The bunker

[lts70]

Well my wife ran out of patience with me reloading in the guest bedroom. So I moved her laundry room downstairs where she has always wanted it and built her a new walk-in pantry where the old laundry room was just off of the kitchen. I then proceeded to move all of her food stuff out of the down stairs cold storage and into her new pantry.

This now left me with a 5’x5’x8’ high fully concrete enclosed room, including the ceiling which is slab on metal deck, at my disposal. My wife affectionately named the room the bunker. Well this is what I have done so far. Let me know what you think. Suggestions on how to make it more useful of cool would be appreciated. And yes I am looking for a used vault door so that some day it will be my walk-in safe. I keep most of my casting stuff in the garage still as that is where I use it. But I set up my lube/sizer down there and brought down some of my extra molds that I am not using right now. I found that some Frankford arsenal boxes from midway where a good way to store and organize them. I also got a cheap pull out pin cabinet from Harbor freight for my sizing dies. I stole my wife’s label maker for a night and even got things labeled and organized by size.


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[para45lda]

Pipe in some air from an adjacent room and an insulated roll up door and it will be a bunker. Nice work.

[GRUMPA]

Sure looks nice and neat, I got one twice that size and it's to small. And trust me mine isn't all that neat and tidy, well according to the wife anyway.

[Potsy]

I was smart enough to get it in the pre-nup that my reloading stuff stayed inside. My bro-in-law (married to my sister) was not so fortunate. There's a little advice there for young single re-loaders.
Nice neat really cool gun and reloading room. I need to load a bunch of stuff (I never get to shoot anymore yet I stay out of loaded ammo) and it'll take me an hour to clean off my bench.
It's also outstanding as bunkers go. If the Russians start closing in all you'll need is a PPK and Eva Braun (yes, I know, that's a terrible joke!).

[slide]

Looks Good!

[41mag]

Man thats a cool little room. I envisioned something like that up at the farm to store all my junk in, but I doubt I would ever be able to dig a hole deep enough or afford the concrete to pour the walls and ceiling.

I had a nice looking bench and everything ........once.

Now I can hardly find the bench, but I know where everything is.:mrgreen:

[skeet1]

Very nice! My little loading shop is not much larger than yours and it is amazing how much you will be able to do in there. One advantage is it is easy to clean up. If yours was mine I would find some way of attaching a small bench to the back wall to mount my press.

Ken

[casterofboolits]

My bunker is 13' X 19' with a concrete ceiling and has three safes and two heavy eight foot shelf units holding about 50,000 assorted rounds of ammo.

I have a seperate loading room in the basement that is 16' X 19'.

[geargnasher]

I'm jealous of the concrete, that's nice. Any space you have will eventually get too small, but you can store things like brass cleaning equipment, bulk extra supplies, range bags, etc. outside of the bunker on a shelf unit of something and just keep your tools, guns, ammo, powder and such in there. I'd store primers in several locations broken up into small lots, NOT in the reloading room.

About the only thing I could suggest is build a reloading bench in an "ell' across the back and one of the side walls, but don't limit yourself to a standard 2' bench, anything more than 14-16" is just more room for clutter to get pushed to the back, and it's not the useful storage that some might think, since it's a pain to reach around the bench equipment to get to anything back there. Put in overhead 12" shelves or cabinets in the same "ell" as the bench, and a 6" shelf about 16" above the bench and about 8" below the bottom-most shelf of cabinet, it's incredibly handy for beam scales, die boxes, and all the usual stuff that clutters the back side of a bench.

Lights. Lots of lights. One of the best and cheapest things out there are those little spring-clamp spotlamps with the aluminum reflectors that sell for about $5 at the home stores. Not finished-looking, but very handy, will accept cool-running and high-watt-equivalent compact flourescent bulbs, can be moved or pointed anywhere you need it, and you can use Romex staples to secure the cords under the cabinets or shelves. If you use upper cabinets, the lights will just clamp on the 1-by at the bottom of the face frame, otherwise just clamp them to the shelves.

Like any working space, you'll just have to use it for a while and keep tinkering with it 'till it works the way you like, but great start!

Gear

[crabo]

You might want to consider a rock dock or some type of tool attachment system so you don't have to have permanent mounts for your sizer and presses.

Do you get any storage outside of the room? If you have a shelf or cabinet close by, it would help to keep the clutter down, and just bring in what you need.

If it was mine, I would build a bench fastened to the back wall and sides, with no legs, and adjustable shelves up to the ceiling. The wire would be on both sides to hang guns or tools. I'd also have a rolling chair.

[geargnasher]

Ya, I forgot to mention the "attach bench to wall" thing. No legs. You seem pretty handy with building stuff, so attaching some 2x4 runners from floor to bench height on the walls and screwing down 2-by lumber for a bench top shouldn't be too hard. Tapcon brand concrete screws and the appropriate masonry bits are THE way to attach lumber to masonry IMO, just use enough of them. Once the runners are in place, add angular supports and cross braces on top to make triangles and give you something to which you can screw the top.

Gear

[Frank46]

Gear, I'm a firm believer in tapcon screws and masonary bits. Here in louisiana it get tiring putting up the plywood over the windows and door every time a hurricane rolls around. So cut and measured 2x4's to fit both sides of the frame and numbered each piece. Now all I have to do is match up the right numbers and some drywall screws and about three hours time and she's all done. Tapcon is the best thing since sliced bread. Never had a screw pull out. Frank

[leadman]

For extra security attaching wood to the concrete use the polyurethane glue, like gorilla brand along with the screws. Believe me it will stay put.

I built a slide in camper for my other Dakota and framed the base on the garage floor. Used that glue for the first time, did not know it kinda foams out of the joint. Took me half a day to get the frame loose from the garage floor.

[HeavyMetal]

Dump that folding chair Pronto!

Go to a good Office supply store and sit in as many as they have out on display and whine about any they don't ( might be in back).

Get a good comfortable chair that won't recline and then build your bench to suit your comfort in that chair. Gear is correct 18 inch should be your max depth of an "L" shaped work bench.

Liquid Nails is the most permanant construction glue I've ever used and the plywood I installed in my gun safe hasn't even flexed in 20 plus years since it was installed and it is a good suggestion to use it in addition to good dry wall screws.

Been reloading for more years than I want to admit to and one thing I can tell you is I have lifted or broken loose more press benchs than you can imagine! So I would decide where my press would mount and run a 4x4 from floor to roof as an anchor point and put my press's as close to it as possible to limit any flex I might put upon said bench.

Think swaging 20mm jacketed bullets and you'll be good enough.

The rock dock concept has a lot of merit in this case, give it some serious thought!

[Matt_G]

I was smart enough to get it in the pre-nup that my reloading stuff stayed inside. My bro-in-law (married to my sister) was not so fortunate. There's a little advice there for young single re-loaders.

Reminds me of the first girlfriend that shacked up with me about 30 years ago.
Before she moved in I told her that I wasn't going to change one iota, and that included the guns and everything that goes along with them.
She said she didn't have a problem with that. Yeah right... :roll:

It wasn't two weeks later and there she was telling me I needed to get rid of those guns 'cause they made her nervous.
Threw her butt out of the house right then and there.
Never spoke to her again, never missed her, and I sure as heck never regretted dumping her like a bad habit.
Life's too short to put up with that kind of BS.

[fallout4x4]

For extra security attaching wood to the concrete use the polyurethane glue, like gorilla brand along with the screws. Believe me it will stay put.

I built a slide in camper for my other Dakota and framed the base on the garage floor. Used that glue for the first time, did not know it kinda foams out of the joint. Took me half a day to get the frame loose from the garage floor.

hahaha! I did something similar but i still love gorilla glue

[smoked turkey]

I didn't see mentioned but you may need a dehumidifier to take the moisture out. At least around here the humidity gets high and the concrete walls and floor sweat. It is not a friendly environment for guns. Mine gets to be a pain to empty because I was not savvy enough to put floor drains in where I needed them. Just part of the cost in keeping the man cave gun and steel items friendly. Enjoy that nice room.

[2Tite]

We're gonna need some pegboard. Large or small we're gonna need it.........Ah, just go ahead and put up a big one.......You'll fill it up in o time.

[a.squibload]

Looks good!


...Lights. Lots of lights....
Yep.
I was gonna say paint the cieling with a brighter white, or even
a shiny aluminum, to reflect more light downward.
If you don't have outlets nearby get an adapter for that light socket
so you can plug in, just have to run the wires over to the wall.

If you can find a garage sale overhead projector or slide projector,
gut it for indirect lighting. This one is on the top shelf.
Point the spot out from the wall where it will reflect light on your workspace.
Only problem is I have to unplug it when I'm done, it hums even while turned off.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-JXEW5b2KndE/TlAvoJSFMLI/AAAAAAAAASU/hgxy9tlqjCI/projector%252520light.JPG

Also I leave a cheap LED flashlight clipped to the end of my bench
where it's easy to find if the power goes out.

[HangFireW8]

Concrete basement room? Pay attention to humidity.

If you should need one, there is a new generation of very small one-room dehumidifiers, they are usually wall mounted with their own drain for continuous use.

[firefly1957]

+1 on watching for to much humidity you do not say were you are but if that metal roof gets cool you can have water drip from it.

I think you will soon outgrow that room so keep what is important in it and the rest elsewhere.

[whd45]

Good job, looks nice.