Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reloading room/shop

I'm getting closer ever day to finishing my reloading room. All of the lumber is trees my father, brother and I felled and milled into dimensional lumber from trees off our land. I can tell you this for sure; Once you start to mill your own lumber, it is starkly obvious how bad lumber you buy at stores is. The room will be 15x30 with 10' walls.

The entire shop will be spray insulated and the walls will be finished in 1x6 lumber that is currently stacked and drying. The reloading room will be heated and cooled. I am still debating on the AC/Heat for the entire shop. I cannot figure out how to seal the garage door well enough to keep it cool efficiently.

I have cut white oak and pin oak to make the bench tops. The room with the pocket door openings is the bath room/large sink room that will be under a clinical vent hood to vent the air to the outside of the building when cleaning/tumbling brass.

It should be more than enough room to accommodate the 3 of us and all our components and gear, even if we are all 3 using it at the same time. I'm pretty proud of the effort, but there is a lot more work to go.

Edit: This is my first time doing anything like this. So, any errors you see are from ignorance and inexperience, but I think it will serve.

Very nice!

I have a 30x40ft shop and had it spray foamed last year. The amazing part of this is I got a little tiny IR heater from Amazon and it keeps it at a steady 60* F even when were getting down in the 0-20 degrees at night. I have the smallest 5K BTU AC in a window that cools it during the summer. Spray foam is some amazing stuff in my opinion. You pay up front, but the cost advantage of heating and cooling is really decent.

Not sure what kinda doors you have, but I'd just make sure the seals will all cut off air and you'll be pretty good.

I do mine out in my work shop where I weld, build all the crap I make. I keep my reloading things in file cabinets on wheels.

Thank you, sir. The garage door is a roll up type door instead of the traditional garage type door. There is a large gap at the top that becomes larger when the door is rolled down. I can seal the sides, but I can't think of a way to seal the top.

The spray foam is definitely the way to go, I agree.

Maybe some kind of foam bumper or something the door can lightly squish into when its fully down. My fathers shop has the same style door and we were just talking about how to seal it better.

The dude abides ^^^^^

Nice job.

Is the main structure a prefab building? The reason I ask is I've got a steel garage, and I was thinking of doing the same thing.
Thank you.
Soup

Very nice , looks great ! Years of joy right there !

It is a 30 x 55 from Caroline Carports. Good luck with the project.

Yeah, dust and dirt is a bitch from all the welding, grinding, blacksmithing, vehicle work, woodwork, ect.

I have a 2 1/2 car garage that's my "shop". I built a partition wall across the end that meets the house. Making the "garage/shop" part of it two car size. The end partitoned off is 1/4 my reloading bench, 1/4 gun building bench, and 1/2 meat processing area. With the partition wall there all the dust and dirt from the "shop" stays out of my reloading, gun building, and meat processing. The end partitioned off is also temperature controlled as well, as there are two ducts from the heat pump that were originally intended to heat/cool the whole 2 1/2 car space, but didn't do a great job of it. The partitioned off area being much smaller than the whole shop it's much easier for the heat pump to keep up with it now. Don't really need heat out in the other shop and fans work fine in the summer.

Dust and dirt was a big concern for me. I am spanning the 15' section with 2x8's and then capping it with 4x8 plywood to, hopefully, seal out dust from the shop.

That'll work.

Plus if my mind's eye is seeing it correctly you'll have a nice storage area above and the 2x8s will support quite a bit of weight.

Yes sir, you read my mind. I plan on laying my 3 Kayaks up there. I am certain Ill find other crap to store up there too.

My roll up doors have a piece of rubber across the top to help seal. It's about the thickness of an inner tube but stiffer. When you roll the doors up it just bends out of the way. Works well enough although my shop is not climate controlled.
Nice work on the shop.

Look into a mini-split for ac/heat for the reloading room.

Big fans for the rest of the garage in the summer, and a wood stove for the 15-20 cold winter days - as it appears you have access to firewood.

I suppose I could have done the same thing as you are with my partitioned off gun room, having 8 foot ceilings in the whole shop.

I chose instead to "hang" 16 inch wide shelves made out of OSB and 2x4 frames encircling the whole gun room. They're up there screwed into every wall stud, have the metal shelf brackets underneath, and have "dog chain" and eye bolts helping suspend them from the ceiling. They're hung with enough space to put large totes up there, lots of them. Just need a step ladder to get up to them. Which is fine. Lots of junk up out of the way.

Out in the work shop I have an entire 1986 Monte Carlo stuffed into totes that are engine parts, interior parts, and some body parts for my 1984 SS that I'm working on. All that is on the same type of shelves out there. It's nice not having stuff taking up floor space.

Yes sir, that is what I've been contemplating. I already have an iron foot stove I can use and I have enough oak firewood drying in a barn to last 7-8 years.

Ill have to look into that on the aftermarket because mine definitely does not have that.

My reloading room is small. 7x10. Bench on one end. That one is a reloading Barn

yeah, that sort of stuff is like Porn to my world.

I can only look on with envy. I'll never be able to build something like that on our property, and I'm getting too damned old anyway to enjoy something that nice...

On the other end my wife sure is getting ALL the THINGs '" that I've wanted so bad, my whole life!'"

She's got a pool, 'she always wanted' then hasn't gone into it in the 5 years we've lived here... because she says its been too cold.. but she is still happy she has a pool, "because she ALWAYS wanted one"... Lord know how much that costs me each year just to keep it clean and full of water...its an inground pool.

Looks great. Keep us updated on the progress.

Dude! One hell of a build.

Politely requesting many pics of progress and completion when done… a virtual walkthrough would be epic.

I looked into getting an in ground pool installed around 8-10 years ago. I looked at the price, had a heart attack, and never looked again.

I think I can do that. It is going to take some time. I have the pocket doors, 1x6 sheathing wood for the walls, and oak slabs for the bench tops milled and drying. I still have to fell a couple more oaks for the bench legs and stringers. Once the door wood is dry, I'll domino and glue it. Then, Ill have to plane it flat. It may be another year to a year and a half for the wood to dry. In the mean time, I am going to finish the ceiling. Unfortunately, I am going to have to buy the lumber for the ceiling. Our mill will handle up to a 24' log, but my 45hp tractor wont pick up a log big enough to mill a 16' length log. 14' is the biggest pine it can handle and 10' is the biggest oak.

We are working on a plan or the internal layout of the reloading room. My father needs sitting bench heights, my brother and I prefer standing heights. We know we are going to have a rolling gun cleaning table (I already built that) to allow for easy cleaning of rifles, scope mounting, etc. I think I am going to take the easy route and buy sturdy (I prefer the Dewalt brand) shelving instead of building in shelves My father wants traditional cabinets above his area. I think I am going with 12" deep shelves over mine with a drop cover to keep out dust.

We built next to an existing septic tank the previous land owners installed for a camper hook up. So we are set up on a toilet outlet, water, and electric supply. I've already run the septic and water lines. I just need to have the electric run inside the shop. I need to get some expert advice on the electric set up. I want outlets at 24 and 42 inches vertical, every 4 ft horizontal for the entire shop. I am not 100% sure of the right order of action on some portions. I will have to install a dust collection system in the shop (I really enjoy wood working) as well as run lines for a compressor. I had our concrete pad poured an extra 5' off the long side of the shop to house all of the noise making equipment. So, the compressor and dust collection will be under a lean to outside the shop. I will have to cut and seal ports in the exterior to run the lines inside. I will built an enclosure around the two pieces to protect them from the elements.

Does anyone have any suggestions or see any problems with that plan?

You will have a nice set up. Definitely something to be proud of. Mine is 9'-6" x 10' and it’s dedicated to reloading. I have a tool chest that serves other needs too, but it’s small and I could use more space to be more comfortable.

Since you are at the early stages of walls, make sure to install backing for anything that you could predict hanging. If not, 84" to the center from finished floor usually works for common backing. Either way, install what you want and as-built the locations on a set of drawings so you don’t forget. Also try to put all of the electrical and air lines in the wall if you can. You can stup out and cap off if you don’t need them right away. I hate seeing surface mounting of anything like that. On mine, I installed the receptacles that also have the USB ports. Those are helpful, but you don’t need them everywhere. Another thing I’m glad I did was to keep most things off the floor. My cabinets stop about 14" off the floor so I can clean up really well. I can almost hose down the floor if I need because the items that are on the floor have wheels.

You do know that no matter how big you make it, a few years down the road, it’s gonna be too small…..😁

That’s a really nice setup. I like it.

"Partition walls" in your reloading room.

I see what you did there.

Hey Seafire, tell Judy Roy's on his way over to cave that pool in so as you can build a shop there!

(You can bunk here till she cools off, or we can throw her in the pool!) LOL

A small update. My brother and I were able to get the header boards in the reloading room put up and the bathroom beams and ceiling put up. Next step is to hang the beams in the reloading room.

On to sheathing the ceiling with OSB and one side of the inside walls before insulating.

Glad that OSB isn't $40 a sheet anymore.....

Amen to that, my friend.

Smart man!

Just seeing this post Roy...

Just told her.. she's not happy. Wiped the smile right off of her face.

I may be sleeping out in the shed this weekend. You've seen what a crowded dump my reload space is...