How do you clean up spilled powder?

I have a piece of old carpet under my reloading bench. I just sweep the spill onto the carpet and every once in a while I take it outside and shake it out onto the lawn.
 
Its ok to use the vacuum just not the power head. Static electricity will ignite the powder. A friend of mine dumped almost a whole hopper on the carpet and used the power head, vacuum ended up on the lawn in flames.
 
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POOF! Powder gone.
 
I reload over a carpet, and I picked 264 bits of IMR3031 up with tweezers. That's right: not only did I do it, I counted them.
 
I ran into a flood of my basement & some of my powder was WET as were some of my primers.

Instead of throwing it away I spread the powder out over brown paper & the same with the primers only teeth down. Every so often I would check both by moving them around a bit.

Some months later I reloaded some as against my best load with the same 38 Spl 162SMC cast bullet tip, as against same Winchester C231 & same Federal Primers.

Tested them against each other & basically the same grouping. Also no Hanoi Janes either. So file that in your brain in case you run into the same problem I did.
 
Smitty said:
I ran into a flood of my basement & some of my powder was WET as were some of my primers.

Instead of throwing it away I spread the powder out over brown paper & the same with the primers only teeth down. Every so often I would check both by moving them around a bit.

Some months later I reloaded some as against my best load with the same 38 Spl 162SMC cast bullet tip, as against same Winchester C231 & same Federal Primers.

Tested them against each other & basically the same grouping. Also no Hanoi Janes either. So file that in your brain in case you run into the same problem I did.
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Good post!!!
Interesting.

Cheers
 
Hi-Standard said:
A shop vac works just fine, just make sure you remove all of the things from your reloading bench that you don't want to suck up first!:redface: Like a shell holder, pen, primers, brass.......
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x2 for ShopVac. I have the little 2gal capacity on as a permanent fixture near the reloading bench, i.e. powder spills, brass tailings from trimmed cases, spent primers - all the stuff that I hear about AFTER the wife finds them with her bare feet.:slap:
 
Picking the kernels up by hand provides the motivation not to spill powder again. Vacuums are way to easy and don't provide the necessary negative feedback to make me change my careless moments
 
Grab a pair of the wifes old nylons and stretch them over the nozzle of your shop vac. Feed some down the nozzle to make a pouch then suck up what ever debris you want. Best way I know to collect small parts you drop.

Tweezers, yikes. :)
 
:) zen.

Spill a coffee can of sundries once and you have a lot of time to think about things as you pick them up. :redface:
 
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