RCBS Chargemaster - Again

adamsgt

adamsgt

Jerry Adams
Have been pretty happy with my charge master until tonight. Up till now I had been using it to load for my 6ppc with VV 133 and 8208XBR. It worked great. Tonight I tried to load for my Palma rifle with Varget. I had to throw 99 charges to get 50 loaded cartridges. Of the fifty I kept about a half dozen were a tenth over 45.8. The rejects were 3 to 5 tenths high. It was interesting to see that most of the overthrows occurred when the charge was sitting at 45.7 and the charge master lurched to get the last tenth and you could see that it was going to be over. I tried the McDonald's straw thing and using it the way it came and a nylon bushing that went over the drop tube. It would do the same thing in all three configurations. I guess it's just not going to work that precisely with the coarser powders. I have a Lyman 1200 that I had bought first and used it with Varget for my Palma loads a couple of years ago. I bought the upgrade kit but the whole thing has been sitting on a shelf. I do remember that if I programmed the Lyman to throw a tenth less than my desired it would never be more than a tenth off. So I think I will resurrect the Lyman for use with Varget and use the RCBS for the bench rest loads at home and at the range.

I couldn't find the thread that discussed powering the Chargmaster from a battery so I'll add my comments here. I bought a 12 V Sealed lead acid battery and charger for the Chargemaster and was considering different approaches to get the voltage down to the 9 V that is being supplied by the transformer. I just received a DC-DC converter from All-battery.com that will do just that. In fact you have a potentiometer to adjust the output voltage and a red display to show the voltage and current output, and only $20.00. So I put my multimeter probes on the transformer plug to determine polarity and lo and behold the transformer is putting out 13.3 volts. Obviously no need for a converter. Just whip up a cable now and run right from the battery. Shoulda checked that first. Don't know why I believed the label on the transformer. That certainly explains why people haven't had problems running on 12 volt batteries. :eek: I'll be 70 in four months, I guess its too late to get smart. :(
 

Attachments

  • av3s[1].jpg
    av3s[1].jpg
    37.9 KB · Views: 386
I've been using my Chargemaster with Reloder 15 and although I haven't weighed any charges with my old Lyman/Ohaus 505 there haven't been any obvious heavy charges. Did you modify your Chargemaster to throw charges faster? That could be a source of over charges.

As for electricity I know not to stick a fork in a wall outlet or my finger into a light socket, after that it goes downhill fast.
 
Larry I didn't make any modifications to the dispenser. Just the way it came from the factory. It really appears to be a mechanical issue with the drop tube. As I watched carefully, it seems that the over charge occurs when the dispenser tries to throw the last tenth and too much powder falls out of the tube. I think the fix is going to be some kind of adapter to fit over the tube that smooths out the flow of powder. I'm going to get some more nylon bushings and try cutting different groove patterns inside the bushing and see if that will help. Maybe it ought to be narrowed down to where it spits out one kernel at a time. Take forever to load though. :p
 
I'm not a user of the Chargemaster, but I identified some time ago that tricklers work less than well with some powders. What surprised me was that powder as fine as VV N550 was one of the worst in this respect.
 
First off, next time it throws a bit over, remove the pan and pinch a small amount of powder with your fingers and put the pan back on the scale. Then "dribble" some of the powder from your fingers into the pan until you have the correct weight. This saves a lot of time.

Second, go to McDonalds and get a straw. Cut off about 1" and insert it into the powder dispensing tube of your ChargeMaster with the end protruding frm the tube. This should help a lot in not having the powder "clump" and overthrow.

George
 
George

The first thing I did was get the McDonalds straw and that didn't help a bit. If I have to fool around pinching the powder then what's the point of having an "automatic dispenser"?

I think I'm going to take a closer look at the Varget kernels with a magnifying glass. After emptying the 8208 from the charge master and filling with Varget, I ran the dispenser to charge the drop tube. Ran about a hundred grains through. Looking at the powder in the pan, it appeared that some of the 8208 had not been purged as there was different sized kernels in the pan. However powder poured from the Varget bottle looked the same. Just went out to my reloading shed and did a cursory inspection of the powders. The 8208 kernels were the smallest and very consistent. Varget was next although the kernels seemed to vary slightly. VV 133 was the surprise with some of the kernels at least three times as long as the shortest. Well I don't have an optical comparator and I'm not sure what these results would suggest anyway. So confusion and disarray continue to rule. :p
 
It seems like I load more 6mm br than anything..using varget,, when my chargemaster screws up it mostly throws under by a couple 10th,,all in all it sure beats using a powder measure and trickling up.
 
I have been using mine for a few years now and love it. It will through high now and then. I have the straw and the eraser on the inside. What I do when really getting anal about the charge is set it to .1 grain under and when it stops I just tap the tube with an ink pin letting just a cornel are two drop at a time. If it troughs over it is most of the time where I wanted the charge to be.
Terry Pohl
 
Terry

T Pohl said:
I have been using mine for a few years now and love it. It will through high now and then. I have the straw and the eraser on the inside. What I do when really getting anal about the charge is set it to .1 grain under and when it stops I just tap the tube with an ink pin letting just a cornel are two drop at a time. If it troughs over it is most of the time where I wanted the charge to be.
Terry Pohl
Click to expand...

I like it too and it was spot on with 133 and 8208 that's why I was so surprised to have the difficulty with Varget. A couple of times I had to throw six consecutive drops back into the hopper. Of course the big question is just how close do the loads have to be for 1000 yd shooting. Is +/- .3 good enough? Or more? Maybe I need to set up an experiment to shoot varying loads over a chrono to see how much difference .3 can make in muzzle velocity, Course that doesn't necessarily mean anything to the holes in the target.

I still have most of the McDonalds straw left and can try some more but what is this business with the eraser? Hadn't heard about that one. :confused:
 
I use a PACK with Varget for my 6mm. My unit will throw 1/10 under or right on, every load. Per PACK the unit is designed to drop 1/10 under what you program, and that's what it does.
 
I dont know about the newer RCBS but I have an older Powder Pro. That was back when they were made by PACT.
On those if you change powders you have to recalibrate the machine.
Is there a calibration cycle for the new ones?
If so try running that.

I run mine off of a battery but I bought one of the DC-AC converters and just plug a power strip into that and then plug in the scale and powder disp. into the strip.
 
Jerry H runs 2 of them off of a D cell battery setup

Maybe he will jump in and give you some info. If not then try contacting him privately.
 
adamsgt
I read I think on 6BR to put about a ½’’ peace of eraser in the mouth of the tube where it catches the powder. This keeps the tube from getting as full and pilling up. I set mine up with the straw and eraser before I started using it so weather it helps are not I cant swear. But I will not through any more than 3 high charges per say 25 rounds.
Terry Pohl
 
Jerry, a couple of questions/suggestions

Do you have any air movement problems?
Have you tried... after an over/under weight charge has been thrown, taking it off and putting it back on and reweighing it several times to make sure its not the scale?
 
Mine does the same thing with varget powder. I just set my data for a lesser charge and trickle up to the proper charge. Varget is the only powder i have trouble with. Other than that i love my RCBS and wouldnt ever load without it. I am wanting to try the New Hornady machine. I dont need another machine but that red shore is purdeee!! Good Luck!! Lee
 
Jerry,

I've got a CM and have exactly the same "problem."

I've tried the straw..... about 20 of them in fact from paper to plastic to rubber. Also a larger straw around the outside. I've messed with paper cones of various tapers and textures...Ive tried an assortment of wires, caps, clips and sweepers on the end of the tube....and dinked with the speed.

IMO it's as good as it gets right out of the box.

My take? don't sweat it, just remember to LOOK each time you pick up the tray and deal with the overthrows however you choose. EVEN WITH THE OVERTHROWS it's more accurate than my various powder throwers. My only gripe is that it doesn't have a continuous alarm buzzer for the overthrows.

I keep 4 funnel/trays at the measure and this way I can swap out quick and deal with the problem throws without missing a beat. Without that, just throw 'em back.

Or build a spare room and buy a Prometheus. :D

al
 
alinwa said:
Or build a spare room and buy a Prometheus. :D

al
Click to expand...

And take out a second mortgage :p

Al, thanks for sharing what you've attempted. That'll keep me from re-inventing the wheel. I guess the bottom line is to accept that it will overthrow with certain powders and just figure out a way to deal with that. That's simpler and less frustrating than trying to make it perfect with all powders. Wonder how it would do with 4064. :eek:


Going to play around with the battery system tomorrow. Although it appears that I don't need the DC - DC converter now, one neat feature it has is a USB connector on the board that allows you to re-charge portable devices that charge through a USB port such as cell phones, ipods, etc. That could be useful at times so I'll just throw that in the box. It's not very big anyway.
 
Hey guys, new to to forum but I happened upon this posting while searching for something else and had to post what I learned. I had the same issue not that long ago. My RCBS chargemaster was great up until the point when the AC kicked on in my house. I did not put two and two together till recently but realized that the AC caused slightly higher humidity and powder to bunch up just a little more so rather than trickling one or two granules a small clump would go in the pan for that last 0.1 grain and would throw an overcharge. Fixed by a dehumidifier in my reloading room. Hope this helps.
 
Jerry,

I've used the Chargemaster to dispense several thousand (at least) charges of Varget over the last couple years for my various .308 Win rifles. While I do get the occasional 'heavy' charge as mentioned... it's really been pretty good. I use just the plain old Mickey Dee straw held in place with a strip of duct-tape... and I've tweaked the motor setpoints a bit so it doesn't start slowing down so early. Just seems odd that you (and Al) have such problems with it dispensing consistently. I agree that some powders are more fussy than others... RE15 gives me a few more over-throws than Varget, and N150 can be a bother, as the extrusions are very inconsistent in size.

The battery thingy looks really slick... I just might have to try that out for loading at the range.

Monte
 
A couple of things:

I have been using my Chargemaster for a couple of years and have gone through the whole deal along with others. After re-programing I liked the speed but think I get a few more overthrows. I have learned to live with them.

A couple of things to consider: I have used two Lyman Funnel Pans trimmed to weigh the same since I have owned the Chargemaster. One must allow the Chargemaster to re-zero or tare for each charge. I even re-zero with the button occasionally as I go. If one gets an overthrow DUMP IT. Remember, the pan must re-zero each time. I don't think one can count on the C-master remembering it was zeroed. I run on Automatic most of the time now.

Another method that works well is to throw UNDER the desired charge and trickle by hand using your thumb and index finger grain by grain. This speeds up the process a bit.

Regarding the overthrows; I have noticed they seem to come in "Cycles". Mine will run off mebby 15 or 20 exactos and then run two or three that are over. Just dump em; cost of doing buisness. I have on occasion had some that were a tenth under , I dump them too. I still have the straw piece in but I don't think it helps anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top