Belding & Mull Visible

[Scoutdog99]

I picked up a Belding & Mull Visible powder measure back a while and have finally got around to giving it a thorough cleaning. I have a lot of rust inside the base of the reservoir on the cast piece. My question is can you remove the reservoir simply by removing the 3 pins holding it in place? Are they truly pins and not threaded inserts? My eyes are not what they used to be. Any suggestions on how to remove the pins?

Thanks

[country gent]

On mine the 2 end pins with the small flat bars and spring come off. then the shoulder bolt for the handle and handle. then the 2 small screws and front plate the block slides out the front. watch the glass front and handle accordingly.

When cleaning up the body be careful off removing to much metal this is a set clearance to much and it will leak finer powders. It can be reset but s a tougher job to do and get right. I would disassemble and clean with fine steel wool or a fine scotch bright pad and light oil rubbing lightly.

If it does leak finer powders it can be repaired several ways. the opening can be milled out on the top side ,030 larger and a brass wear plate .060 thick fitted and glued or solder in place then milled out to a better fit. The other is to ream the hoppers hole out for a sleeve with the same original hole and solder glue in place setting on the block. This works very good and only requires a drill press. Last is to used a hard epoxy ( steel or metal fillers may help but may make the joint to thick). Coat block with release agent several heavy coats and let dry. mic epoxy and spread a thin layer on the top of block and body assemble clamping down and back, let cure and remove excess. Lightly sand top to desired fit.

The reason for adding reworking on top of block is there are few cut grains abrasion forces there. The body being cast iron needs special care soldering. Warm it well in an iven before starting to heat for solder better is a oven that will heat to soldering temps.

I rebuilt one for a friend using the brass plate. Machined out the top and left the finish from the side milling, cleaned well with solvent and heated in an oven. The body was heated with the plate clamped in place. Took very little added heat to solder the back into oven turned off to slowly cool. Spotted hopper hole thru hopper base and drilled.Milled in close .005 then set up and ground to .001 clearance fit. Worked well and didn't leak any more.

These are a simple accurate measure and one of the old standards. They deserve to be kept up and rebuilt. If I had to do another I think the sleeve would be done, less machining and work overall. The big thing is set up and there are no square edges to work with so a lot of time indicating in. the sleeve way could use the original bodies clamp and drilled so a 1/4" or more wall. then epocied in place resting on a piece f tracing paper for roughly a .002 clearance.

[floydboy]

yes they are pins. No threads. The ones I've seen are like small brass nails. Just gently pull them out with a pair of side cutters. tap them back in.

[15meter]

My eyes are not what they used to be.

Thanks

Time to get several magnifying glasses. When I drifted past 60, I found that magnifying glasses from 2 power ring lights up to a 10x lighted eye loupe makes life a whole lot easier.

[Green Frog]

My eyes started to go when I passed 55. It’s called Presbyopia, and I got it even though I am a lifelong Baptist!

Fortunately, I’ve never had to disassemble The reservoir portion from one of my B&M Visible Loaders but upon examination it appears that if you can get purchase on the pins, they ought to come out fairly easily. Once you get the iron casting cleaned up though, be sure and remove any traces of the sanding dust from the whole assembly... it will be extremely abrasive on bot the measure and potentially in your gun.

Once they are in good shape, the most minimal care keeps these old B&Ms working like a clock. Just be careful with that little glass window. I bot a few spares cut, so I haven’t broken one since!

Froggie

[abunaitoo]

I have one with a brass reservoir and no pins.
It's stuck good.
Any idea how to get it off????

[15meter]

Does it look like it's glued?

If so try a heat gun/hair dryer to soften the glue, then if you can get a knife started gentle prying may work.

Had one for a short while, sold it because I didn't think it did anything better than my Redding's.

Don't remember how the little window was attached on mine.

[Scoutdog99]

yes they are pins. No threads. The ones I've seen are like small brass nails. Just gently pull them out with a pair of side cutters. tap them back in.

Thanks, will give it a go.

[ndnchf]

I just finished rehabbing this one today. The plastic reservoir is just a friction fit. I used powdered graphite to lube it and installed a lighter handle spring (Hillman #143 from Tru-Value). It works great now.

[Scoutdog99]

Side cutters worked great. Got the pins removed and inside cast piece cleaned up.

[Kevin Rohrer]

Here is a B&M unicorn: A Vega Tools B&M-improved measure, which they sold for only a short period of time. It has a more comfortable handle and mounts on a standard powder measure stand.

[dryflash3]

Was lucky at the last funshow, I picked up 2 visible powder measures, this is the complete one.

Just dusted off the outside and made a stand out of Oak scraps. Which is not stained and finished in this pic.

With about 50 practice throws I'm getting + or - .1 gr at a 25 gr IMR-4895 target.

Another item off my reloading bucket list.