Powder Dispensing

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I Dont Care About You

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I bought an RCBS Chargemaster Supreme approx 19 months ago. I haven't had much time to se it because we moved last year. The few times I have used it, I wasn't blown away and it seems to not like ball powder all that much. Its been a few months since I've been able to do any reloading and when I went to us the Chargemaster today, it doesn't want to work at all. Which is super annoying.

The basic problem seems to be the tricker tube is too stiff to rotate under its own power. I can turn it by hand but the motor won't spin the tube. I can'r seem to get the tube out, even having applied more force to it than it should need to come out.

The problem is that the 1 year warranty is past. I'm contemplating breaking the seals and opening up the housing to see if I can work out why the tricker tube is stuck and difficult to turn.

On the other hand, I could just stop screwing around and order an AutoTrickler V4?

Thoughts, suggestions? I'm dumb and should just bought the AutoTrickler in the first place?
 
Call RCBS is the first step. Chargemasdter is reasonably accurate, just like old balance scales. But if you want real precision the Autotrickler seems slick
 
There may be flakes of ball powder jamming it up. I've had that happen on a cheap lyman manual trickler that had loose tolerances as well as a Lee PPM before I lapped it. If the flakes find a way into any openings they can quickly bung things up. I'd echo Gatehouse however and call RCBS first. They may be able to help. A mechanical measure is the way to go with ball powder IMO.
 
Call or email RCBS, their customer service is great. Over the winter I emailed their parts/warranty dept about some parts I was missing from a Partner press I bought used, they asked if I was the original owner and I said no. Once we figured out all the parts I needed and got all my mailing info I asked what the total was, they said it was no charge and sent things out. I tried to pay them and they said not to worry about it, wouldn’t even let me pay for the shipping.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they take care of you, they’re great to deal with.
 
I'll call RCBS tomorrow but honestly not holding my breath on that option. The only solution I can see for this is to open the housing and clean out any ball powder ... but I'm past the warranty and opening the housing would violate the warranty anyway.
 
My chargemaster story is old, but might still be relevant. I got an early one, probably in the first couple years of production. Mine quit after a year or so; off warranty of course. It was a bad key pad, not that that matters much. I phoned down to RCBS and explained the situation and said its off warrantty. Next question waswell, what do we do about that.

This is where it got strange. They said that what they wanted was for me to send it in with 60 US dollars and they’d give me a new one. That was quite a bit better than nothing, but I did point out that it was going to cost me about 60 bucks to ship it down from Canada and they were just going to throw it away when it got there. Then it changed to smash it up with a hammer and take pictures of that and send them and 60 bucks and they’d send me a new one. I’m thinking he must think I’m some kind of idiot to fall for that; and said as much, but he did sound sort of sincere for a guy laughing his head off on the phone.

I started a thread on CGN tellling the story and most everyone thought the same as me. There was one guy though that piled up and said thats what they told him too, and it was real. Insteadof a hammer I shot with a 458 Win Mag and videoed it.Posted that on CGN to. In due time the new replacement showed up, and its been working just fine ever since. :)
 
I got referred to their approved repair shop, Lone Mountain Communications. I contacted Lone Mountain and was told, they have $175usd flat rate for all Chargemaster repairs. With shipping that's gonna be $260cad or so, which is getting close to 50% of the original cost.

I think I'm gonna break the factory seals and open it up ... gently ... to see if it is just a matter of blowing out any accumulated powder. It is the only way to access the motor and drive system.
 
I Dont Care About You said:
I got referred to their approved repair shop, Lone Mountain Communications. I contacted Lone Mountain and was told, they have $175usd flat rate for all Chargemaster repairs. With shipping that's gonna be $260cad or so, which is getting close to 50% of the original cost.

I think I'm gonna break the factory seals and open it up ... gently ... to see if it is just a matter of blowing out any accumulated powder. It is the only way to access the motor and drive system.
Click to expand...

Who did you contact originally, did you try RCBS directly?
 
I Dont Care About You said:
I bought an RCBS Chargemaster Supreme approx 19 months ago. I haven't had much time to se it because we moved last year. The few times I have used it, I wasn't blown away and it seems to not like ball powder all that much. Its been a few months since I've been able to do any reloading and when I went to us the Chargemaster today, it doesn't want to work at all. Which is super annoying.

The basic problem seems to be the tricker tube is too stiff to rotate under its own power. I can turn it by hand but the motor won't spin the tube. I can'r seem to get the tube out, even having applied more force to it than it should need to come out.

The problem is that the 1 year warranty is past. I'm contemplating breaking the seals and opening up the housing to see if I can work out why the tricker tube is stuck and difficult to turn.

On the other hand, I could just stop screwing around and order an AutoTrickler V4?

Thoughts, suggestions? I'm dumb and should just bought the AutoTrickler in the first place?
Click to expand...
I don't know if this solution will work for you. My Chargemaster after a few years stopped dispensing powder on the first load. While fiddling about I discovered if I put some weight on the pan it would start dispensing powder and I could remove the weight and it would stop at whatever weight it was set for. I typically just use a Q tip. All the succeeding loads dispensed on their own. Only the startup required this.
And yes I've checked the initial loads and all succeeding loads on a scale and they are accurate.
The initial weight placed on the pan need only be lighter than the target load and removable quickly.
I have my unit set to dispense the next load automatically when the pan is returned to the scale.
 
303EppsFan said:
I don't know if this solution will work for you. My Chargemaster after a few years stopped dispensing powder on the first load. While fiddling about I discovered if I put some weight on the pan it would start dispensing powder and I could remove the weight and it would stop at whatever weight it was set for. I typically just use a Q tip. All the succeeding loads dispensed on their own. Only the startup required this.
And yes I've checked the initial loads and all succeeding loads on a scale and they are accurate.
The initial weight placed on the pan need only be lighter than the target load and removable quickly.
I have my unit set to dispense the next load automatically when the pan is returned to the scale.
Click to expand...

Have you changed the default settings? You can double the speed easily. Using two weight matched pans will shave a lot of time off, and the McDonals straw trick eliminates most of the over throws.
 
The autotrickler is definitely a better device.

There's mixed reviews on the V4, but if you can pick up a used V2 or V3, get an IP trickler with it and it's the tits.
 
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