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Trickling powder and using my electronic scale?

CanusLatransSnpr

Ok guys, I'm a little baffled here. I have a Cabelas XT 1500 electronic scale and I tried to trickle some powder into the pan, while on the scale, and it wouldn't show any weight gain as I added powder. I then took the pan off, emptied it into my powder thrower, returned it to the scale and the scale showed it was 1.8gr. lighter in tare weight than before. Is this scale not sophistacated enough to trickle powder in the pan to desired charge? If it isn't, which electronic scales are? Any help is much appreciated guys!

Mike
 
Did you wait for the scale, I know that my RCBS Powder Pro (PACT) takes a half a second or so to read and then up to a second for the settle light. That's after it's warmed up, if it's been off and just turned on I don't trust any reading for a good 4 hrs. or so and calibrate before throwing any charges.

My Denver is fast at reading the 0.02-0.03 gr. granuals of powder during trickle for topping off the loads.
 
From my experience the powder scales should be warmed up before use and calibrated before each use. I had a Dillon electronic scale that would drift badly and it would not act right until 4 hours of warmup. My new RCBS 1500 Chargemaster works very well. I can trickle a grain at a time and it shows on display, and warmup time is maybe half hour. Drift is little to none. Hope this helps.

Frank
 
The scale had been on for a little while, maybe 15 minutes or so. The directions with the scale say to let it warm up for 3-4 minutes before use and to calibrate. I did this and it just doesn't seem to show when I add powder through the trickler. I guess I'm going to have to let it warm up for a few hours before I attempt this again. Thanks guys!

Mike
 
Taildrag15X said:
Did you wait for the scale, I know that my RCBS Powder Pro (PACT) takes a half a second or so to read and then up to a second for the settle light. That's after it's warmed up, if it's been off and just turned on I don't trust any reading for a good 4 hrs. or so and calibrate before throwing any charges.

My Denver is fast at reading the 0.02-0.03 gr. granuals of powder during trickle for topping off the loads.
Click to expand...

I agree
 
My first digital scale was a Dillon model, now obsolete. Drifted like crazy, even after I eliminated fluorescent ballast and cellphone interference as possibilities. Maybe the AC line voltage was "dirty" but the next scale - a Lyman 1200 DPS Mark I - worked pretty well scale wise but was Very Slow.

My current scale - Denver Instruments MXX-123 - is by far the best but there's one trick I've learned when manually trickling up to the desired weight: if I'm within .04 - .06 grain of my target and a few extra granules aren't being "felt" I very lightly touch the scale platform.

Light is the operative word; the scale apparently needs a certain "threshold" of change to react. Too little powder & it won't change. Lightly touching the platform puts it over the edge & it invariably comes back to reflect the addition of those few extra granules.

I leave it plugged in 24/7 and "on" also, and it's plugged into a UPS device too to keep it running when the power kicks off.
 
I also bought the Cabelas XT 1500 never worked right had it about 2 hrs. drifted like crazy didn't trust it returned it and bought RCBS Rangermaster 750 cost a little more but worth it.
 
Sniper, does the RCBS Rangemaster 750 accomodate using a powder trickler? Just curious because this is one of the scales I'm considering as a replacement for the Cabelas scale.

Mike
 
Well, I tried what you folks suggested. I let the scale warm up for a couple hours, I figured that should have been sufficient time, and still it didn't like me trickling powder in the pan. It did show a change this time but, was no where near representative to what I put in the pan. The scale said I only put .7-.8 gr of powder in when in all actuality I put in about 4.8 gr of powder. So I'm thinking this scale just isn't sophistacated enough to allow me to trickle powder. I guess I just need to find one that will and go from there. Thanks all!

Mike
 
I have an Acculab and try to remember to turn it on for a couple of hours prior to use. Electronic scales have programs that register changes in weight, and some are not sensative enough to measure individual kernals of powder. The Acculab does that well.
 
Dave & Dave, thank you! For the time being I'm just going to have to deal with what I have. I just started my seasonal layoff, working in the ag business has its disadvantages ;), so I don't have any extra monies at my disposal right now. I just have to keep throwing charges and when they weigh what they're supposed to, I charge the cartridge. I don't fuss too much if its a tenth of a grain under the max charge but, a tenth of a grain over, its gets dumped back into the hopper and try again ;)! Its kind of tedious but, I have plenty of time on my hands these days. Thanks again guys!

Mike
 
If you can't afford to get a good digital scale ( at least $300 IMHO), then I stick with a balance beam scale. The cheaper digitals can be crap.
 
CanusLatransSnpr said:
Sniper, does the RCBS Rangemaster 750 accomodate using a powder trickler? Just curious because this is one of the scales I'm considering as a replacement for the Cabelas scale.

Mike


Yes sir, it does I use a RCBS trickler but got a Lyman adjustable height trickler for Christmas will give a try and see what happens. On the RCBS trickler I had a small block of wood to raise it up but it worked ok but the Lyman is height adjustable and should work fine have not used it yet but see no problems.
Click to expand...
 
The Chargemaster has a trickler built in. When I throw my loads with the RCBS CM I then move them to my MXX123 and trickle for an exact load to the hundreth. That often involves the tweezer to extract single grains.
 
spclark said:
My first digital scale was a Dillon model, now obsolete. Drifted like crazy, even after I eliminated fluorescent ballast and cellphone interference as possibilities. Maybe the AC line voltage was "dirty" but the next scale - a Lyman 1200 DPS Mark I - worked pretty well scale wise but was Very Slow.

My current scale - Denver Instruments MXX-123 - is by far the best but there's one trick I've learned when manually trickling up to the desired weight: if I'm within .04 - .06 grain of my target and a few extra granules aren't being "felt" I very lightly touch the scale platform.

Light is the operative word; the scale apparently needs a certain "threshold" of change to react. Too little powder & it won't change. Lightly touching the platform puts it over the edge & it invariably comes back to reflect the addition of those few extra granules.

I leave it plugged in 24/7 and "on" also, and it's plugged into a UPS device too to keep it running when the power kicks off.
Click to expand...
I do exactly the same thing as spclark, with excellent results on three different models of electric scales. I would think you could use this same method with your cabela's scale Mike.
Wayne.
 
I might have to give that a try Wayne! The problem that I have is that I usually have too much powder in the pan by the time it would show any change. I definitely need to upgrade my scale to a better one and never look back! Thanks for the tips though!

Mike
 
I almost forgot, thanks for your reply also Sniper! I think you will find, as ridgeway said, the Lyman trickler works pretty good! I just wish I had a scale that would show what I'm trickling into the pan ;)!

Mike
 
Well fellas, finally got an RCBS Rangemaster 750 today :)! Plan on spending some time at the bench tonight and see how well it works. I hope it works as well as some of you have stated ;)!

Mike
 
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