Reloading Room Design

[Guardian]

Wife and I recently moved. Good news - I have a spot for a dedicated reloading room. Bad news - It's the unfinished second floor of a barn.



The previous owners used the barn as a second garage, with storage on the second floor. Anyway, the subfloor is all that's there and it's 19/32 OSB. The 2x8 joists are on 24-in centers. In other words, it won't hold much in its current state. The downstairs is used for woodworking and welding, neither of which I want around my reloading/swaging stuff. Casting will be done downstairs, mostly because I don't want to carry the ingots upstairs.

I'm considering using 5/4 pine deck boards over the OSB, cutting tongue and groove in it to eliminate the rounded edges and gaps. It's relatively cheap and I think it will stand the weight of the benches. Thoughts? Other options?

I'll end up with about 13x23 usable space, with storage under the steeper portions of the gambrel roof. I'm planning to put a door where the window and light are on the front now, so I can put stuff up there with the front end loader. A deck with stairs on the back on the building will give me routine access and allow ammo testing right outside the reloading room.

For benches, I'm planning 12-inch wide down the length of each side and a 30-in wide x 10-ft long island in the center, leaving me 4.25-ft for an aisle on each side and 6.5-ft on each end. Doors on either end will be outswing, but still kill usable space. For bench tops, I was thinking of using 2x4s in a butcher block style, with framing bolted to the wall and/or floor.

What would you change or add? It's killing me that I haven't had my stuff setup for over a year, and I'm anxious to get going again, but his is likely my last move, so I want to do this right.

[Half Dog]

I wouldn't be much help with designing but I would love to see how it turns out. gOOD LUCK.

[AZ Pete]

You might look at the load bearing ability of the joists before you add all of that weight.

[flyingmonkey35]

Jealous sounds nice where you going to put the cot as this will be the dog when you don't leave it for days in end.

[geargnasher]

You're going to love the island setup. Plan on getting a rolly office chair to cruise around in, saves the back and knees from the up and down thing. Narrow benches are quite useful, you seem to have already discovered that the back 2/3 of a 2' loading bench only serves as a catch-all that's too far to reach easily unless you're standing.

2x8 joists are overspanned at 10' on 16" centers, you didn't say what the span was but I would double them (make it 12" centers) and put a layer of BC sanded plywood down just for a smooth surface, unless you have or can easily rent a floor sanding machine to even out the T&G variances or are planning to cover it with low-pile carpet or linoleum. Trust me, don't chinch on having a smooth, crack-free floor. You might also consider some of the cheap composite floor material, seen some at clearing houses for well under a dollar a SF. I prefer low-pile industrial carpet for my work spaces. It gets stained with grease, bullet lube, gun oil, etc, but for ME, it saves my bacon because I have a chronic case of the "dropsies" and would have damaged most of the tools I own by now from dropping them on concrete or having them roll off the bench, but the little bit of carpet even with no underlayment cushions the fall just enough most of the time to prevent dings. Even had a rifle or two fall over and no harm done thanks to carpet. Low pile stuff like you see in schools and office buildings is what I'm talking about, I just got the cheap stuff off the roll at Homeless Despot and layed it myself, putting baseboard and shoe mould around the edges to hold it in place.

You can also add a center support beam and a post or two downstairs to help shore up the floor under your island. Bouncy floors suck, voice of experience. I built a 24x40 gambrel barn, 12' to joists and another 12 from deck to ridge beam. Post and beam down the middle. Ended up turning it into a mansion instead of loft space and the 2x8/12' span/2' centers and 3/4 CDX didn't go so well as living space. I added joists to make 12" and put two rows of staggered blocks at the 4 and 8 foot marks across the spans to further reduce the dice'n'slice movement of the joists when walking on them, it's quite solid now.

I think 2x4s on edge is overkill for reloading bench tops, and you have to figure the weight on the structure too. Just my opinion. All mine are 2-by yellow pine glued and screwed to a very well reinforced glued and screwed 2x4 framework and supported by 4x4 untreated fir legs. Good for everything but swaging, and if I were to build a setup for something like swaging bullets I would build it out of heavy steel and anchor it firmly to a concrete slab because a little bit of flex and rubber feel during a precision hand operation like that just drives me nuts.

A dumbwaiter would be nice too, as would a shooting bench and gun port, but maybe that's beyond the scope of your build.

Shelf space. You can never, ever have enough. Put shelves, or preferably drawers or sliding trays on full extension slides, in every odd space your room allows. Under the benches you can put shallow trays on low rollers right on the floor and slide them back to take advantage of the hard-to-reach space along the gambrel walls without having to get down on your hands and knees with a flashlight to rummage around and drag stuff out.

Gear

[jmort]

"Narrow benches are quite useful"

I have settled on 20" and have an 8'x8'x8' U, i.e. 24 linear feet of loading bench.

[dudel]

Make it as nice as you can. My rule: If you're going to be in the doghouse, you might as well build a nice doghouse.

2x8 joists are fine, I just wonder about the load bearing capacity of 24" centers. Probably ok, and likely some joist website will confirm this. 5/4 pine decking sounds fine.

Since you're using essentially an attic, I'd worry about how hot it would get in the summer. Maybe plan ahead for some insulation or ridge vents and some ventilation. Run power. I like my outlets at workbench level rather than a foot off the floor. Plenty of task lighting.

Congrats on a great space.

[Shawlerbrook]

Sounds like you have a great starting point, but I would definitely add more floor joists. What do you plan to do for heating and cooling ?

[Guardian]

Gear, overkill is highly underrated! I like the idea of doubling the joists. The building is 25-ft square(ish). There is already a beam and posts down the middle of the barn, so at least I don't have to add that.

The 23x13 is the center portion of the attic space. Walls are already studded under the change in roof pitch. I considered doing shed dormers in the sides to give me more accessible space, but that'll have to wait. My plan is to break the bench tops in the area those dormers would go, just in case I decide to do that later.

The floor sander is easy enough to rent from one of the box stores, but I was intending to face screw the boards. That might create a problem. Plywood may be the easier route, I just wasn't sure one layer would give the rigidity I was after, but that was without adding joists.

I'm pretty sure the walls are framed on 24-in centers too. I'll confirm that, though.

The bench on the back deck will be another project down the road, but certainly something I'm trying to leave space for.

Dudel, I'm intending to insulate the whole thing and, at some point, add a wall unit for heating and cooling. No doubt it will get HOT in the summer, but most of my reloading is in the winter due to shorter periods of daylight. Not much I can do outside after work.

Electrical is already partially run, but some additional circuits will be necessary. Currently, the entire upstairs is on one 15A breaker.

All, thanks for the input! Keep it coming.

[labradigger1]

Whatever you do make plenty of bench space. Mine is 30' long x 22" deep and runs around 4 sides of the loading room. I wish I had twice that amount. Once you start your hobby may get out of hand as mine did. 3 shotshell presses on one side, casting, sizing and core cutting on another, 2 progressives and one turret on another and swaging and powder coating on the fourth. It quickly got out of hand for me.

[Guardian]

It's already out of hand. Thus, needing a dedicated reloading room. At the last house, it took up 3/4 of a two car garage. When I loaded all I scaled it. It was over 5k lbs, without much lead and no loaded ammo. I was probably better off not knowing that, since I had to load and unload it.

I'm leaving the casting stuff out of the reloading room, so that will help with space/weight constraints.

[jsizemore]

In NC code called for 2x10's 16" OC for a 12' span for floor joists. 2x8's 12" OC should do the trick. 3/4" T&G plywood screwed and glued over top of the existing 5/8" OSB should give you all the floor decking you'll need and go down fast. I'd increase your studs to 12" OC also.

[lightman]

I would add joist for sure. I believe I would add enough to do 12 inch centers. I also would use plywood for the floor, probably tongue and groove. Screwed or nailed and glued. The 24 inch centers on the walls should be fine unless you plan to load them in some way. I like the idea of having a door on the end large enough to use with your front end loader. All in all I see a nice loading room in all of this!

[Kevin Rohrer]

If you get serious about reloading, your benches will have multiple presses on them, plus books, components, etc. There will be a lot of weight upstairs. I would take a second look at putting everything downstairs. Just store your combustibles (powder and primers) in an old frig or other secure container so you don't mix welding and components.

The reason I suggest this is that I have about 12' of bench. It is FULL of stuff, very heavy, and needs to set on a concrete floor. I don't think a second floor would safely hold the weight.

[dragonrider]

Adding more joists, maybe, 5/4 pine deck board for floor never, way too much work for the intended purpose. Floor it with 3/4 plywood over the present floor, use screws not nails, fast and solid. Joists can be added later if needed.

[Walla2]

In NC code called for 2x10's 16" OC for a 12' span for floor joists. 2x8's 12" OC should do the trick. 3/4" T&G plywood screwed and glued over top of the existing 5/8" OSB should give you all the floor decking you'll need and go down fast. I'd increase your studs to 12" OC also.

You should put more joists in. Much cheaper than rebuilding the barn after the floor falls through. I picked up 5 used 4 drawer filing cabinets for #25 total. They are fairly strong and hold a lot of important stuff.

[jcren]

Might look at solid core door blanks/slabs for shelves. Pine are usually fairly cheep.(under $50 at local yards)and you can rip a 36" in half for 15' of solid benchtop.

[Guardian]

Well, I spent some time in the barn this weekend and have decided the second floor isn't going to work. I was going off memory in the OP and I should know better by now. To correct two points, the joists are 2x10 on 24-in centers. The center beam is three 2x10s, but the floor joists are nailed to the beam rather than crossed over it. The second incorrect statement was the existing OSB subfloor thickness, which is 7/16.

Anyway, after looking at it closer, there are other framing issues that dissuade me from using the upper floor as a reloading room. The issues could be corrected, but I don't think the time and effort are worth it. I'll just put 3/4 plywood over the existing OSB and use the area as storage for lighter weight, seldom used items. Oh well. I appreciate the suggestions!

The lower portion of that barn will be a nightmare to insulate/seal. It's perfectly suitable for it's current storage use, but converting it is just more than I want to get into.

The alternate plans both involve concrete work and framing. They also won't happen as quickly as I thought the original idea might. I'll update this post as I develop those plans.

[dilly]

That's a bit of a bummer, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what you can make.

[OS OK]

Great and accurate advise all the way through…no doubt…but…If you use a automatic-powder-dispenser you are aware that they just can't tolerate vibrations.
Try to figure a method to suspend a eparate shelf from the ceiling down to the bench area where you imagine using it. I built a 4 ft. round loading bench and put my presses equally spaced around the radius, used a tripod leg assy. and put the presses directly over each leg. Drilled a 2 1/2" hole in the center and came up through with a separate pipe welded to a huge firetruck brake rotor at the bottom and thats so the adjustable shelf for the dispenser or scale can sit and face any of the presses Im using. Perhaps a couple pictures might explain better:

Attachment 159743Attachment 159744Attachment 159745Attachment 159746

First > adjustable pipe collar w/ thumb screw…can face any press at any height above surface of bench.
Second > separate base for this powder stand…doesn't pick up vibrations from bench.
Third > Pointing towards turret and using the scale to monitor the lyman 55. Will remove scale to use the RCBS auto-throw behind it.
Fourth > An old industrial first aid box below for my die stowage. The rag is hanging from a cup holder screw in 'C' hook, one at each press.

You can see the hole in pic. one where the stand comes through the table…preventing bench vibrations to the scales shelf.
I know you are not using the round bench concept but thats why I mentioned the separate shelf idea so the dispenser or scale is not connected to your bench.
Hope this gives you an idea or two…oh yeah…the top of the center pipe has an 18" tool holder magnet connected vertical and holds calipers, allen wrenches or whatever you use but don't want on the bench. There are separate 1" X 2" magnets placed at the various presses to hang onto anything else, ie. the cartridge checkers I'm using at the moment.

charlie