Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rethinking your reloading area - tight spaces - picture rich

Reloading seems to be primarily a man thing. As a group, men are bad for clutter. I am too. I wanted to show you what I did with an approximate 8 ft area of wall space in my office. This made better use of the room. This works for me, and may provide a few ideas for people who are looking to reduce clutter, add to an office or upstairs area of their house, or might have limited space to set up a reloading area. Obviously, this set up is not for volume ammunition production, but most reloaders do not require a progressive press in a large production room.

This first picture is a 2.5 ft long by 2 ft deep table located beside my desk. I use it primarily for load development where small runs of ammunition are required. I threw some stuff on it so that you can judge the size. The table top is an old school desk top salvaged from when I was teaching, but plywood can just as easily be used. It can be left against the wall, or pulled out. It is difficult to see, but I have an MTM Maintenance Centre underneath the table. It holds rifles when I am changing scopes, using an OAL gauge, etc.

I have four presses in my office. A Rock Chucker, Redding Boss, Lee 2001, a Lee C press.

It is important to note that I do not store all my reloading equipment in the office. Bullets, primers, cases, rifles, cleaning equipment, bullet making equipment, etc are kept in my workshop downstairs.



I use a cheap - and I mean cheap - tool box to keep some of my reloading tools and accessories in. I bought this at Walmart for less than $100. The idea was to find something that could hold things I would use when reloading at my little table. It is much more efficient than having shelves, and is portable. Note that I said it is portable. The tool chest is two pces. An upper and lower section. The lower section has wheels so it can be moved around.



Here is some of the stuff I keep in the tool chest.





I also use a bench grinder stand that I can place beside the table. Generally, I resize with the Rock Chucker and seat bullets with the Boss. I deprime with the Lee 2001 (O press) and crimp, flare and add powder using the Lee C press. These smaller jobs do not require an expensive press.

Having this set up lets me try different techniques or experiments with bullets, new equipment, small batches of new powder or bullets, etc. I will rpeat, this set up works for my needs, and might give you a few useful tips on ways to make things easier at the bench.

Of all the things I have bought over the yrs, the tool chest was the smartest thing I have done. The large amount of storage in a compact space, and its portability, make it a must have, in my view.

Pretty cluttered indeed. Not that it necessarily has to be that way. Just because you are a man, doesn't mean you need to be messy, or maybe thats something your mother never did teach you. Clean up after yourself, keep things organized and tidy... A reloading space doesn't have to be huge either. I prefer mine to be smaller in fact:



Cupboard space, drawers and a good place to store things like powder, primers and bullets is a good thing:




Good counter space is valuable as well. Need a place to work on guns, you need a counter or table of some type:

I was hoping to help people who do not have much space. People that, for whatever reason, cannot occupy a larger area, may live in an apartment or have a houseful of kids. Call this a minimalist thread.

I reckon that I'm pretty minimalist.....

Good post Steve , I'm in that small space catagory , sitting looking at my set-up when I saw your thread . Liking that rolling inexpensive toolbox idea .

Myself I'm thinking about going two tier - nothing on my bench is real tall and my bench is a smallish desk w/a big top , thinking a second level that I could rest my arms on while loading or working on a gun might work out for me .

I always enjoy seeing other folks set-up and ideas .

I have an 8’ reload bench. I only need 36” for loading. I am very comfortable with that. Like BSA said, “the space doesn’t have to be huge.”

I think the wheeled tool chest is the best thing that most reloaders can do to reduce clutter. It is easy to move - into another room if necessary. The top and bottom can be separated, and the tool chest holds a lot of stuff. You can sit beside your press and roll the chest over beside you.

I like huntsman22's approach. I will be checking out Lee's press plate system so that I can keep the spare presses under the table.

Same here Steve - going to get the plate set-up ordered two orders of stuff lately and forgot them , need 7BR trim die too - so don't let me forget .

You'll have to let everyone know how the Lee Plates work for you.

I'm in the middle of a move at the moment so there isn't much of a bench to take a picture of but I agree with the others that roll arounds are great for reloaders. My Vidmars are in storage after having to downsize into an apt but at least I'm able to set up my main bench still cause it wasn't that big, 30"x36" or thereabouts. Since I do a lot of loading with an arbor press right now it's tempting to buy a light duty roll around and just use it as a small stand up bench of sorts.

I haven't heard "Vidmar" since I was in the service. I always liked that you could change the size of the storage area within each drawer. I knew they were expensive, but I guess we were spoiled when I was still in uniform. Even used, they are not cheap.

You should be able to find a light duty wheeled tool chest at Walmart or a discount store. You can also use "the Google".

I don't think that tool chests ever go to waste. There are so many things that they can be used for.

Interestingly enough that's exactly where they originally came from. My dad picked them up at an Air Force base closure or downsizing in mid 90's sometime. With a flat bed and trailer he hauled home from an auction probably 2 dozen of them for all his machinist buddies and kept a half dozen for himself. Word must've got around quick cause at the next auction he didn't bring home nearly as many and the prices were higher :-).

There's a pawn shop down the street that has a 2 piece Kennedy roll around set I was thinking about making an offer on. They're not the same quality as the others but for the price they're a good quality American made tool box that would be great for reloading tools.

Vidmar must have a big contract with the military. They probably still do.

I would make that pawn shop an offer. Unless they've been dropped or crushed, scratches, faded paint and small dings add character.

My area is a small room also. 7 x 10. Bench I built from some plans I found online on the back wall. It has enough storage to contain and organize everything somewhat. I plan to build some additional shelving up at shoulder height to the side of the bench. There is a lot of gear a gun safe and I still have room for comfortable loading.

Steve - You obviously are NOT a reloader. Judging by the cleanliness and the organizational aspect of your photos, I can only conclude that you shoot factory ammunition exclusively. Or you are a woman.

No way in hell could I keep all my sh*t that organized. Kudos.....

Kaiser Norton

I have a bench in the basement where I keep all the mess contained. It's mostly cast bullet stuff, but I do put equipment there that I've tried and didn't find of much use.

For my first setup when I moved to college (through my first few years of marriage,) I built a bench grinder-type stand that held my press and had a 12"x12" "tabletop" attached to it for a workspace. Everything else was stored in ammo cans in the closet. It was less than handy, but I loaded a lot of rounds on that setup, and it was definitely "minimalist."

I have found that you adapt to whats available. My first loading area was a whole bedroom. Then we started a family and I had to cut my bench down and I had a 4ft area at the end of the kitchen counter. It worked, but not well. It seemed like I always had kitchen stuff on my bench. Now I have a 7ft X 10ft room. Its a little tight but I feel blessed to have a secure place inside.

What is this "organized" of which you speak?

Steve I like your style. I'm not too neat but I've found the neater and cleaner I start out the less screwed up it is when I finish. Then I clean up at my leisure. I'm a small space reloader. I have been for almost 40 years. I don't need a whole room just to reload. I don't have portability like you and for the way I'm set up and for what I do I don't really need it. I store my components in two filing cabinets, one on each side of the press table. But it's all I need for what I do and it's worked nicely so far. The main things I need to reload safely are 1. a space for the press and other essential equipment, 2. a space for storage, and 3. these spaces need to mesh together as one unit in a space that's quiet and there's no other human traffic within where I can concentrate on what I'm doing without any distractions. And that's what I have. It works for me. But your examples are inspiring and right up my alley and we're not that different, other than you have the portable storage-tool box. My stuff doesn't need to move. But I see your point. Those roller tool boxes are super handy and take up very little space. If I didn't have the filing cabinets I would definitely look into a set up like that. Very neat and efficient.