Question on Powder Measures

[madcow]

My Hornady Electronic Powder Dispenser finally broke that I use for rifle loads, the motor seized up after 6 -700 rounds loaded, of course out of warranty and it was the first design iteration so no longer produced.

Thinking of going back to a mechanical dispenser like the RCBS uniflow, I know most of the manufacturers sell that design pattern.

Does anyone have any experience as to which manufacturer (RCBS, Hornady, Redding, Lyman) throws the most consistent and is easiest to dial in?

 

[97 winchester]

I have RCBS Uniflow. I think it is great. The big thing with mechanicals is type of powder, i.e. ball, flake, spherical etc., and your consistent movement when operating the measure.
It is not difficult to have very good repeatability and adjustment to dial it in.
I have loaded thousands of rifle, handgun and shotgun special loads with mine for many years.
I do have a balance scale and a trickler to use when loading for the most precise accuracy.

 

[RSB]

You must also be very consistant with a mechanical. I like the old Lyman #5. Cycle it the same every single time. Drop the knocker once and do the next case.
Do try and keep it full even if you're refilling every 20 or 50 rounds. Depends on the throw. The Lyman lacks a baffle, at least my old one does.
I do check every 10th throw regardless of what round I'm loading.
This in of itself will teach you a lot about how a mechanical thrower behaves, or when it doesn't.
You'll learn that operator error determines 98% of the variation.

 

[Jackie Graham]

I use the RCBS Uniflow and a trickle charger. I set it to my load. Usually spot on except with extruded powder. They are usually a little short. I use the trickle dispenser to fill in the gaps.

 

[Freshly Minted Georgian!]

I've found the cheap little Lee Perfect Powder Measure actually does great with extruded stick powders. Usually I use a Lyman for everything else. Have a couple Lyman's but tend to use an ancient one manufactured in the 50's most of the time.

That's for bulk stuff. if I am specifically loading small count primarily for accuracy I use a Lyman digital powder dropper or just hand weigh every charge on a balance or digital scale. Most bulk loading is on a Lyman turret or a 750XL. Accuracy, on a good old fashioned Rock Chucker.

 

[Freshly Minted Georgian!]

Interesting little tidbit, there are actually a couple of decent "open source projects" in the 3D print community for a digital powder dispenser that combines a load cell (for fine accuracy of weight), arduino board for control, stepper motor to drive an dropper/hopper combo that you 3D print. I printed out a couple of these probably a year back but got distracted and never fully assembled. I did load the Arduino sketch and all of the components and code seem to work as advertised, just never really final assembled it as I have a Lyman unit for that purpose.

Anyone else tinker with those open source powder dispenser projects? It would be good to compare notes, we may be able to produce an ODT version that is reasonably cheap and allow people here that would otherwise never drop the hundreds for a commercial unit to get into that space. I think the parts cost me maybe $20, it was a pretty reasonably priced bill of materials for it.

 

[BHPSteel]

Interesting little tidbit, there are actually a couple of decent "open source projects" in the 3D print community for a digital powder dispenser that combines a load cell (for fine accuracy of weight), arduino board for control, stepper motor to drive an dropper/hopper combo that you 3D print. I printed out a couple of these probably a year back but got distracted and never fully assembled. I did load the Arduino sketch and all of the components and code seem to work as advertised, just never really final assembled it as I have a Lyman unit for that purpose.

Anyone else tinker with those open source powder dispenser projects? It would be good to compare notes, we may be able to produce an ODT version that is reasonably cheap and allow people here that would otherwise never drop the hundreds for a commercial unit to get into that space. I think the parts cost me maybe $20, it was a pretty reasonably priced bill of materials for it.

I'd be interested in purchasing a completed unit or a kit, but I dare not get a 3D printer myself - I have no room and can't get hooked on ANOTHER hobby.

Sounds like a Kickstarter opportunity!

 

[Jackie Graham]

Just got a new 3d printer yesterday. I may have to check into this

 

[Freshly Minted Georgian!]

Multiple projects for the same thing out there. I printed out three of them personally. The one that seemed most mature and most likely to be a viable solution was this:

RADIN2 Reolading Loader Trickler Scale Dosing by hawk86

The New Version of the Radin Loader. A remake from Blaises Version. But Also the Open Powder had influenced my remix. First, a big Thank You to guiguijke and Blaise_fr for sharing their project. It’s always easier to make something existing better, then build something completely new. The many...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[madcow]

Thanks for the inputs, picked up a used Redding as it was pretty reasonable. Similar to the Uniflow, so will use the advice given and try to be as consistent as possible when throwing the charge. I do have a powder trickler and the loadcell still works on the busted electronic dispenser, so I can weigh the charges fairly easily.