If you could create your ultimate reloading center

[osteodoc08]

In your man cave. What would it include? Which equipment? Powder, primer, brass, lead supplies? Lighting type? Floor type? What type of shelving? Any filtration? Stand up vs sit down bench? Materials? Let your imaginations run wild.

Only caveat is it must be obtainable and realistic. Example: A lexan topped bench housing a miniature dragon with fairies doing your loading while you relax in your lazyboy is not realistic.

[Love Life]

A very solid, solid top, wood bench with great lighting and a Super 1050 set up in every caliber I own. I'd like the mini dragon as well.

[FISH4BUGS]

I lived in a 600 sqaure foot condo in downtown and had a custom reloading bench (actually a cabinet) made for me. About 3 feet square at the top, easily holds a Dillon 550 and a Star sizer with room to work. Thick top, storage inside for bullets and dies, etc. The brass, powder and primers were stored in a closet in the outside hall (there had to be SOME benefit to being condo president!).
When bought the farmhouse, I now had a real man cave. 225 square feet shed between the house and the barn. Rigged out with shelving, work bench, flourescent lighting and that same reloading bench/cabinet. Work bench on one side and work table in the middle.
Maybe a 550 Dillon and Star sizer set for each caliber would be nice but where would I put them?
I could use a bigger heater though. The 12,000 btu hurricane heater doesn't really heat it up all that much when it is really cold outside. Maybe gets it to 50 if I am lucky.
Not perfect but it works for me.

[btroj]

Mini dragon? Mini? This site is for real men and real men don't do mini dragons, we do maxi dragons!

I would want lots of shelves, very sturdy. A huge gun safe. Lots of cabinets for storing powder, primers, and stuff like that. A couple of long counters on top of storage cabinets. One for loading presses and one for cleaning guns.

A Dillon of some sort, a Redding turret, and lots of free space.

Counters designed for loading while sitting on a stool.

[762 shooter]

20 x 20 foot room completely encircled by filled gun racks. Adjacent to a heated and air conditioned 100 yard underground range with golf cart for changing targets and a video camera system for viewing targets. Single stage Lyman presses, Dillons, Stars, and Hollywoods as far as the eye can see. One 8 pound jug of every powder made and copper covered bullets that I need an automatic retrieval system to organize.

Casting room with appropriate ventilation. Belonging to mold of the month club with NOE, Mihec, Accurate , etc. 10 tons of ingoted W/W, 400 pounds of pure tin and 1000 pounds of lead shot

No Job. $10,000 a month allowance from my $184 million lottery win taken as a $105 million lump sum.

A suppressor on the wall for every gun I own.

Never really thought about it.

762

[Ed Barrett]

Big really big, you will never have to worry about running out of room.

[RogerDat]

All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air. With one enormous chair, oh wouldn't it be loverly.
Lots of chocolate for me to eat, lots of coal makin' lots of heat. Warm face, warm hands, warm feet Oh, wouldn't it be loverly?

Really just trying to figure out space for stuff. Have enough interests that it is hard to find the room to conveniently do some of it. Don't need much really to enjoy the hobby. Enough air flow that wife does not complain about the smell from smelting WW's would be nice. For the rest, I'll make a list tuck it away and be surprised 5 years from now when I re-read the list at how much I have or have not acquired or arranged.

But hey I would take the dragon & the reloading fairies too. Maybe I could get some of Santa's elves to reload for me as a side job?

[runfiverun]

room lot's of room.
I'd just like to be able to put what I got in 2 different areas, one would be cool.
heck I'll settle for just being able to mount what I have now.... somewhere,,,, heated would be a super double bonus.










and since we are dreaming a 50yd indoor range would be nice.

[randyrat]

I just wish I had more room so i didn't needs shelves under my work bench top. Reason being is, I could stand or i could sit on a high bench stool with my knees under the bench. Make a work top a comfortable height to stand and sit if you get tired. If your on a long string of priming it is nice to sit or move the high stool out of the way and then you can move around easily.

- Paint the walls WHITE it helps with lighting, more important the older you get, just ask my eyes.
- take plenty of time and measurements for you work top height, save on your back and neck.
- Paint the floor so it is easy to keep clean.
- keep the floor clean; have you ever tried to find a small part on a dirty floor.
- enough shelves so you don't store things on the floor

[xs11jack]

Btroj, eventually you have to slay a dragon or two and it is much, much easier to haul out of the building and bury if it is a mini dragon. Think about the cost on a Maxi dragon, you would have to purchase a good sized backhoe and a bunch of other stuff to get that Maxi in the ground. Mini's are easy, grab the tail and drag it round back and get a garden shovel and in ten minutes you are done and having a cold one.
Ole Jack

[Smoke4320]

Also have to be very careful not to get toxic shock from those maxi dragons

[DCM]

I want a mini dragon, That is a mini gun that breathes like a dragon.

Dillon 650s with ALL the bells and whistles including RSI bullet feeders and Inline Fab. roller handles.

Dillon primer tube fillers, large & small.

Fully automatic Roll sizers for every rifle caliber.

Magma auto casters

Fred Bertelsman trimmers for every caliber that needs trimming.

Giraud annealers

Multiple strips of LED lighting in whatever color suits your fancy.

...

[country gent]

Dang for several years I had a "mini Dragon and fairies" loading for me. Wife and Daughters did the case prep. My son did alot of the loading. I am happy with what I have and use as is. I dont want to cast in the house, the garage is fine or on nice days the driveway getting sun and fresh air. When we built the house we added one extra bedroom which became our gun / reloading room.

[Gelandangan]

+1 reloading room with an underground 100 yard proofing range with electronics target locator.
Yeah..

[geargnasher]

I just went through this a couple of years ago and posted a similar thread about it here in Our Town and got a ton of great ideas and input, but nobody mentioned the mini-dragons at the time..... Here's the result before it was quite finished, now I can barely walk in there. See post #1006 on this page:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?12392-Loading-bench-pics/page26

If I could change anything it would be make it three times as large and have a separate, walk-in gun safe with racks all around and cabinets underneath for ammo below each gun. And a rotating easy chair right in the middle. And a hairless cat to pet while plotting to take over the world.

Gear

[762 shooter]

I just went through this a couple of years ago and posted a similar thread about it here in Our Town and got a ton of great ideas and input, but nobody mentioned the mini-dragons at the time..... Here's the result before it was quite finished, now I can barely walk in there. See post #1006 on this page:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?12392-Loading-bench-pics/page26

If I could change anything it would be make it three times as large and have a separate, walk-in gun safe with racks all around and cabinets underneath for ammo below each gun. And a rotating easy chair right in the middle. And a hairless cat to pet while plotting to take over the world.

Gear

Where does Mini Me sit?

762

[Lloyd Smale]

well it would start with 1050 dillons set up in every caliber I load and an automated star with a collator and a magma casting machine.

[dragonrider]

I would start with 3 shipping containers. One 40 Ft and two 20 ft. attached at 90 degees to the 40 ft. container. They would be sandblasted and coated twice with that stuff they use for coating pickup beds. Outside then gets heavily insulated and the whole mess gets buried underground adjacent to the 100/200 yard underground range. One of the twenty footers would be for component storage the other for gun storage. The larger one is the main reloading room with the range off one end. As many 650's as I need, stars, case prep etc. Maybe a third 20 footer for smelting, casting, lubing,.

[labradigger1]

I am almost done with mine
Only 8x12 bot plenty of room for 2-550's, turret press, 4 lead furnaces, sizing area, three shotgun presses and case cleaning / prep area. Would loke more room for pc'ing though

[geargnasher]

The 100-yard underground shooting tunnel would be a dream come true, I could test rifle loads in the wee hours of the morning without anyone knowing. I actually have checked into this quite a bit as a "bucket list" project, due to tunnel "conditions" it gets rather complex with venting, and then even more complex because while it's fine to discharge firearms outdoors, if you move air containing GSR through a structure and discharge it to the atmosphere it then becomes an EPA emissions issue that's also subject to specific state and local regulations. Sheesh.

Gear

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I would start with 3 shipping containers. One 40 Ft and two 20 ft. attached at 90 degees to the 40 ft. container. They would be sandblasted and coated twice with that stuff they use for coating pickup beds. Outside then gets heavily insulated and the whole mess gets buried underground adjacent to the 100/200 yard underground range. One of the twenty footers would be for component storage the other for gun storage. The larger one is the main reloading room with the range off one end. As many 650's as I need, stars, case prep etc. Maybe a third 20 footer for smelting, casting, lubing,.

Reminds me a bit of the movie "Take Shelter"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675192/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5U4TtYpKIc

a great movie, plus Jessica Chastain is in it <3

[paul h]

I'm having a new house built, and am planning out the shop area, er ah garage. It's a large 3 car garage and I'll be putting in an L shaped work bench along the back and side wall, 22' on the long side, 12' on the short side. Not entirely for reloading, but they'll be at least 8' or possibly 12' dedicated to reloading, with shelves running from the bench top to the 11' ceiling. Eventual plan is a pair of 550's, one for small primers, one for large, my co-ax and rockchucker, Redding br powder thrower, 450 sizer and a star sizer.

Shop will have lathe, bench mill, drill press, welding table, woodworking table and a couple of roll away tool chests, oh and a table saw and air compressor.

Not sure where I'll set up the casting area, but I'll be putting down metal sheet over the plywood bench in the casting area to make clean up of lead and crud splatter easier. Also probably be adding a vent hood to keep the smell of burning flux out of the house and hence promote domestic tranquility.

[MT Gianni]

Some kind of flooring that pins and screws do not bounce on and an led light comes on where they hit when dropped. Secondly an electronic sensor that differentiates between live and shot primers littering up the floor. Wrap around bench continuous for three sides of the room. Storage bins per caliber so brass, bullets are all stacked next to each other for each cartridge I shoot. Temp controlled powder storage room.
I would still smelt outdoors and cast outside the home.

[lightman]

I have a room in the house, and I'm pretty happy with it. It is 10ft by 7ft but could be a little bigger. My bench sits under an outside window so I can watch the wildlife across the field. I have shelves beside and over the window. My bench height allows me to sit while working. Soon, maybe this year, I plan to cover the bench top with formica. I store my components in this room, but my brass, polishing media and lead supply are in an adjoining store room. I'm happy enough!

[Harter66]

I have a 12x 20 room set aside now unfortunately there's still a lot of my folks stuff stored there . Yes lots of shelf space ,either sliding or open faced bins for brass and bullets so as to be able to take them to the particular press station .
4 casting stations with feeding and casting pots . Bowling ally lane bench tops hooked to steel frames bolted to the floor and wall. There must also be at least an 8 foot section of dedicated work space to accommodate gun work and the accompanying tools . A lathe and maybe a mill/drill would be really nice too. I think I would use the bins to split the room keeping the current 5 in use presses and 4 shotgun presses away from the hot and cutting work . There would also be a dedicated scanner/printer and computer with a large display to manage all of my data ,targets and in use loading manuals.
what's a castle without a secret passage ,right into the culvert shooting tunnel . At least 310 feet with an exterior recovery door . I would run the venting back through the parlor stove chimney as the draw though 30" culvert wouldn't be much. The ton or so of ready to go ingots can stand by on the "dirty side" of the divider bins . Summer cooling will be managed by the swap cooler exhausting through the range tunnel and up the chimney. The lighting will be handled by direct light over each station group and by indirect behind and between each station group to minimize shadows.
that's a good start any way.

[firefly1957]

I am close only thing i would want to add is different heat now i have a non vented propane heater.
Room is 10 X 12 feet and ten feet high shelves on one wall bench is a 1/2 plywood desk with a 30 X 50 inch 1/2inch thick aluminum top. I have four presses on it for reloading and swaging , Rockchucker,RCBS 4X4 progressive, Lyman Orange crusher converted to swage pistol bullets with pacific dies ,and a Pacific press set up the make .224 bullets. I can also quickly attach my Mec shotshell loaders or bullet lube/sizers when needed. One minus i put the shelve up high as i age i can see a problem to that.

[oldsagerat]

762shooter - when you get your room done, I want to use it!

[GL49]

QUOTE=oldsagerat;3044486]762shooter - when you get your room done, I want to use it![/QUOTE]

I just want to move in next to him so I can look at it. And then, since we'll both be good neighbors.........[smilie=s:



(Hmmm. Wonder why the quote thingy didn't work.?)

[birch]

I would finally be able to track down and buy a reloading manual, dies, and moulds for my asperly aimless. For some reason, it is not listed in any manual--not one caliber or boolit weight.

[DCM]

I would finally be able to track down and buy a reloading manual, dies, and moulds for my asperly aimless. For some reason, it is not listed in any manual--not one caliber or boolit weight.

The greatest thing about those black powder cartridge Asperly's was that you just dipped the primed case into the cheapest BP you could find and stuffed a boolit or an earplug on top of it, done and done. No sense beating a dead horse with those things.

[TXGunNut]

I have what I consider to be the ultimate reloading center, at least for me and my needs. I bought a big sturdy bench almost 30 yrs ago built to NRMA (or something like that) specs and it is the anchor of my reloading activities. I have a small bedroom dedicated to reloading activities and component storage, recently installed a stainless steel storage shelf in the closet to organize brass, powder and moulds. I built a sturdy general purpose bench that now accomodates a drill press, grinder, sizers (when they're not hanging in the closet) and even a casting pot when I don't wish to cast outside. I'm building a steel workshop/storage building to better accomodate my casting and other messier wood and metal work.
Not big on the mini dragon idea. Sounds good at first but I hear they're hard to house train and my loading room is messy enough as is.

[Lance Boyle]

yeah, bad idea for a fire breathing dragon running around near your primer and powder supplies. You ever see a dragon with hiccups? Damned frightening I tell ya.

My ideal, perfect world would be an out building attached to the garage but not too far a walk from the house to dissuade its use. Inside the heated and dedicated space would be a large wrap around bench on 2 sides. I would mount my Dillon 550's, (might have to add a 2nd since we're dreaming), a Rock chucker and a Forster CoAx. My shotshell presses I would still mount on planks and store them in a cabinet when not in use. Walk in gun safe room with wall racks for rifles and shelves for ammo storage. Display rack for my bayonets. On a third wall in the gun room would be a shooting bench with a window that opened up to a 100 yard tunnel of concrete. Electronic target return system and a camera setup to view shots without walking down range. My gunsmith friend has his shop backroom set up like that but with an great outdoor range setup with berms at 50', 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, and 400 yards. The ability to shoot a sample load and not like it after 2 shots and up the load or seat the bullet out farther just like that without numerous trips to the range is priceless.

I always said i was going to make a range box to charge and seat right on the range to be close to that.

[lbaize3]

Actually, I have a darned nice reloading setup. What I want is the money to hire some one to do all my casting and reloading for me. Then we could go to the range daily and my employee could pull targets for me. After all, I am retired...

[reloader28]

I'm pretty happy with mine, though I could use more room.
I have a 50' shop, so I dont need a garage. I remodeled my big garage into 4 rooms. A walk in pantry, a tool room/game hanging room (we've hung 9 deer at a time in here), a reloading room and a big fun room. It has a full bar and fridge, BBQ grill, gun safe, pool table, juke box, 3 Dairy Queen booths, a poker table, dart board and an old wood cookstove for heat/cooking.

The reloading room is 12x14 with benches mounted to the 4 walls and shelving to the ceiling full of powder, primers, bullets and lots of gizmos.
One bench is for powder/primer/trimmer work. One with 2 RCBS presses for bullet work and another bench for lube/sizing and an RCBS progressive for pistol loading. The 4th bench is for working on whatever, right now its for wine and beer making.
Also have MEC presses for all gauges of shotguns.

I cast bullets under a vent hood on a hinged bench in the tool room. I also have targets outside out to 1000yds for testing.
If I had a basement, I would already have an underground range built, but oh well.

And to think I started out by clamping my one reloading press that the wife bought me to the kitchen table when we needed ammo.:roll:

[GoodOlBoy]

My "ultimate" man cave would indeed be a cave. IE and underground structure. It would house not only all my reloading, hunting, and fishing gear, but would have a nice corner with a classic charcoal forge, anvil, etc. And let us not forget the cast iron potbelly stove with the coffee cooking in a blue enamel pot, OR the soda fridge full of REAL SUGAR sodas in the man kitchen.... Right next to the theater style popcorn popper, and not far from the hallways leading to my private smokehouse full of homemade sausages, ham, bacon, etc.....

GoodOlBoy

[dragonrider]

" and not far from the hallways leading to my private smokehouse full of homemade sausages, ham, bacon, etc....."

I think I just found a need for a fourth 20 ft. container :bigsmyl2:

[1845greyhounds]

Some kind of flooring that pins and screws do not bounce on...

Check out Acecontrols.com (email: shocks@acecontrols.com). They sell shock absorption and vibration damping elastomer slab plates that take the bounce out. I saw this stuff at a trade show. Very neat. A 1/4" thick slab completely neutralized the fall of a 1" ball bearing.

[rbertalotto]

A few things I've done which I consider the "best" improvements I've made:

A center located heavy wood table that allows me (and a friend) to work on both sides of the rifle without moving the gun. And no one looking over your shoulder like a Parrot! (Available on sale from Harbor Freight for $129!)
http://images42.fotki.com/v1630/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5756-vi.jpg

http://images54.fotki.com/v514/photos/2/36012/11038879/P1030656-vi.jpg


Separate powder measures that I bought used on Craigs List or gun shows for under $25 each. Allows powder to remain set for the most used cartridges i load for:
http://images45.fotki.com/v1451/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5766-vi.jpg

I ran an airline from the compressor located in the garage. (Actually, it is in a shed in the back yard along with a dust a fumes collector) Invaluable! (and quiet!)
http://images20.fotki.com/v233/photos/2/36012/11038879/P1030637-vi.jpg

A separate progressive press, all set up for the cartridges I load the most...38-40, 45 Colt, 45ACP. 38 Special, 45 Cowboy Special, 223
http://images34.fotki.com/v74/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5768-vi.jpg

Quick Change Mounting and storage rack for above:

http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/gunsmithing-reloading/press-mount-and-sto/

Lots and lots of storage. So I can put stuff there, never find it again, go out and buy anotherone, go to store it somewhere, and find the one I couldn't find!!!
http://images12.fotki.com/v616/photos/2/36012/11038879/P1030639-vi.jpg
http://images51.fotki.com/v747/photos/2/36012/11038879/P1030648-vi.jpg
http://images9.fotki.com/v1542/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5767-vi.jpg

Lots more pictures and ideas here:
http://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto/gunsmithing-reloading/

[David2011]

My current loading room was built in the summer of 2013 so it's pretty recent. It was built from nothing so it's pretty much what I want. It has good lighting, good benches, lots of cabinets, air conditioning, heat and ventilation. Got a Rock Chucker, a JR3 and a red/white/blue Summit on the single stage side, 3 Dillons on the progressive side, lots of components and brass. I'm satisfied with it on my budget as it would take an enormous chunk of change to make a significant improvement. I like the idea of a Dillon 1050 in each caliber but would still want to load some stuff one at a time. A subterranean range would be the icing on the cake. I would settle happily for an above ground 100 yd. range with a little range house to shoot from.

David

[RogerDat]

A few things I've done which I consider the "best" improvements I've made:

Wow that is nice but I'm pretty sure the wife won't let me move all the furniture out of the master bedroom to make a gun room out of it. I'll have to check on that table I do have a spot in the basement where it might fit. Wife and myself could both use it for projects.

[AZ-JIM]

I too am pretty pleased with my modest setup. It does just what I need it to and nothing less. I spent lots of hours studying all the photos in the reloading bench thread and took ideas from several of you to create what works for me. I have no need for a 1050 in every caliber I own, my reloading time is my unwind and relax time. I still do everything the way my dad taught me, most of it single stage, and it reminds me of when we used to do it together...good times. I dont mind hand trickling powder charges, it takes as long as it takes but more often than not the reward shows up on the target.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?12392-Loading-bench-pics&p=1657968&viewfull=1#post1657968
az-jim

[paul h]

Roy,

Thanks for sharing photos of your loading room!

In the near future I'll be building a new shop/loading area and your pictures have really inspired me. They're also going to cost me even more $, but save me some time and most importantly I'll have a nice neat organized area. The cabinets at the base of the benches is a slick idea, much better than my typical method of piling junk under there.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/evefiles/photo_albums/3/4/4/344100033/8961075121_E2353690A1DF38E7BF166BDAC1B6505E.JPG


A few things I've done which I consider the "best" improvements I've made:

A center located heavy wood table that allows me (and a friend) to work on both sides of the rifle without moving the gun. And no one looking over your shoulder like a Parrot! (Available on sale from Harbor Freight for $129!)
http://images42.fotki.com/v1630/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5756-vi.jpg

http://images54.fotki.com/v514/photos/2/36012/11038879/P1030656-vi.jpg


Separate powder measures that I bought used on Craigs List or gun shows for under $25 each. Allows powder to remain set for the most used cartridges i load for:
http://images45.fotki.com/v1451/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5766-vi.jpg



http://images34.fotki.com/v74/photos/2/36012/11038879/DSC_5768-vi.jpg