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Turn Your FX-120i into a Prometheus

Monte I ended up with the pinched soda straw on my Omega 2 for exactly the reasons you noted. I still get an infrequent clump. I'll keep suitable straw stock handy once I've received & started using my Adam's Device.

IPSCNUT that's an interesting thought you've posted. I've not felt 'centering' the drop point for my Omega to be at all necessary on the MXX-123 I've been using. Hopefully the different technology of an FX-120i won't be compromised by an off-center scale pan?

Any current users willing to comment?

spclark, My error, I should have clarified my comment was in reference to an FX120i.
 
hi guys,just a little bit off topic,having rigged everything up now i just wish i had another pair of hands.
has anybody tried to rig up a powder thrower that is foot operated?
having to put everything down to then throw another charge slows everything down.if you could take the completed powder pan off the scales, fill your cartridge,then lean over to the powder thrower push the pedal,refill and back on the scales.
any engineers out there?
just a thought.
 
any engineers out there?

Probably, but I can't count myself among them.

I've worked around this by setting up a case block with 50 primed cases that get filled with thrown charges while in the block. Thrower's set light, then as each case is transferred to another block its charge gets weighed and adjusted. I don't have to alternate between thrower and powder pan handling and cases and the risk of having a squib (empty case gets a bullet seated in error) is virtually non-existent.
 
hi guys,just a little bit off topic,having rigged everything up now i just wish i had another pair of hands.
has anybody tried to rig up a powder thrower that is foot operated?
having to put everything down to then throw another charge slows everything down.if you could take the completed powder pan off the scales, fill your cartridge,then lean over to the powder thrower push the pedal,refill and back on the scales.
any engineers out there?
just a thought.
I think Adam had already talked about this but here it is again. If you think the autotrickler is slowing you down in any way, the best way to address this is to have two powder weighing pan of identical weight. The autotrickler fills one pan while you do other things like put a light charge on the other pan, put powder in your case etc. When you are ready to take another charge, switch the one on the balance with the correct charge with the one that is light, the autotrickler will start to fill the pan to the correct charge while you are doing your other thing. Trust me when I say that the autotrickler is not the rate limiting step.
 
A couple questions...
I have noticed that the kernels will occasionally clump up and come out in a little bigger bunch than the trickler program was probably anticipating, resulting in an over-shoot (I keep a set of very fine needle-point tweezers handy, just as I did with the Omega 2-spd trickler). With the regular RCBS Chargemaster, it has been fairly common for people to take a chunk of soda straw and put it in the discharge tube, so the kernels have to come out in a line rather than 'climbing' up the threads and clumping and coming out in a bunch. Anyone tried that with one of these auto-tricklers yet? The feed tube extension on the trickler looks pretty similar to me, so it seems like it should work...?
I am interested in this idea of using a soda straw to reduce the chance of a "chunk dump". So the soda straw sits inside the discharge tube? Would the added thickness of the soda straw not cause a backup inside the trickler?
 
How about a feed tube extension that gets the drop point to the center of the scale plate. Has anyone experimented with this possibility?
I think this is counter productive. First, putting weight on the side of the weighting pan does not give you an inaccurate read. If you do the calibration with the 50 gram weight, just try putting it in the middle or the side and you will see you get the same weight and that is a huge weight compare to what you are normally weighting.

The other reason you don't want to do this is because the scale is best used with the top and three wind screens attached so that no air movement disturbed the scale. Having the pan on the side makes it easiest to reach in and take the pan with the autotrickled powder out. If you put the pan in the middle of the pan, you are going to have to reach in a lot more, making this a much more difficult maneuver.
 
So the soda straw sits inside the discharge tube?

No, slips on the outside; reason's as you indicate.

All straws aren't created equal though! I finally found one from Culver's fit my Omega's tube just right.

With a rotating tube though I don't see how a pinched straw'd work as it's mostly never gonna have the pinched side pointing down.
 
So the soda straw sits inside the discharge tube? Would the added thickness of the soda straw not cause a backup inside the trickler?

Yes... but its fairly minimal. Its somewhat of a trade-off between a slightly larger 'stream' of kernels, but one that is more consistent in behavior. Like I said, I know it works on the Chargemaster - haven't tried it yet on the AutoTrickler.
 
No, slips on the outside; reason's as you indicate.

I think we're talking different things here... I cut a ~3/4-1" long section of straw, and slipped it inside the mouth of my Chargemaster. Some people have it extend ~1/4" and wrap with a thin strip of duct tape to secure it in place.

All straws aren't created equal though!

Yes. The large straws from McDonalds worked best in my Chargemaster ;)
 
Monte - no harm in turning the motor by hand, I do this all the time. The trickler is meant to stop low, so you can either tap the last kernel in or set your target weight 0.02 over your "intended" target.

Regarding bushing and oil and such, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I am taking steps towards making a custom machined aluminum trickler. If it's cost effective it will solve all of those issues. But don't expect it to be available this summer.
 
Regarding bushing and oil and such, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I am taking steps towards making a custom machined aluminum trickler. If it's cost effective it will solve all of those issues. But don't expect it to be available this summer.

Is the discharge tube going to ride on bearings? Will it be an easy retrofit with your current auto trickler? If so, put me down as #1 on the waiting list!
 
Adam - have you taken a good look at the trickler on the Promethius ? It's pretty much the heart of the system and can deliver one kernel of H4350 at a time. If you could fabricate one like that it would be great.
 
I think Adam had already talked about this but here it is again. If you think the autotrickler is slowing you down in any way, the best way to address this is to have two powder weighing pan of identical weight. The autotrickler fills one pan while you do other things like put a light charge on the other pan, put powder in your case etc. When you are ready to take another charge, switch the one on the balance with the correct charge with the one that is light, the autotrickler will start to fill the pan to the correct charge while you are doing your other thing. Trust me when I say that the autotrickler is not the rate limiting step.
I did just that still using the dipper with 2 pans threw 20 charges in 6 minutes! Fast enough for me
 
I did just that still using the dipper with 2 pans threw 20 charges in 6 minutes! Fast enough for me
That's right! Really the only time that you can start seeing the autotrickler being the rate limiting step is when you have two guys working on reloading at the same time, but that is production... Generally speaking, I am waaaaaaay slower than the autotrickler...
 
Canada post strike has been put off for 30 days so you can order them without worrying about delivery

Just do not do that for a bit so mine can be built and shipped. :)

Jeff
 
Canada post strike has been put off for 30 days so you can order them without worrying about delivery

Just do not do that for a bit so mine can be built and shipped. :)

Jeff

Awesome. Just shipped 25 today and I spent most of last evening trying to figure out Fedex. Glad Canada Post is still available because it's much easier. I am planning to ship all orders within 2 weeks of now.
 
Not to be too much of a distraction, but an update on the servo operated automatic powder measure for the bulk drop that I mentioned a few days ago...

As of today the servo and arduino code up and running. Program is written so it is easy to tune for endpoints, cycle times, and delays. As of now I wrote the code to slightly back off the hard stops at the top and bottom of the stroke and "double tap" the measure at the top and bottom of the stroke to help "settle" the powder in the measure as you might do with the handle when running it manually. There's also a slight delay at the top of the stroke to allow the powder to dispense. After "double tapping" at the bottom of the stroke the servo backs off a bit from the hard stop of the powder measure so the servo doesn't sit in the stalled position drawing excess current and generating excess heat between cycles.

Already have the servo mounting hardware figured out and mounted on an RCBS advanced powder measure stand since the geometry of it lends itself to easy mounting of the servo hardware. This week I'm going to machine an adapter for my Redding 3BR that bolts in place of the handle to adapt to a sprocket to connect to the servo. As of now the plan is to use the adjustable powder measure chute from an RCBS advanced powder trickler system to get the powder from the Redding 3BR to the pan on the FX120i. The RCBS chute won't directly screw into the bottom of the Redding measure so I need to machine an adapter for that (simple light press fit into the counterbore of the Redding with internal 9/16-18 threads on the adapter to accept the RCBS drop chute.) Thought about just buying a Uniflow so the chute would screw right in but I don't particularly care for the Uniflow and its semi-permanent small powder hopper that's really easy to break when you try and remove it. The Redding has an easily removable and replaceable powder hopper as well as small, medium, and large hoppers available. The Redding 3BR also has a micrometer lock screw which the Uniflow lacks.

With the particular servo I've chosen a <0.4 second minimum cycle time of the powder measure is possible; I doubt it will be able to run that fast in reality once the delay at the drop position is tuned to allow a ~42gr bulk charge to drop out from the drum, but I think a <1 second cycle time for a ~42gr bulk charge is within the realm of possibility. Ideally I'd like to see a 5-7 second per charge total system time for bulk charge drop and trickle to final weight once integrated with Adam's trickler. One thing I am considering is a potentiometer adjustable "delay time" to control the dwell time of the powder measure in the drop position as bulk charges for large calibers will obviously take a little longer to vacate the drum.

Initially I'm going to cycle the powder measure via momentary pushbutton. First step is to get the bugs worked out and test it for a bit to make sure it's repeatable and the servo is adequate in terms of speed and torque for when it inevitably has to cut a kernel during the cycle. Once everything is debugged I'm hoping to collaborate with Adam to integrate his trickler and scale interface to make it a complete system; my plan would be to have Adam's trickler cycle the powder measure once the pan is placed back on the scale and it stabilizes at zero, then once the bulk charge is thrown from the automatic measure Adam's trickler can finish the charge to final weight. Since the Redding 3BR is a micrometer trickler it will be easy to record your bulk charge setting and dial it back in for future loading sessions.

Hope to get the drum to sprocket and drop chute adapters machined early this week and have the measure up and running by next weekend. Of course, I'm eagerly awaiting a trickler from Adam, and still need to order an FX120i... really looking forward to 1-2 kernel charge weight accuracy with minimal effort and maximum time savings!
 
I just finished dropping 75 6BRX with 32 gr. of Reloader 15
Then 25 308 with 42 gr. of H4895.
Two were over and just dipped some out and ran to the proper target weight.
I set .02 over target weight and hit what I want.
6 charges were .02 under just turn the trickler by hand.
I use Lee dipper to speed things up. Hoping to see an automated measure.

Very happy thanks fo your time and innovation.
(loaded about 600 rounds so far)

John
 

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