RCBS Charge Master 1500

[Grey Eaglr]

OK, I just received my RCBS Charge Master today, after drooling over it for years. Question, how the heck does the hopper attach? I thought it would be slightly smaller at the base and fit into a recess, but it seems to be the same size. Not feeling too smart right about now! ;D

 

[Grey Eaglr]

OK, I just got it, you've got to be just a little bit rough! ;D

 

[apakesha]

Check out the auto option!! After you calibrate it and enter the weight of charge, every time you put the pan back on the scale it will automatically dispense that charge. Saves a lot of time.
Mike

 

[LHSmith]

Make up a huge sticker that reads "Hopper Drain Closed?"......if you have to ask, you'll quickly find out why.

 

[Grey Eaglr]

apakesha, I saw that on the youtube demo! That looks awesome!

 

[Grey Eaglr]

LHSMITH, that sounds like an excellent idea! Thanks!

 

[vtmarmot]

After it dispenses, leave the pan on the scale until it gives the round count, and then comes back to the weight again. Sometimes, especially with long grain powders, a few extra pieces will drop out of the trickler tube and give you an overage. You will not know that if you pick up the pan right away. You can dump the whole thing back in the hopper and redispense, or you can pick up the pan, tap out a few grains into the hopper, and trickle back up to weight. Do not pick the powder out with your fingers or you will not get an accurate weight. I grounded the frame of mine to the metal frame of my bench to eliminate static issues. You can also wipe it down with a drier sheet every 10 or 20 loads.

 

[civil82]

There's some great advice listed here, especially remembering to close the drain :-[...I've spilled my fair share of powder by forgetting. Here's a few good links for you to check out:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2012/10/tech-tip-how-to-speed-up-your-rcbs-chargemaster-1500/

http://www.6mmbr.com/chargemastertips.html

I'm on my 2nd unit. The first one took a dump and of course it was out of warranty. RCBS replaced the item for a small fee. No worries with customer service in my experience. Have fun!

 

[thomashoward]

Make up a huge sticker that reads "Hopper Drain Closed?"......if you have to ask, you'll quickly find out why.
[/quote
]Once you've done that 2-3 times it sinks in

 

[Bradley Walker]

Make up a huge sticker that reads "Hopper Drain Closed?"......if you have to ask, you'll quickly find out why.

RIGHT????!!!!

 

[Grey Eaglr]

Great tips! Finally took time to plug it in and calibrate it tonight. Can't wait to give it a work out. I have been dreaming about this for years!

 

[amlevin]

Make up a huge sticker that reads "Hopper Drain Closed?"......if you have to ask, you'll quickly find out why.

Second day I owned mine I took a Sharpie and wrote that very notice on the top for the powder reservoir.

Also pays to check it frequently as sometimes it can get bumped enough to partially open it.

 

[rocketron]

one nobody talked about is....zeroing the scale w/out the pan on it when in auto mode. it will shoot powder out faster than you can imagine and it will keep coming till you hit the stop button.

 

[FergusBailey]

Hope this isn't a thread hijack. I have a Chargemaster and am just getting acquainted with it. Ideally, I had hoped to use it the way I use my Harrell powder measure - fill it with powder, and set the charge weight I want to throw.

But I find I need to enter a bunch of guff into the Chargemaster for a specific cartridge. Is there any way around this so I can just set the charge, without all the other info I have been going through?

 

[rayporter]

all i do is punch in the number [such as 29.8 gr] and hit dispense. if i change the load, i push cancel and then 30 gr and hit dispense.

 

[Sighter]

Hope this isn't a thread hijack. I have a Chargemaster and am just getting acquainted with it. Ideally, I had hoped to use it the way I use my Harrell powder measure - fill it with powder, and set the charge weight I want to throw.

But I find I need to enter a bunch of guff into the Chargemaster for a specific cartridge. Is there any way around this so I can just set the charge, without all the other info I have been going through?

I programmed 30 loads in mine and never use them. As posted just turn it on, calibrate, punch in the load and hit dispense. It will continue to fill the pan with that load and no long programming or searching around for your pet load is needed.

If mine was new and I had it to do again, I would just plug in my 5 favorite grains to dispense and forget the caliber, bullet and all other info. Just my 2 cents...

 

[mikecr]

The most important method of use with a CM is to disturb the charged pan for a re-reading of the scale. You might not know if the charge is right without doing this.

A flaw in it's design(at least with earlier models) caught pretty fast by us (right here), is that the scale would 'indicate' desired charge EXACTLY on dispense ending, regardless of actual.
No doubt this was slippery programming to give customers confidence (being that we're so dumb)..
But also being a bit suspicious, we disturbed pans, and remeasured, and then confidence took a hit.
That's when many of us picked up Acculab scales(etc) for comparison and started tuning our CMs.

You can search around here and find some good mods & tuning tips resulting.

 

[FergusBailey]

Thanks for the tips. Looks like setting the charge and hitting the "disp" button will work fine for me.

 

[DBailey]

The most important method of use with a CM is to disturb the charged pan for a re-reading of the scale. You might not know if the charge is right without doing this.

A flaw in it's design(at least with earlier models) caught pretty fast by us (right here), is that the scale would 'indicate' desired charge EXACTLY on dispense ending, regardless of actual.
No doubt this was slippery programming to give customers confidence (being that we're so dumb)..
But also being a bit suspicious, we disturbed pans, and remeasured, and then confidence took a hit.
That's when many of us picked up Acculab scales(etc) for comparison and started tuning our CMs.

You can search around here and find some good mods & tuning tips resulting.

If you're talking about picking the pan up as soon as it quits dispensing, they still do that.
When it quits dispensing the scale is showing the amount of powder that was in the pan when it sent the signal to quit dispensing. Any powder that falls in past that point doesn't show until after the scale displays the charge count.
It will display three numbers one at a time after the dispensing is complete. If it's an overcharge it will look something like this.

56 2 56.1
Desired Count Actual
Charge Charge

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

David, as usual, is completely correct. I have been using my CM for over 5 years and I am quite used to the little numbers dance at the end of the dispensing. Wait for the beep and watch the numbers. In the infrequent times that it has dispensed .1 or even .2, I simply pick up a small pinch of powder directly from the pan, carefully and then dribble out until I get to the target weight. Varget lends itself very well to that.

Also, keep you cellphone in another room and put the CM on a solid table or object that will not be disturbed while it's doing its thing. In other words, don't put in on the same table next to your press that you use to seat the bullet while it's dispensing the next load.