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Posted: 5/18/2009 9:16:44 AM EDT
Well now that summer has finally hit AZ it is getting hot as balls outside. I would really like to move the reloading / gun room setup inside instead of out in the garage. I have a room already in mind but I really can't afford to ruin the carpet in this room. So to all the people who have setups inside, do you lay plastic sheeting down? I'm mostly concerned with trimming the brass, spilled powder, ect. I have a 4' tall stainless bench that I reload on as well as a pop up table. How can I make this setup inside friendly? 
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Well now that summer has finally hit AZ it is getting hot as balls outside. I would really like to move the reloading / gun room setup inside instead of out in the garage. I have a room already in mind but I really can't afford to ruin the carpet in this room. So to all the people who have setups inside, do you lay plastic sheeting down? I'm mostly concerned with trimming the brass, spilled powder, ect. I have a 4' tall stainless bench that I reload on as well as a pop up table. How can I make this setup inside friendly? Try looking for an old air conditioner in the paper or at yard sales. Maybe even at Goodwill. You might try craigslist. This seams like a better option than moving all your stuff inside. You can get a new ac from walmart that cools 175sq feet for about $150 bucks. So I would assume you could get a used ac pretty cheap. If it last a summer that's better than nothing. Just my OP. -M60 |
| Another thing to do is to sit a window ac unit on a furniture dolly. Get one of the heavy duty ones that will support the thing well ($30-$50). You can then roll it out the front and have it face in toward the inside through the big door. Then just pull the door down to sit on the top of it. At that point, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood to cover the openings on each side. Plug the baby on and let it run. Instant air conditioned garage. And you can easily roll it out of the way when you're done. |
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Another thing to do is to sit a window ac unit on a furniture dolly. Get one of the heavy duty ones that will support the thing well ($30-$50). You can then roll it out the front and have it face in toward the inside through the big door. Then just pull the door down to sit on the top of it. At that point, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood to cover the openings on each side. Plug the baby on and let it run. Instant air conditioned garage. And you can easily roll it out of the way when you're done. SAVVY, but sounds to be a bit of a hassle. The best part about having this stuff in the garage is the fact that you can clean up with a blower. I have a friend who built a really nice room in his basement. Looks like a closet but not.....Nice bench with all the goodies like the right lighting (both incandescent and flourescent) and A/C. It's secure and he doesn't display to the neighborhood what he's doing unlike the garage with the door open sweating. His floors are painted with garage floor paint. This is easy clean up. And he has a rubber mat on the floor to help the knee/foot fatigue on top of a cheap area rug to dampen the niose. Works great. |
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Another thing to do is to sit a window ac unit on a furniture dolly. Get one of the heavy duty ones that will support the thing well ($30-$50). You can then roll it out the front and have it face in toward the inside through the big door. Then just pull the door down to sit on the top of it. At that point, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood to cover the openings on each side. Plug the baby on and let it run. Instant air conditioned garage. And you can easily roll it out of the way when you're done. I like that idea. I have windows on the front of the garage, but have resisted installing a window AC. On the other hand, I can scoot the tractor back a little and use the 8 foot door with a roll around unit. I don't load in the garage these days, but there are plenty of times when I need to do something else out there when the humidity is sky high. It's ghetto only if you leave the AC in the door.  Besides, the only people that could see it are snooping off their reservation.
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I was going to suggest removing the carpet in the room and replacing with vinyl. Of course that adds to your expense. 
I reload in my basement which is unfinished and just use broom / pan / vacuum to keep it cleaned up. Shotshell reloading is the worst, nothing beats spilling a bunch of #9 birdshot all over the place. |
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Quoted: I do it in my carpeted basement. A shop vac cleans up spent primers, brass shavings and anything else just fine. I'm very comfortable year round. My set up too and I use a plastic chair mat cut to fit in front of my bench. Of course the vacuum cleaner I use with my trimmer is close by to clean up. I clean up my area every time I use it anyway because I don't like mess (and because the Queen has decreed it so). The stable temperature and humidity of the controlled environment in the basement is much better for your press and all your components rather than temperature and humidity cycling it all in a garage. |
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Outside? I live in CT and wouldn't think of reloading in my garage. (Yeah I am kidding)
Yes reloading on carpet is a mess. I wouldn't go with the plastic chair protector, you will just be dumping the dirt around the edges of it. Remember that spilled powder is flamible and sucking it in a vacumn has potential for static and sparks to set it off. (not to mention primers) I go with a hard floor and always sweep first to get 99% of the stuff. I guess in AZ humidity isn't an issue , but without it static and a vacumn might be worse. Down south with humidity any space you run a AC in part time them turn it off is going to have mosture problems with tools and dies rusting and powder and primers potentially sopping up the humidity and going bad. just some things to think about |
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Another thing to do is to sit a window ac unit on a furniture dolly. Get one of the heavy duty ones that will support the thing well ($30-$50). You can then roll it out the front and have it face in toward the inside through the big door. Then just pull the door down to sit on the top of it. At that point, all you need are a couple of pieces of plywood to cover the openings on each side. Plug the baby on and let it run. Instant air conditioned garage. And you can easily roll it out of the way when you're done. I like that idea. I have windows on the front of the garage, but have resisted installing a window AC. On the other hand, I can scoot the tractor back a little and use the 8 foot door with a roll around unit. I don't load in the garage these days, but there are plenty of times when I need to do something else out there when the humidity is sky high. It's ghetto only if you leave the AC in the door. Besides, the only people that could see it are snooping off their reservation.
I don't reload in the garage either. This is the setup for woodworking or other projects in there (working on the motorcycles). The cool part (pun intended) is that after I pull the car out of the garage, it is blocking the sight of the ac unit sitting there on the ground. And since it's only temporary for while I'm out there, nobody cares. |
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Just put the window unit inside the garage with door closed. Recirculate the cool air. I love AZ in the summer 107 degrees of fun in the sun and summer is just starting.  If I understand you correctly, you're talking about placing the whole unit inside the garage. If you do that, all you're gonna be doing is to move the hot air out the back of the unit and then it stays inside the garage. In fact, the heat generated by the air conditioner will add to the existing heat and make it hotter, while burning electricity. You'd be better off just using a fan.
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This is the Living Room in my second floor apartment. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0342.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0343.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/STA_0359.jpg I hate to say it, but I can beat that. I welded the fuselage for a glider in the living room of my first apartment when I moved to this area.
I put particle board and plastic down to protect the carpet. Hot steel bounces on particle board, and generally it bounced onto the area past the particle board. ^3
It all worked out, however. I gently cut the carpet fibers apart and combed them out nice and pretty everywhere they had plastic fused in when I moved out. The thing about working on big projects in the living room is they get plenty of attention after you get sick of having them under foot 24/7. |
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Well now that summer has finally hit AZ it is getting hot as balls outside. I would really like to move the reloading / gun room setup inside instead of out in the garage. I have a room already in mind but I really can't afford to ruin the carpet in this room. So to all the people who have setups inside, do you lay plastic sheeting down? I'm mostly concerned with trimming the brass, spilled powder, ect. I have a 4' tall stainless bench that I reload on as well as a pop up table. How can I make this setup inside friendly? The way I did it, was to get a 8 x10 heavy canvas and reload on top of that. When I cleaned up I would fold the edges in on top, roll it up and take it outside and wash it on the drive way. Mike |
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This is the Living Room in my second floor apartment. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0342.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0343.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/STA_0359.jpg I hate to say it, but I can beat that. I welded the fuselage for a glider in the living room of my first apartment when I moved to this area.
I put particle board and plastic down to protect the carpet. Hot steel bounces on particle board, and generally it bounced onto the area past the particle board. ^3
It all worked out, however. I gently cut the carpet fibers apart and combed them out nice and pretty everywhere they had plastic fused in when I moved out. The thing about working on big projects in the living room is they get plenty of attention after you get sick of having them under foot 24/7. I built my first engine on a Persian rug.
ETA: I reload in a basement. Never too hot or cold. I do have a dehumidifier down there that runs in the summer. Makes it even more pleasant. |
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Damn you can't beat a setup inside especially for the AZ summer. I will defiantly be moving my operation inside and just toss some computer mat plastic down with a shop-vac handy. Now I just have to do it while the wife is at work, better to ask forgiveness right...
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| I set something up temporarily in my spare room, but there is wood floors to keep the mess down. Spent primers go down the plastic tube hornady provided into a cheap storage container and any shavings or dropped powder is just swept up and disposed of easily. It's just too damn hot in Houston summers and I didn't feel like dropping enough cash to illuminate and cool the garage for a small reloading set up like I have. |
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I load in a spare bedroom. Well, it was a bedroom, I ripped the carpet out layed down some cheap vinyl and now it's the reloading/gun cleaning/ ammo storage/man room  .Same here. 1/2 dedicated to reloading/gun projects. The other half dedicated to Amateur Radio. Radio side not finished the way I want it yet but the gun/reloading side is coming along. 
The canvas idea or a cheap throw rug that could be folded up and taken outside gets my vote if you need to cover up the carpet. The heat is definately ON here in AZ.
ETA–– the reloading bench construction pic is outdated..i need to update it. |
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Quoted: This is the Living Room in my second floor apartment. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0342.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/IMG_0343.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/RugerNiner/PRIVATE/STA_0359.jpg Middle picture - A chandelier in the reloading area! I'm so impressed. Quoted: Yes reloading on carpet is a mess. I wouldn't go with the plastic chair protector, you will just be dumping the dirt around the edges of it. Remember that spilled powder is flamible and sucking it in a vacumn has potential for static and sparks to set it off. (not to mention primers) Actually, I've found that keeping the carpet clean is easy and I've been reloading in my carpeted basement for the last 8 years. I vacuum up every other time I reload so things are kept clean. (Those of you who've seen my reloading area pictures know that when I say clean, it's clean.) As for the concern about sucking up powder and primers, static electricity won't set off powder even when you try too (internet hype) and I pick up live primers because they cost money not because I'm worried about then detonating, however, the few that I've missed get vacuumed up without any issues. |
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I used a spare bedroom for years. Three years ago my wife decided we needed more room so she had me knock the wall out between the reloading room and "her" room. Now our reloading room is nearly 1/3 of our entire house. I love my wife . . .
The floor is tile, BTW. Was carpet, but that's not good, for the reasons mentioned above. 
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| I do reloading in a spare bedroom with carpet. It's really not a problem. If you spill shot or powder just vacuum it up with a straight suction vacuum (without the rotating brush). However, I have my case tumbler and trimmer in the Garage. It doesn't take long to put cases in the tumbler and I trim up a bunch of cases on mild days. Maybe something like this could work for you |
I've got my man room/reloading area in a spare bedroom (The wife gave me one, she has two others + our master) To protect the carpet I layed down a large carpet piece I got from home depot...it was pre-cut and like 15 bucks, fairly large too....its really thin carpet, like the carpet in office buildings, so it cleans up well and shit doesnt get ground into it, like shagg would.....I just stapled it down so it doesnt bunch up so bad. Heres some pics...
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