Chargemaster question

Say I'm throwing 67.5 gr of H-1000 (a short cut stick powder)through my RCBS Chargemaster, as it approaches the correct charge, it slows down and trickles the last grains , then beeps ay 67.7gr, about 3 out of 6 times, it will throw 67.6, 67.7, 67.9, etc. Is there something wrong with my machine or is this just the nature of trickling short grain powders? they stack up at the end of the tube, then the machine "trickles" and too many grains fall in. make sense???

Yep...nature of the beast...google Chargemaster Straw mod or trick and you will have the best thing to combat that but it still isn't 100%...some loads are just going to be over/under.

The straw trick really helps with that. The problem is the threads on the inside of the tube are catching the powder and then too much will fall out at once. Get a piece of a mcdonalds straw and cut it about two inches long and stick it inside the tube and it should help a lot.

Walter

Always read about the straw trick, does make sense. Thanks all!!
Buzz

Yes, try the straw method. I have a piece of small card board taped in a circle around the tube, and it sticks out about 1/8" to keep the clumps from falling out all at once.

You can also reprogram the chargemaster to slow down sooner at the middle and higher speeds. What's happening is it's on high speed, and reduces it's speed to medium too close to the desired charge weight, and has a clump of powder. If you slow it down about a .5 grain sooner, it will reduce this also. I posted how to do this on SH many years ago, and it works well.

Reprogram is the way to go. Several vids on youtube.

Great info

Do you know if the newer models fixed this issue? I noticed Natchez has a good price on them, only $10 more than I paid many years ago when the first came out.

I don't think I reload NEARLY as much as most here, FOR SURE Chad!!! Reloading Monster

Unless you are shooting at VERY long range, it doesn't matter. That is the whole point of doing a "ladder" test at 300 yards—to find the accuracy range where various charge weights all shoot to the same POI.
I have read the straw trick, and no straw I have ever found fits my ChargeMaster—maybe they changed the size.
If it drives you crazy, contact RCBS or look on the internet for information on fine-tuning the measure to the charge weight you want—it comes set up for "general" charging from 4.0gn to >60gn.
Also, if you slightly wet your finger and pick up one or two "sticks," you will have the weight you want.

Reprogramming won't fix it unless you've got one that just doesn't slow down until it's too late. If that's not what's going on it's more like this: if you watch the way the thing works, the scale will be sitting there waiting for that last tenth of a grain of powder. You can see the dispenser just barely bumping, trying to drop just a kernel or two. The problem is that this last couple of kernels of powder drop with another tenth of a grain of powder or even more. It's not the scale's fault, it's not the software's fault, it's just that danged dispenser tube.

The straw trick can help. I've used it and it helped. I got to thinking about it a bit this evening and it occurred to me that if the dispenser is not level it could aggravate the situation I've described...and there's also the question of just how level does the dispenser have to be for the scale to function optimally?

interesting thoughts RR

That's exactly how you fix it by slowing the tube down at certain intervals. The CM has 3 speeds- high, medium, and low. To get to the desired charge weight the fastest, it turns the tube on high. The software programming tells it when to go to medium speed a set amount from the desired charge weight. When it's on high, there is a large column of powder in the tube coming down. If you increase the distance from when it goes from high to medium from the desired charge weight, it will reduce the amount of powder column and not clump up. So, yes, this issue can easily be controlled with the software programming by changing up the settings on when the CM changes speeds. I do this often, as certain powders clump up more than others.

Increase what distance? Only the speed of rotation changes.

Exactly. How it works is you program it to slow down from high to medium 8-12 grains before desired charge, then slow down to low/trickle speed about 1-3 grains before desired charge weight. By increasing the charge range, from say 8 grains to maybe 11 grains, away from the desired charge, the tube slows down sooner and will not clump up as much with certain powders. If you run H4350 or Varget and have it set too aggressive at the high end (or slow down too close to the desired charge weight), it will have a lot of powder in the tube, and will clump up and pour out more powder in the trickle stage. To fix this, you increase the distance away from the desired charge going from high to medium, so it will not clump up. If it's clumping up at 8 grains away, then increase this to 10 or 11, and see if that is enough room for the tube to spread out the powder some and not clump up.

I used to play a lot with these programming numbers, but not so much any more. I run 2 CM at a time for precision loading, and transfer the powder to a digital scale and trickle up. While one is running, I'm pouring from the other. So, I have them programmed to run fast, but not too aggressive for over throws.

Oh...so that's what you meant by "distance."

Yes, I know how the things work, Chad. It is a motorized trickler interfaced by software and hardware to a digital scale. Not rocket science.

I just did a little investigation to see how the trickler tube fills. I used IMR7828 and set the Chargemaster to drop 30.0 grains.

I ran it and let it drop the charge at default settings (NO reprogramming). I looked into the tube as it ran.

Then I trickled the entire 30-grain charge several times and watched, looking into the trickler tube. NO difference in the amount of powder in the tube.

Same story with H4831SC.

What about closing the intake of powder into the tube to decrease the amount of powder entering the tube. This would make it take longer to drop a charge but, might help in over charges. The card board trick that Chad described works good enough for me. Or set it a couple of tenths short, then tap on powder tube to trickle up.

keep the laughter down but I took some of those black covers that the doctor uses when he checks your ears from the doctor office one day and put it on the end of my tube. Worked like a champion. Getting it to attach to my spout was easy with some double sided tape. wrapped the tube and slid the cover onto it.