Powder measure on 650 problems

[redfisher]

Newish 650, couple years old loading 38SC. This just started happening; every 6-8 rounds powder drop is a grain or more light.  Just trying to figure out what I should start checking. I load on another 650 and a 1050, so I'm not new to this, just have not seen this problem.  Thanks in advance.

 

Jeff

[Youngeyes]

Short stroke, sticky powder bar? Fine powder can leak and cause the bar to stick sometimes. What powder are you using? Have you tried cleaning the powder measure setup?

[redfisher]

43 minutes ago, Youngeyes said:

Short stroke, sticky powder bar? Fine powder can leak and cause the bar to stick sometimes. What powder are you using? Have you tried cleaning the powder measure setup?

VV 3n38. which is prety fine.  I need to take it off and troubleshoot. 

[Jsjac]

I have had trouble with static electric charge before.

 It was causing erratic powder charges. 

 Some charges would be good others would be light. 

I started to use a dryer sheet on the powder measurer. 

Problems have subsided for the most part. 

 Some people are using the Dram Worx powder hopper and report no static problems. 

[ChemistShooter]

On 5/5/2021 at 5:38 PM, redfisher said:

Newish 650, couple years old loading 38SC. This just started happening; every 6-8 rounds powder drop is a grain or more light.  Just trying to figure out what I should start checking. I load on another 650 and a 1050, so I'm not new to this, just have not seen this problem.  Thanks in advance.

 

Jeff

If it's not coming out, something is making it stick, unless you have some kind of mechanical problem with the powder bar. I would think the most likely cause is some kind of chemical build-up.I used to use case lube until I realized case lube was spreading all over my 650, in particular getting into the powder funnel and causing variation in powder drop. It wasn't as much as a grain, at least as far as I know, but it was more than I wanted. I cleaned all the dies and the powder apparatus inside and out with isopropyl alcohol, stopped using case lube, and my powder SD tightened up spectacularly. My first cleaning paper towel for the powder funnel came out black.

 

I realized the powder itself had to be leaving chemical sticky-stuff residue behind too, if not as bad as the case lube, so now I routinely disassemble and clean the powder funnel with isopropyl alcohol at the end of a reloading run.

 

What's flaky is the on-and-off nature. That doesn't quite fit with a chemical sticky-stuff hypothesis.

 

It's possible a physical cause is indicated. Static electricity is the only physical cause I can think of. I live in a high-humidity area and have zero experience with static electricity. I have a relative humidity meter next to my 650. If it says 40% or less (VERY rarely) I don't do any reloading as an static-electricity spark in your powder funnel can, ahem, really ruin your day and is to be strongly avoided. I vaguely recall 40% is the Dillon recommendation?

If it wasn't happening before, and now it's happening after thousands of rounds, it's most likely a maintenance issue of some kind. Something has either worn completely out or gotten dirty.

My $0.02. Hope it helps.