Storage Bins for Reloading bench

[MountainFF]

Looking for good info/discussion on what bins are built well, thick, useful, colors, good value for money? Looking at Akron mills, Triton etc. some come in kits with mounting, some in multiples. I would be using these for components, brass, etc.
i will be storing bins to use with press above bench on shelves, larger bulk bins under bench. Interested in your thoughts, sizes that work, big enough to store good quantities on shelf but good to put nest to progressive. Thoughts on bigger containers for larger quantities of say dirty brass etc. Thanks in advance.

[twoforme2]

you can get as elaborate and organizational as you can afford, but I will tell you this. you are always going to wish you had "just one more". It seems never ending.
I store my sorted brass in the containers that my wife buys full of Jerky treats from Costco, When the dogs are done with their "cookies" I get them. They have closeable lids, the labels come off easily with a hairdryer and they are clear so you dont have to open them up to see what is inside.

[Frozenguy]

Be careful of what materials you choose for a bin.

Vast majority of plastic products will chemically react with gun powder residue on fired brass.

[the86d]

I have a closet next to my bench in the computer/reloading room, and I bought some plastic shelfs and at Target and walmart they have cheap plastic bins with lids for $0.99 ea. I have a bunch of clean-brass in those. This is what my .223 brass lives in.

When headed out to the range my loaded cartridges usually attend-transported in plastic coffee cans with a label designating the charge amount, type of powder, and projectile weight used (I only shoot plated 9mm, and FMJ .223). These also work well to transport brass back home. If they don't all get shot, then they get put back on the shelf in the reloading/computer room.

[Nirrad]

I also store my clean brass in the Costco treat/nuts clear containers with the screw on lids.

And the AkroBins #30210 (I think) for stuff on the bench and for collecting loaded rounds.

I don't bother with lids for the AkroBins as I just stack whatever needs to be protected. But I did fashion bin front inserts to enable them to hold more and not spill out.

Seems someone is selling them already made http://www.uniquetek.com/site/696296/product/T1359 but it's cheaper and easy to do yourself with a sheet of steel/aluminum from the Home Depot.

And aluminum U-channels are good and cheap alternative to the kits, for holding the bins if you want to mount them to something.

[TheOne]

I have plastic bins that I use for brass and other items that I work with on a regular basis, and I use one of those small metal cabinets with pull out trays for the dies I use most often. For storage I use old paint cans and buckets. My friend is a contractor so I just go to his house when he collected a good amount with a few 6 packs. You could probably go to a large paint store and ask them for some, I've gotten a few by just walking by a house thanks being renovated and asked. They saved what they had for me to pick up later.

[Whiterabbit]

you can get as elaborate and organizational as you can afford, but I will tell you this. you are always going to wish you had "just one more". It seems never ending.

And THAT is why you do not buy organizational stuff online. Nor rely on empty food containers etc for main storage. It should be something you can pick up a couple more tubs ala-carte when needed. local.

[knucklehead0202]

I have a bunch of Costco pretzel barrels full of stuff. kinda sucks when the brass you want is down in the bottom but the price was unbeatable. wife loves pretzels so i'll have a supply 'til kingdom come.

[twoforme2]

And THAT is why you do not buy organizational stuff online. Nor rely on empty food containers etc for main storage. It should be something you can pick up a couple more tubs ala-carte when needed. local.

You are probably right, however we have two boxers and knowing their average lifespan and how they love their "cookies" I should be set until I become wormfood!

[Bastard]

simple solution - for big stuff or large amounts use repurposed containers like empty coffee cans or just empty food containers for smaller items I like to use mason jars.

[Enfield47]

I use the plastic containers that Target's trail mix comes in. They are a nice size and fit into a file sized drawer. They don't hold a lot of the larger cases but I can fit about 100-200 of the 7.5 Swiss, .303 Brit, or .30-06 cases in them for 30 carbine they hold about 500. I have a small work area so they work well for me.

[stilly]

Looking for good info/discussion on what bins are built well, thick, useful, colors, good value for money? Looking at Akron mills, Triton etc. some come in kits with mounting, some in multiples. I would be using these for components, brass, etc.
i will be storing bins to use with press above bench on shelves, larger bulk bins under bench. Interested in your thoughts, sizes that work, big enough to store good quantities on shelf but good to put nest to progressive. Thoughts on bigger containers for larger quantities of say dirty brass etc. Thanks in advance.

I was going to get all organizational on the brass's ***, but soon found that it would fail because there was not enough space for bins and bin holders and all, so I opted for areas and containers.

Here is what works for me...

.22 shells because of what they are get put into large clear containers. One for dirty .22, one for cleaned .22 and one for derimmed .22. Whatever I find will work, but large ex-food containers from costco or kitty litter seems to be working well. As I start swaging more then there might be another container or two thrown into the mix...

I have 2 clear plastic containers for odd shells (or shells that have one or two or a small handfull in their collection) One jar holds pistol shells and one holds rifle shells. Most of those are decapped. The two jars sit above the bench. They are the junk drawer of brass shells that I find.

I have a single 5-gallon bucket labeled UNSORTED BRASS. When I come back from the range all of my brass typically gets dumped into it. Once it gets filled up, I have the three colored set of brass sorters. One is blue, yellow, and black. I have three 27 or 32 gallon rubbermaid bins that sit on industrial shelves that have large dots painted on them to coordinate with the bins. Esentially, one bin is for 9mm, .223, .380, and 30 carbine, one bin is for 10mm, .40, .38. .357, and .357 sig, and the final bin is for .45, .44, .45LC, .308 and whatever else gets stuck. NORMALLY I filter out the .308, .223 and .44 mag/.45LC. Those filtered out shells go into plastic ziplocks, get DECAPPED, and then placed back in those ziplocks and put into a large shell collection area. Later as I need more and more shells, I will take out a certain caliber, decap them and clean them in the thumler.

So I now have a large brass WAITING area with various bags of 9mm, .40, .45, .44, .380, 10mm, .38/.357 .223 and .308. The bags will pile up as I sort out brass from time to time.

Then, Once I need a caliber I look to the side of the brass where I have another storage area, that other storage area has about 20 or so RED FOLGERS COFFEE CONTAINERS. They are labeled for each caliber that I reload or intend to reload. When I clean brass I dump it into a coffee container until it is full. Then when I want to reload, I put that coffee container on the bench and pull shells from it.

Everything is done in stages. I also have 4 extra 5-gallon buckets one for trimmed and ready to load (RTL) .308 and one for trimmed and ready to load .223/.556, and two others for those same rounds that are cleaned and swaged, ready for processing. Because I have gamma lids on all of my 5-gallon buckets, they can stack nicely on each other so I stack the unsorted range brass on top of my lead pickup, and the .223 on top of the .308 that is cleaned and swaged. So far it seems to work for me. I have a LOT of shells sitting in plastic ziplock bags wiating to be cleaned, but all I gotta do is dump a bag into the thumler and 2 hours later they are ready to load, unless they are bottle necked, in which case they are ready to swage, but they get swaged before being dumped into the ready to trim and process bucket.

Gamma lids are GREAT and can be bought for $6.48 from Winco foods and Home Depot, and MAYBE Lowes FINALLY sells them. Home Depot finally got on the ball selling them a couple of years ago, until then you could only get them online or mail order. CTD had the best prices at around $6.00 each, but after shipping you needed to buy about 10+ in order to keep the prices decent else it was not worth it.

[waxer]

You can get as OCD as you need to, but I ended up using the plastic bins from Costco that the peanut butter pretzels and cashews come in. In a year of storing dirty and processed brass, there have been no reactions at all with the plastic as an earlier poster described.

I labeled them accordingly depending on the stage of the brass processing in case I get called away. You can get as detailed as you want to.

For bulk brass, I bought these 1 gallon buckets from Home Depot in their paint center and use them for storage. See the pics below.







Hope this helps....

[Aldemar]

Hope this helps....

Note to self.......gotta get my garage organized. Perhaps after Super Bowl. Nice job, Waxer.

[2meterB]

I'm super happy with these walmart sterilite bins. They stack well and snap closed tight.

As you can see, my reloading isn't nearly as extensive as others.

I don't have a 'dirty' bin for example. I tumble everything as soon as I get home.