Powder Bar Sticking...

[EricW]

Well, it finally happened. I found a Hodgdon product that has given me fits: H110. It's the closest gunpowder I've ever seen to talcum powder. I was using Titegroup in my measure with zero problems one minute and the next with the H110, it ran so stiff I could hardly cycle the press.

Lots of you have probably tried this before, but I pulled the charge bar, cleaned out the gunk, then hosed the bar down with a liberal dose of powdered graphite. Voila! Problem solved. Don't ask me how this "fixed" everything because part of the problem was powder leaking past the charge bar, but now everything works super slick, and powder doesn't seem to leak out of the measure like it used to.

Strange, but true.

Anybody else been through this? What solution did you come up with?

[Nik Habicht]

Back when I was having the same problem loading with AA#7, I bought the Arredondo polymer set up. It worked. Alledgedly it was designed for Vectan's SP2.

[dillon]

Actually, AA#5 is the tiniest dimensioned ball powder we have found. Measure the thickness of the powder bar and spacer,(assuming you are using the small powder bar). If the thickness of either is under .357", contact Dillon for a new spacer bar. On the large bar, you just need to continue to periodically clean the residue off.

[Paul B]

I also had this trouble with SP-2 because it is so fine and the plastic powder bar solved that problem. Be careful, though, the fine powders also worked their way into the primer feed mechanism of (specially) my 650 and eventually you will get bent and crushed primers if you don't periodically clean the primer mechanism. For .38 supers with SP-2, I had to clean it about every 500 rounds. As good as the Dillon machines are they do not like super fine grain powder like SP-2.

[BeltFed]

I'm using Win.748 in .223 and having the same problem, except it just sticks for a second, then it snaps into position, and I get incosistent powder charges. It started suddenly too. Wonder if I have the same problem?

[dillon]

For 223 you should be using the large powder bar. Wipe off the bar and inside of the housing with alcohol, and that should take care of it.

[BeltFed]

Thanks Dillon, that worked.

I rubbed the bar with 4 ought steel wool to get rid of any build up of crud and burrs, then wiped the bar and the interrior of the measure with alcohol, and it worked fine. I had to do this one other time, about 200 rds later; it almost looked like a metal filling got between the bar and measure, and hung it up. Repeated the above and it worked fine.