My loading area is located in the basement, one short wall of concrete blocks, one short wall of paneling. The longer walls are studs for a finished great room, the other wall containing a corner entrance and about 10' of hand built shelving standing 6' tall.

I have an 8' bench anchored to the studs of the other long wall, two 4' benches on the short walls. Neither of my 4' benches are anchored, as they were initially intended for firearm cleaning and tinkering.

Over the weekend I added one shelf to the short bench located against the foundation block. The entire time I was thinking, I need to move this single stage press to the anchored bench and place my turret press on this one. Well, one shelf was installed and relocating presses and accessories took over.

I now have my turret on the foundation wall bench, one Rockchucker and two 4000 series Lee on the anchored 8' bench. I have two more single stage presses in limbo.

I rearranged other stuff too. Case cleaning stuff swapped ends of the room. I'll be lost for a bit but the Rockchucker needed moving to the secured bench and the rest seemed to have just happened.

I think I'll wait a bit on adding the second shelf. That first one was a lot more work than I expected!

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Come Get Mother, I'm Through

I worked on homes and apartments full time since 1974, in that time hundreds of water beds were thrown away or just left behind. The side boards became my primary wood source for lumber. The sides are usually #2 grade 2x10 pine that is stained and varnished. At the farm house my first bench was 30" deep and 7' long. I built the legs from ripped two 4" pieces made into a closed top "H" with two 2x10's as a shelf on the bar of the "H". There were 3 center cleats spaced evenly to stabilize the top too.

After mounting a Rock Chucker Supreme on the left, Dillon 550 in the middle, and a T-7 turret on the right, I found the top hat too much flex. Since the press mounting bolts were already in place. I made a 7' 2x8 and got it up against the bottom side of the top, it wasn't quite parallel to the frond edge as it was between the bolts. Everything wood was screwed together with 2 1/2" deck screws, usually in 2 directions, and spaced about 3 to 4" apart.

For 29 years I loaded, gun smithed, and tinkered on that bench, It never wiggled, flexed, or wobbled in any direction.

Above it on the 15' long wall I had a shelf made from the white coated closer shelving at a height about 7'2" (just above the door casing) that was 20" wide and 10' long. This is here I stored the 6 MEC shotgun shell presses, mounted on 3/4 plywood.

This system served so well, that when I moved to the condo, I modified the old bench into the 5' bench I have now.

Ivan

Way back in the 70’s when I went down this rabbit hole I lived in apartments most of the time. One bedroom was the gun room, the other for sleeping. First bench top was part of a lane from a bowling alley, 30” deep and thick. Heavy as all get out. It took 2 of us to move a 12’ long section when we picked it up, before it was cut to 5 foot. Shelves for ammo and components were in the closet. That bench was supported by legs and crosspieces made from 2x6’s bolted together. It never even moved, but I only had a Rockchucker and such on it, powder measure etc.

Our final resting place is in the south, and there was an old Timey store along with the house we purchased. That is now my reloading building. Now on the bench is a Dillon 450, 650, and that original RC. A separate 8’ long table for cleaning guns, sizing bullets and powder coating the bullets. A corner unit it strictly for cleaning guns. Shelves, cabinets, wall shelves almost hold everything else.

I do not think you can ever have a big enough area to use!

Regards, Rick Gibbs

We have no basements in Florida, so my reloading and general purpose shop area is the third bay of our three car garage. About six years ago, my wife got a new car, a large SUV. It would only fit in the center bay of the garage causing me to re-layout my shop area - her passenger door needed clearance to my branch. Well, a short version of a long project story, I re-designed and re-enforced my primary bench, added two more smaller benches (the wood ones from HF, quite good really), and got a Dillon 650 to add to my RCBS Rock Chucker and PRO2K. It all worked out in the end and I have a really nice shop now, but, my, how small things generate events……..For want of a nail…….

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"Your other right........."

There was a thread here recently about those quick change mounts from Inline Fabrication. I can see a system like this in my future. Unless I get rid of a huge table saw and a radial arm saw I am stuck with 8ft of workspace. The left 32" belongs to the reloading tools while the right 32" hosts two vises. The middle stays open.

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Turn off the media, go outside

More stuff, more to worry with. While in my 20's I started in a corner of a small bedroom with one RC press, plastic RCBS dial calipers, 10-10 scale, Forster case trimmer, .257 Roberts dies, 1lb of H4831 100 CCI 200 primers. With exception of the dies all the hardware was used.

Over the decades I've accumulated quite a bit of stuff.

After using this area for a while there are changes I want. I decide which area I want to tackle today, start and find a half dozen more things while I'm there. All these things go through my mind. "Stay On Task", "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day", "This Is Great Just Like It Is Now." "Forget The Saw & Drill, Operate The Press!"

I also have the ,"Let's Get This Off My Plate" mentality too.

My wife asked, "do we need to make your load room wider?"

Without hesitation I said "NO." If we make it any larger I'll fill it too.

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Come Get Mother, I'm Through

My loading bench is white oak. Two 5x14 planks on six 4x4 legs. I built it upside down 40 some yrs ago and had to get two guys to help flip it up. No nails all bolted construction. It don’t move no matter what you are doing. It doesn’t get loose from pulling nails either.

Sounds like you have a lot of room for loading.

I'm using na very old desk that is large and heavy to load. I only have 2 presses and I swap them out as needed with mounting plates. I use the draws for storage and I have one small shelf on the other side of the basement.

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Freedom is never free!!
SWCA #3437