Reload......Start up Advice

jmdvet

I am about to dive off into reloading. I have some questions (none are equipmemt related). Where to locate the gear? Do you have out buildings or right in the living room? How about the garage? AC or Not? What kind of bench or table? How big (LxWxH)? How much storage space for powder / etc?
Any other non-equipment advice? I plan on reading up before buying the equipment.

Thanks and Happy New Year.
JMD

11b6r

LIGHT! Good lighting, so that you can see what you are doing. Height- you gonna sit, or stand? ROOM for brass, rounds in loading, bullets, finished ammo. I use an old non-working refrigerator to store powder- magnetic door seal, not a latch. Maintains decent temp/ humidity, SOME fire protection (not much, but some) Primers go in freezer compartment. A surface that I can mount press, powder measure, and they are solid. a FLAT non-moving, non-shaking surface for my scales. A smooth surface so I can clean up spilled powder, etc. A cabinet with drawers (I recycled some old office furniture, 5x8 card files) to store my dies. Bookshelf for references. Place where I can reload without someone making me lose my train of........sorry, what was I saying?

flyingtorpedo

First things first, read and then read some more. I liked the ABC's of Reloading and The Lyman Handbook, although any good reloading manual will describe the process. I think you should read more than one because they are all different. That's what I like about the 2 books I mentioned. Where one glossed over something, the other went into detail. If you know or can find someone who reloads ask them to guide you through the process. You can search the forum, upper right of the page, to find lots of old topics about starting. I do my reloading in the garage. I found an old, solid microwave stand and put my press on that. It's fairly small but it has just enough room for me and is nice that it doesn't take up much room. As far as buying equipment, http://www.midwayusa.com/ has a large inventory but is higher than some other places. You can read reviews to see what others thought of something. I often read the reviews there and buy it somewhere else. A few other places are http://www.wideners.com/, http://www.grafs.com/ and http://www.natchezss.com/index.cfm. All of those place are good to deal with.