milanuk
Well-Known Member
A little different twist (I hope) on the classic YARB (Yet Another Reloading Bench) thread... 
I have a pretty decent sized 24'x32' dedicated 'shop', heated, cooled, good lighting... but it *is* a multi-purpose environment i.e. reloading isn't the only hobby out there. The gun stuff gets as much space as it needs, but there are times when I'm doing something in the rest of the shop that produces airborne dust/debris (mostly woodworking), which ends up covering everything in sight. Covers over the reloading presses for the quicky jobs, and drop-sheets over the benches for the bigger projects, has been my approach so far. I do have some concerns about dust that may settle initially, but then get stirred back up and re-distributed - after I have the dang covers off of everything. Yes, my dust collection needs some work... but even then, you still can't capture everything from every single cut.
I'm (hopefully) planning on getting around to re-doing the cabinets and benches in the shop this winter, including the reloading area... and I've been kicking around the notion of having an enclosed cabinet for the dedicated reloading area with the press(es) and other tools that see the most use. The idea stems from a long-ago post on another forum where a guy was reloading in a spare bedroom... and for reasons of aesthetics (wife) and security (keeping kids out of trouble), he did a built-in inside the closet of a spare bedroom, and had a full Dillon RL1050 with casefeeder, etc. in there and pretty nicely done to boot. I'm not planning on framing in a closet per se, but more of an enclosed cabinet.
Plan 'B', as it were, would be to stick with traditional upper and lower cabinets, but with some 'appliance garage' setups between the bench and the bottom of the upper cabinets for things like the Giraud, AMP, FX-120i+AutoTrickler+AutoThrower, etc. that I don't want to have to be taking on/off the bench top regularly to keep clean.
I have some ideas that I've sketched out, but I'd be interested in seeing other designs / layouts of a similar style - just to make sure I'm not missing any obvious 'gotchas', nor missing out on any slick tricks either. Some of the presses may end up on Inline Fab quick-change mounts to keep them out of the way when I'm not expressly using them.
I have a pretty decent sized 24'x32' dedicated 'shop', heated, cooled, good lighting... but it *is* a multi-purpose environment i.e. reloading isn't the only hobby out there. The gun stuff gets as much space as it needs, but there are times when I'm doing something in the rest of the shop that produces airborne dust/debris (mostly woodworking), which ends up covering everything in sight. Covers over the reloading presses for the quicky jobs, and drop-sheets over the benches for the bigger projects, has been my approach so far. I do have some concerns about dust that may settle initially, but then get stirred back up and re-distributed - after I have the dang covers off of everything. Yes, my dust collection needs some work... but even then, you still can't capture everything from every single cut.
I'm (hopefully) planning on getting around to re-doing the cabinets and benches in the shop this winter, including the reloading area... and I've been kicking around the notion of having an enclosed cabinet for the dedicated reloading area with the press(es) and other tools that see the most use. The idea stems from a long-ago post on another forum where a guy was reloading in a spare bedroom... and for reasons of aesthetics (wife) and security (keeping kids out of trouble), he did a built-in inside the closet of a spare bedroom, and had a full Dillon RL1050 with casefeeder, etc. in there and pretty nicely done to boot. I'm not planning on framing in a closet per se, but more of an enclosed cabinet.
Plan 'B', as it were, would be to stick with traditional upper and lower cabinets, but with some 'appliance garage' setups between the bench and the bottom of the upper cabinets for things like the Giraud, AMP, FX-120i+AutoTrickler+AutoThrower, etc. that I don't want to have to be taking on/off the bench top regularly to keep clean.
I have some ideas that I've sketched out, but I'd be interested in seeing other designs / layouts of a similar style - just to make sure I'm not missing any obvious 'gotchas', nor missing out on any slick tricks either. Some of the presses may end up on Inline Fab quick-change mounts to keep them out of the way when I'm not expressly using them.
