Just finnished the new Reloading Room

[put]

Moved it out of the wood shop. Should work a lot better that way.

[waco]

Looks real good man. I moved mine into my daughters room when she moved out last year. Got me out of the garage! AC in the summer, and heat in the winter!

[blaser.306]

Looks great, but I have to ask. What is the meaning of all of the clear un cluttered countertop? I am sure you will enjoy your new space to the fullest!

[dsbock]

I'm secure enough in my masculinity to admit I'm envious of your setup. My reloading area is still in my workshop with the wood working.

David

[pworley1]

Great looking building.

[gmsharps]

Maybe I just missed it but where is the vent hood for your caasting area but other wise nice setup. Enjoy

gmsharps

[srtolly]

That is a very nice setup.

[dondiego]

San Antonio? I don't see the air conditioner!

[jmort]

I need something just like that. Very nice.

[put]

The A/C is in the back wall not in the picture. The vent hood is not in yet. Still working on that. The bench is clean because I just finished it last night.

Hope to mess it up soon.

[woodbutcher]

Good looking loading room.However,not meaning to be rude or disrespectful,but you don`t appear to have much in the way of security.Glass window,wood door,backed up to fence,AC in rear wall.Looking at it from an outlaws point of view,easy pickings unless there is a good very loud alarm system and motion sensors for lighting.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[put]

Good looking loading room.However,not meaning to be rude or disrespectful,but you don`t appear to have much in the way of security.Glass window,wood door,backed up to fence,AC in rear wall.Looking at it from an outlaws point of view,easy pickings unless there is a good very loud alarm system and motion sensors for lighting.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

You make a good point. Need to do some more work.

[zanemoseley]

I like the lead ingot stash, should keep you shooting for a while.

[osteodoc08]

Agreed with the above.

1. Nice set up.
2. Needs ventilation.
3. Need way better security (make sure homeowners would cover replacement of stolen/damaged.)

[Bad Water Bill]

Be sure to take plenty of UP CLOSE pictures of every item on every shelf to document what is at this time present in your man cave.

If you have an UNINVITED visitor you will never remember how many ingots were on each shelf let alone the patches, cleaning brushes etc.

Then check with your ins agent what else is needed as proof of your ownership.

[cbrick]

Moved it out of the wood shop. Should work a lot better that way.

Very nice, I built one very much like that several years ago A/C and all. One of the security features I did was hang a rake and shovel on the outside next to the door and leaned a wheel barrel up against the side. I had everything shooting, loading, casting, safe, guns in there when the house was burglarized and the loading room wasn't touched. Seems they had plenty of interest in TV's, camera's, jewelry, stereo's and the like but no interest at all in gardening.

Rick

[Rooster]

This is exactly the kind of thing I want to do. Nice setup and I'm taking notes! Serious questions for those that have done this and have some time under their belt: Are the walls and OSB mounted brackets secure enough to hold the weight required for supplies? Would a floor supported cabinet setup be better in this instance? Electrical access would be nice for this also, how dangerous would that be? Any thoughts or improvements that you might add would be very much appreciated as I am about to do something rash here shortly. If you had it to do over how would you build the reloading room? Be creative!!

I like the gardening 'camo' in plain sight angle too.

[cbrick]

Serious questions If you had it to do over how would you build the reloading room? Be creative!!

Serious answer . . . Bigger!

I had an electric panel, A/C, ceiling & bench light, outlets etc., power was run underground & up through the floor so it couldn't be seen. I used plywood for the walls covered with mahogany ply & finished with polyurethane. Held all kinds of shelves & cabinets.

I didn't have any windows, just the door. Motion sensor exterior light on the house that lit it up well.

Rick

[David2011]

Put,

That's a very nice shop!

Are the walls and OSB mounted brackets secure enough to hold the weight required for supplies? Would a floor supported cabinet setup be better in this instance? Electrical access would be nice for this also, how dangerous would that be? Any thoughts or improvements that you might add would be very much appreciated as I am about to do something rash here shortly. If you had it to do over how would you build the reloading room? Be creative!!

Rooster,

I just built my third reloading room since 2006 and did some major mods to the entire workshop last year. I've learned a lot and incorporated those lessons learned into my latest reloading room. Sorry if this is too long but it took a lot of space to pass along everything I've learned about what works for me.

My room is about 120 square feet and is a room within a larger freestanding metal sided workshop out behind my house. The walls and ceiling are well insulated with fiberglass and the door is a pre-hung metal skinned door that is insulated, purchased from a surplus and salvage place inexpensively. I would have liked for it to be bigger but the existing structure and needs for some of the other square footage in the larger shop building limited what I could use for reloading. I have 3 Dillons and 2 single stage RCBS presses mounted plus a 2'x4' casting area in the space. Two people can work at the same time without it being too crowded. The air conditioning is handled by an 8000 btu window unit and heating is provided by an oil filled radiator electric heater which produces no sound and no exposure to sparks or hot heating elements. The heat is even and gentle with no hot or cold spots in the room and the air conditioner is way more than adequate.

OSB will take nominal weight without going into studs, like shelves for powder and other less dense items. For the cabinets that hold dies and other heavier stuff I just attached them directly into the studs only. The only items I support with shelving that rests on the floor for strength reasons are brass and lead. I've known people that were broken into by the thieves kicking through sheetrock so make it a little harder to break into the shop, I put up OSB and then covered it with sheetrock. The reloading room and gunsmith shop are both room finished with knockdown textured walls and satin paint finishes. Figured that as much time as I would spend in those rooms they should be nice. Electrical work done to code poses no additional danger and is safer than running extension cords from another building. I have no smoking signs posted in the reloading room and on the door- common sense for myself even though I don't smoke but I don't want a visitor lighting a lighter or smoking in a room with a bunch of powder. The electrical outlets are all set a few inches above the height of the bench tops. I determined what bench would be built where before roughing in the wiring. Clearance priced flourescent lighting was installed under the wall hanging cabinets. I can build cabinets but the prices for unfinished cabinets at Home Depot weren't much higher than materials would have cost. The supporting structure of all of my benches and the cabinets are painted to match. It was worth the small effort to make the room pleasing to the eye but doesn't help function at all. If you have a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store nearby you might be able to get cabinets inexpensively there.

My bench tops are not painted. So many acrylic paints never dry hard and I didn't want things sticking to the countertops all the time. When I built the single stage and casting bench I found that formerly cheap laminate was $80-$100/sheet now so I used red oak veneered plywood and finished it with five coats of glossy Minwax wipe-on polyurethane (really, NOT a big deal to put on 5 coats!). It's oil based, dries hard and is extremely easy to use. It resists the solvents we use for the most part but wouldn't trust it to stand up to the gun cleaning solvents that warn you to not let them contact the stock, just because I haven't tested it yet. The older progressive bench is shellaced. Shellac is alcohol based and I've learned the hard way, does not tolerate gun cleaning solvents.

Make your reloading benches as stiff as you can. If you can build them as free standing benches but screw them to studs in the wall you get good front-to-back and side-to-side strength without a lot of complicated bracing. A single sheet of 3/4 ply with 2x4s on edge supporting it is the absolute minimum and not very stiff if loading anything tougher that .38 Special or .45 ACP. Running some 2x4s on edge front to back so you can through bolt your presses through the ply and 2x4s will make them much stiffer if you tie all of the 2x4s together. Any effort you expend flexing the bench is effort that is just absorbed by the wood instead of being transferred to the press so it just tires you faster. If the entire bench flexes a little when sizing, put a compression post under the press to stiffen it up.

I prefer to sit while loading single stage. The height of the single stage bench was determined by the height of the chair I intended to use with me sitting in it and the position of the press handle at the bottom of the stroke. I wanted to be able to keep my back straight to reduce the chance of repetitive motion injury due to an old problem.

The progressive bench top is just a good smooth sanded grade of plywood which was easier to come by several years ago when I built that bench. My preference for progressive presses is to stand while running them so the progressive loader bench is 42" high, determined by the height of the press handles at the bottom of the stroke, again without bending my back. If you use Strong Mounts your bench wouldn't need top be nearly as high. Resist the urge to make your benches too deep. For most applications 24" is deep enough and makes plywood go farther. Deeper just collects more junk and it gets harder to reach the back of the bench.

If you're building a casting area into the reloading room these are a couple more tips that have worked well for me. I have been using a galvanized steel garage floor drip pan under my furnace and molds for years. They're cheap, lead won't adhere to them and they have a lip that will contain spills and rolling boolits. Mine is about 25" x 47"; got it at Wally World for about $11. I put a piece of leftover 1/2" sheetrock under it so a spill or a pile of hot boolits wouldn't damage the polyurethane under the drip tray. Most mid-priced gun safes use sheetrock for fire resistance so I figured it would work for this as well and it's been great. I bought a quiet but relatively high volume bathroom fan to ventilate the casting area and the smoke is carried out by gas water heater exhaust piping.

You can't have too much light or storage!

David

[buckwheatpaul]

Put, Looks great! Putting the finishing touches on mine...my wife kicked me out of the house and told me to build a man's cave.....I'm thinking of getting a sign that says: "Hee Man Woman Hating Club" .... us older guys will remember where that came from......