reloading room do's and dont's , would like some advice

I think the ashtray on the bench *could* be an issue ;). Hafta be careful when you open up that powder can!

I keep my powder locked and sealed away. Those ones are empty. I rarely smoke in there and only if The powder is put away. I should have known better than to post that pic on here lol
 
Winter is coming and I will be putting together dedicated reloading room.

Bump for a great thread with a lot of useful information.
 
Lots of good advice here.

I have an Ikea gooseneck lamp in addition to fluorescents, quite handy as the light can be aimed. I usually have a small flashlight on a lanyard as well. As noted, good lighting is a must.

When I made my bench, I covered it with white melamine. Makes cleanup easier. The idea of mounting a beam scale at eye level is a very good one and your neck will thank you.

I would also suggest that before you start screwing stuff down, that you think of reloading as a factory, with components coming in at different times and places and a finished product emerging at the far end. OK, factories are more complex, but my point is that having to keep spinnng back and forth between ends of your bench gets old quickly.
 
A ton of great info on here, soon I'll be using a bunch of it on my new room (spring).
So far high on my list of changes from the existing situation;
-A dedicated room with a locking door (think safe room).
-An exhaust fan (like a bathroom fan).
-Lots of plug ins.
-Lots of lighting; LED dimmable.
-Anti-fatigue flooring.
-Build it bigger than you think you need; there is no replacement for displacement...

I already have slot wall and it's great, I'll use it again.
I also store primers, powder and ammo separately; you can't have enough storage.
It is impossible to over build the bench.
A radio is ok, TV isn't...A clock is a must.
 
One thing I spent a bit of time on was coming to the right height for the bench.
As my room is fairly small (10x12), I also wanted to maximize the space I had.
I also did not want to mount my bench to the wall studs (light gauge steel), but still wanted an extremely sturdy bench with no movement.

I ended up making a 'L' shaped bench with a mid-height shelf.
The lower portion is set for a typical 5 gal. Bucket (spent, dirty brass collection) which coincidently works well with the 25mm ammo cans.
The shelf works well with stacked ammo cans, which I fill up (with ammo of course) and weigh down the bench with.





 
Pretty much the same here: decent solid bench, basement, painted concrete floor with no carpet (am I really the only guy who's fumbled a full tray of primers before?), lots of shelf-space, a couple of different types of extinguishers, loads of lighting, etc.

I also subscribe to the one-powder-on-the-bench rule, and if you fill a hopper in any powder-dispenser, whether or not you PLAN to only run one batch that evening or not; mark the powder-hopper (post-it, taped label, grease-pencil, hang-tag, whatever) with whatever is in it. You come back to it a few days (weeks, months?) later & have no idea what you filled it with last time, you'll be glad you did. I have a modified (brass hopper) Lyman and Belding & Mull manual powder dispensers for black powder ctg loading, and may run FG in one, FFG, in the other. It's easy enough to tell the difference in granulation, but some similar smokeless types? I mark the RCBS manual and the Lyman electronic dispensers when I fill them.

If you load for too many calibers, consider investing in some of that cheap coated wire-frame closet-shelf material with the 1-inch gaps from many hardware stores, Home Depots, etc. I rigged up a shelf section raised high enough above the work-bench surface to not lose bench-top, and each of those 1-inch gaps let a 7/8" die in, & held up by the lock-ring. You may never need holes for 100+ dies, but it's easy to fabricate a 'die-shelf' for all you need (plan for expansion). If you have any concerns about flooding in your reloading-room, water on the floor, etc, then that shelf material also sits nicely on top of 1" rings sliced from abs or pvc pipe, 4" or similar, and cabinets, benches, shelves, etc., sit on top, allowing air (& hopefully NOT water) flow underneath. I keep a de-humidifier running much of the more humid months.

Presses: Too many. I have bench-space, but not enough for all the single-stage RCBS or Lee Cast ones, Lyman turret, the Dillon and the Lee progressives, as well as the Lyman & RCBS bullet lubri-sizers, all at once. Besides, I don't need all mounted, all at once, and don't feel like swiss-cheesing my bench-top by drilling permanent bolt/screw holes for every possible press. Solution: Bolt each to a flat of (glued) double-thick MDF or wood, and whichever press I need at the moment I clamp to the bench-top with big-ass C-clamps.

Oh, also: try to keep your electronic or balance-beam scales away from furnace-vents, windows, or anywhere with much air-flow. I also mount the power-bar vertically on the bench-back, so anything I run on the bench has easy access, and in case of problems I can switch all power off at once if needed. Oh yeah, and a peg-board back to the bench, with those little hangers, make pretty good shell-holder holders.
 
The one thing that I did not hear about is the bench and chair height.
I find it difficult to do the resizing when seated in fron of a regular desk height,
I prefer a taller bench and a stool to do my loading, it gives me the leverage I need
to do some of the harder press operations and keeps me up, alert and mobile.
BB
 
My reloading/gun room is 10 by 12, thought it would be plenty big as the old one was 8 by 11.
Surprising how much more room I ended up with but I struggle on a daily basis to keep things organised as more "stuff" seems to keep accumulating to use up my new found space!
I put in laminate floor as it was cheap, easy to clean. 1 mistake that has to be corrected is to caulk the area between the flooring and the baseboards. I am missing a couple springs from my AR and a decapping pin or 2 that must be hiding in the cracks somewhere!
I use a standard old office desk for a work bench, quite heavy and plenty of work surface now that I made up a quick change plate for my presses so only one is on the desk top at one time, the other 2 sit on a special shelf mounted on the wall above the desk. I use a standard office chair as they are again cheap, height adjustable and the rolling feature is very handy. An old metal filing cabinet works great for brass storage and other misc. items but make sure it is one of the heavy duty ones....brass gets pretty heavy when you fill the drawers. I picked up most of the items from places like the Restore where they sell used building materials and cabinets over the years.
The metal cabinet at the end of the desk holds rags, plastic containers etc. and is movable so I can orient it as needed to allow room to use the cleaning rods without hitting the walls yet moves back against the desk when not needed for cleaning guns. Keeps the reloading bench/ desk clean and less cluttered so I can reload while the copper solvent is doing it's thing on the barrels.

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I just started reloading this year, been at it about 10 months.I built a bench on an old 25 buck workmate.It holds my press on the right front and my lyman gen 3 on the left side. I live in a mobile home so space is at a premium. The room is only 10x 11, and holds the hot water tank, storage ,and my reloading sdtup. If I need my tumbler it sits on the floor.I would love a bigger space but it isn't there but I can turn out reloads as fast as I need them. Make your reloading setup any size you can but, size does not matter. A small setup can work great if setup correctly.imho.
 
- Only have ONE type of powder on the workbench during reloading. The one you are reloading with. You do NOT want to accidentally mix up powders and their powder weights.

That is my number one rule too, and it doesn't hurt to check and recheck that it is the correct powder that you actually wanted. Using the wrong powder or having multiple bottles on your bench then dumping your measure into the wrong bottle can both ruin your day.
 
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