Reloading in the basement?

[jwankel]

I'm getting close to starting to reload (been going through BE's dillion info and these forums) and I've been discussing it with the wife. Her concerns has been the safety issues around having the gunpowder in the house. I've explained the safety measures with the gunpowder and especially the primers. Then she asked about the safety of reloading 10' away from the furnace and water heater. I couldn't find any mention of that in the forums, so I thought I'd ask.

Is there any issues with reloading in the basement 10' from the furnace and water heater? FWIW, the pilot lights are on the opposite side of where I'd setup my reloading area.

Thanks,

Jeff

[walter hornby]

well Jeff i have been reloading for 8 years at my present loation and i am about 4 feet from the furance. i have never had a problem and i load between 7,000 and 10,000 rounds a year. therre is usually gun powder laying around on the floor. even with the girl friend coming down and smoking hasn't been a problem. i even vacuum up down there now and then with no problems.

[DonT]

Welcome to the forum Jeff

Safety is always a concern in a reloading area and wherever you store components. I know nothing of basements or furnaces so I'll let someone else address that. I reload in my carport. I have 550 which is easily moved to a secure area when I'm finished. I store primers and powders in an old non-working refrigerator outside under my house. In working in construction for a lot of years and working in burntout houses, the fridge usually makes it through a fire . Don't know why.

Now I've done it. I'll probably have half a dozen firemen calling bs on that last comment

edited to clarify... primers in freezer section and powders in fridge section, separated.

Edited March 17, 2008 by DonT

[Skywalker]

Hi Jeff,

welcome to the forum!

Powder safety issues: gun powder is not (contrary to common beliefs) an explosive substance; it's a combustible one: there's at least one magnitude order difference between the two (explosive and combustible) when it comes to flame propagation velocity.

In practical terms, this means that unless gunpowder is confined in very small (solid) containers, it won't explode, but rather simply burn.

If you keep your gun powder in a cool, dry place, it will last forever.

Here you can see my reloading room, carved into the basement of my house: as you can see, I have gun powder on one shelf, and primers on the shelf below. OTOH, the furnace/water heater is in a different room of the basement.

Have been doing it this way for the last 10+ years.

[racemaker]

I'm getting close to starting to reload (been going through BE's dillion info and these forums) and I've been discussing it with the wife. Her concerns has been the safety issues around having the gunpowder in the house. I've explained the safety measures with the gunpowder and especially the primers. Then she asked about the safety of reloading 10' away from the furnace and water heater. I couldn't find any mention of that in the forums, so I thought I'd ask.

Is there any issues with reloading in the basement 10' from the furnace and water heater? FWIW, the pilot lights are on the opposite side of where I'd setup my reloading area.

Thanks,

Jeff

I've been reloading for more than a decade, without incident, about 4 or 5 feet from the furnace. I attribute that to a little caution, as stated elsewhere in this forum. I always sweep up after a reloading session - I've heard vacuums can cause powder to ignite and burn (never heard of anyone who has has this happen) but I'd rather error on the side of caution. Powder & primers are both on my bench - extra powder is in a wooden foot locker (I made the foot locker out of 2x4's lined w/plywood inside) extra primers are on the floor (elevated a few inches to protect them from any possible water) under a nearby bench. A friend of mine stored 30k primers on the floor that had never seen water - Murphy strikes again - a leak soaked ALL the primer boxes. He carefully opened all and allowed them to dry completely. Currently he is using them and has not had a problem!

In a fire, powder & even loaded ammo has NO possibility of exploding. The powder may contribute to the fire by burning, the ammo will not fire - needs to be a firearm for that to happen. The heat of the fire will cause the powder - in the loaded ammo - to slowly expand pushing the bullet out of the case or splitting the case.

So, your answere is go ahead and start reloading in the basement.

I'm not a neat freak, but keep my bench resonably clean (not always organized).

[Cat355]

Combustible liquids that create fumes are definitely hazardous when stored or used in close proximity to appliances with pilot lights. But canister powder and primers are not.

I feel quite secure with my reloading area in our basement.

Go for it.

[shred]

You can also get a metal cabinet or for a few hundred $, a proper flammables-cabinet to store flammables in. If you do that, make sure it's appropriately vented so pressure won't build up should whatever's inside decide to spontaneously combust.

[colt]

My brothers wife was vacuuming is closets that he reloaded in and suck up a primmer and set it off in the spinning part . It was a cheap vacuum and was the end of it. She was not happy ! Mine is in the basement with no problems . I use a air powered vacuum on powder.

[TwoShot]

My brothers wife was vacuuming is closets that he reloaded in and suck up a primmer and set it off in the spinning part . It was a cheap vacuum and was the end of it. She was not happy ! Mine is in the basement with no problems . I use a air powered vacuum on powder.

We were loading shotshells once and in the post loading cleanup sucked a 209 primer up into a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. Yup, it went off and scared the begiggers out of all of us. Luckily there was no permanent damage to my friends wife's NEW expensive vacuum. Strange as it sounds, it does happen. I only us a shop vac to clean up my reloading area.