a matter of IF they will leak, it's WHEN. The window doesn't exist yet, but I think I will most certainly frame the opening and install the header and jack studs like you suggested, I like to keep my options open.

Gear

[azcruiser]

Here's a little tip that works . When you lay out your cabinets/counter tops . Try to have the side
not against a wall. Reason picture moving the counter out the width of say a 2x8 +- .We put a 2x 8 against the wall behind the cabinets and used them as a spacer for hidden shelf. Then added a little padding great place to store that gun that always seems to be left in the loading room, The side of the cabinet is made so that it slide out and then you can store the gun behind the cabinet and no one knows its there .You can never have to many cabinets or counter top space and a good hiding space is also a plus . Don't think I explained this to well but it works great .

[geargnasher]

Azcruiser, you make excellent sense. I took a two-year hiatus from "slinging car parts" once and worked for a custom cabinet shop, one of the best things I ever did. We did several "hidden room" jobs using swing-in bookcases very carefully fitted to totally hide the door, also some hidden gun racks utilizing a sort of slide-out door jamb (open the door, stick your finger in the hole in the striker plate, and pull the casing toward the hinged side of the opening, thus revealing a slide-out rifle rack). Also did false bottoms in some kitchen cabinets for storing valubles in small, fireproof lock boxes. Lots of possibilities, and I have not included my plans for this room, but there will be some "hidey-holes".

Aside from fire protection, the best way to hide something is in plain sight. Here's my protection against waking up with my own bedside gun pointed at me:

Gear