automatic powder trickler

[6bg6ga]

I'm sure these tricklers are going to fair well with long cylinder shaped powders the ones you need to cut with a pair of dikes. Neither do the factory type powder measure tricklers out there. On their worst day of the week they will be within .1 of a grain.

[6bg6ga]

Loaded up a bunch of 22-250's and it works great. I used H380 and figured I might have a problem because its so darn small but I cannot complain as the accuracy was in the .03 range

[jmorris]

thanks 6bg6ba and jmorris

Bruce

No problem, nice work.

Might I suggest that slight improvements could be made by A) finding a smaller sensor and B) have some means of micro adjusting the height of the sensor. I find different powders run at different rates and a bit of tweaking is sometimes necessary.

The first one I put together did have a smaller sensor but it cost more and was not any more accurate than the big yellow one.



I also bought a few really small nice looking ones that would do the job, just to lazy to finish the circuitry as they are just a switch.

In the end it would just be a form over function kind of thing and if you look at my photos I didn't even paint the steel plate mine is mounted to. The way something works is more important to me than how it looks when it comes to tools.

The main advantage of the large area inside the sensor is that I don't leave my scales set up all the time and the more open the sensor is the easier they are to setup and take down.

The bracket I made does have adjustment built into it a 1/4-20 all thread holds the bracket in place and there is fine adjustment between the bracket and sensor. If you look closely you can see a coil spring below the sensor in the "U", the two 10-32 bolts allow a very fine vertical adjustment.

[1066]

I'm not knocking it JM, I like your work, and I must admit I hadn't seen the micro adjustment system on the yellow sensor. I made something very similar some time ago to fit directly onto the new RCBS M500 scale. It fits on using the existing screws so no scale modification necessary.

A basic slotted opto switch is just a few cents and can easily be chopped in half and spaced apart if necessary. I know it's easy to just buy something that works, and with your solid set-up, it works very well but might not work so well hanging on a 505 scale.

Here's a matched pair, 10 for $2.30 HERE

[jmorris]

That looks a lot like the smaller switches I have. Sometimes I am a lot like water and just take the path of least resistance.

Yours looks good though.

[6bg6ga]

I had tried a Honeywell sensor that was rather pricey. It didn't do any better for me than the sensor JM came up with. I've tried W231, H335, H110, H380, unique, and Red dot and it seems to handle them fine. Mine may not be positioned 100% but rather 99%. I'm tempted try those sensors as I also found them months ago but not having a machine shop makes it harder to do something and have a precision result.

I cannot speak for John but my opinion is the yellow sensor is easy for the average guy to work with and its cost effective. I do however like your setup with the black blade type sensor and its also cost effective. Still working on my last year I'm still finding time at a premium so I don't have a lot of time to spend making a bracket like that one. The time I can manage to come up with just barely allows me time to load up 100 rounds or so and take the wife out shooting with me.

[sphealy06]

I know this is kind of an old thread but would this sensor work in place of the optical sensor if mounted above the beam to stop the trickler? If a small bracket was made the threads on the sensor could be used to adjust the cut off level. I have no experiance with them and I don't know if the are two sensitive or not sensitive enough for this purpose or if the sensor itself would disturbe the scale.

Thanks

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[jmorris]

It might or might not, no way it would be better than the ones we are using, where we are breaking a beam of light.

[sphealy06]

It might or might not, no way it would be better than the ones we are using, where we are breaking a beam of light.

I agree it's highly unlikely to be better but I was wondering if it could be a super cheap equal. For the 2 dollar price tag I may just give it a try and if it doesn't work well just swap it to your setup.


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[6bg6ga]

That is a commercial sensor that is meant to for example detect a box going down a conveyer belt typically to count the box. Usually they require more time to trigger and they AREN'T as accurate as the sensor jmorris used. My suggestion is to use the sensor that is VERY accurate and has a proven track record. The slight difference in price hopefully won't be a reason for your decision.

[1066]

You've very little to loose and it would be an interesting experiment - These sensors will reliably indicate down to a few microns, they are used regularly for automatic bed leveling on 3D printers measuring just a few thou.

The problem with a scale beam is, if you try and indicate from the side of the beam it will be imprecise because of side play on the beam. If you try to indicate of the top of the beam, the range of sensor is quite limited and it's possible it will get in the way. Maybe an extended tab on the damper blade?

[sphealy06]

I agree the cost is small so only a small amount of time will be lost if it fails to perform. The cost of the other sensor is not the problem only my curiosity.

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