ES13Raven Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Hypothetical: In an effort to make a certain powder meter better, has anyone tried making the powder a finer grain using a coffee grinder or something similar? I'm guessing that would change the burn rate of the powder, but how much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atbarr Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 That would change everything, and it would be a potential Ka-Boom! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Open1215 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 It would be very hard to get any consistency as well. Take 800x lg flake powder. If you put it in a coffee grinder and hit blend for 10 sec you would have everything from dust to 1/2 flake. That's going to wildly change the burn rate. Many of the powders are the shape they are to help keep a consistent burn rate. If you change that at all it would have a drastic affect. Big ka boom... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kneelingatlas Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 You've got bigger stones than I do if you're willing to grind gunpowder in a coffee grinder If it worked I imagine it would make it burn faster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 it would seem easier to me (and safer) to get a better powder measure. In fact I just did that since I was having some issues with bridging and light loads using 3 gr of red dot. spent $35 on a lee auto-drum measure and now the throws are extremely consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ES13Raven Posted December 23, 2015 Author Share Posted December 23, 2015 spent $35 on a lee auto-drum measure and now the throws are extremely consistent. Does that work on a Dillon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intel6 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 Also, many powders are coated with substances to slow down the burn rate in some fashion so that would also be affected if you broke up the individual powder grains besides adding to the surface area of the powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 spent $35 on a lee auto-drum measure and now the throws are extremely consistent. Does that work on a Dillon? it works on my 550. I leave my dillon powder measure set up for 40, and I was using the lee auto disk for 9 and 45. note that you'll need the lee powder/expander die as well, but I already had all the lee dies since I started reloading on a single-stage press back in the day. My plan if the auto-drum (thoughtfully recommended by another poster) hadn't worked out was going to be to switch from red dot to ramshot competition or some other less flaky powder for 9mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave33 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 spent $35 on a lee auto-drum measure and now the throws are extremely consistent. Does that work on a Dillon? You would need a Lee powder through expanding die, but other than that it would work on any press. I have one and it works perfectly with everything from large flake powder like clays or e3, down to super fine powder like AA#2. Its extremely consistent and doesn't leak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ES13Raven Posted December 23, 2015 Author Share Posted December 23, 2015 You would need a Lee powder through expanding die, but other than that it would work on any press. I have one and it works perfectly with everything from large flake powder like clays or e3, down to super fine powder like AA#2. Its extremely consistent and doesn't leak. Nice. I am trying out Clays, and it does not meter well in my 550b with Micrometer installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave33 Posted December 23, 2015 Share Posted December 23, 2015 You would need a Lee powder through expanding die, but other than that it would work on any press. I have one and it works perfectly with everything from large flake powder like clays or e3, down to super fine powder like AA#2. Its extremely consistent and doesn't leak. Nice. I am trying out Clays, and it does not meter well in my 550b with Micrometer installed. I have taken e3 down to 2.6gr consistently and clays down to 2.9gr consistently with ease. Could probably go lower but dont have any loads where I would need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybayonet Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Not sure about smokeless, but in black powder, the finer the grains gives more surface area which will cause faster burn and higher pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerBaron Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 spent $35 on a lee auto-drum measure and now the throws are extremely consistent. Does that work on a Dillon? Yep. Works on my 650 just fine. As mentioned you need the lee powder die (if you've bought a lee die set you have one) and probably the rider tube ($9). I actually prefer the lee auto drum over my dillon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njl Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Not sure about smokeless, but in black powder, the finer the grains gives more surface area which will cause faster burn and higher pressure. I can't see why the same wouldn't apply to smokeless...potentially even more since as mentioned, some powders have coatings to slow the burn. Sounds like a really bad idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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