Adjusting a micrometer type powder measure

[spottedpony]

Heres a trick i learned probably 30 years ago, thanks to an article in a handloader digest & still as usable today as it was then. Anyone who's fought with making drastic changes in the adjustment of a micrometer type drop will appreciate this.

All thats required is some graph paper, a sharp pencil & straightedge and some time at your loading bench.

My old RCBS measure has graduations from 0 to 10 (i think it is) with four turns of the micrometer adjustment to change between graduation numbers, so not all graphs will start at 0 micrometer adjustment if throwing large loads.

On the bottom of the graph paper number your powder measure graduations. in my case starting at 0, (& skipping graph paper lines as it corrisponds to the individual measure.) so line one is 0, lines 2, 3, and 4 go unmarked representing a quarter turn of the micrometer stem, and line 5 gets marked as one, repeating this across the bottom of the graph paper for each incriment of micrometer adjustment.

Up the left side of the paper, mark the powder in grains corrisponding with a loading range of the powder load one uses. so if one loads in the 40 grain range, start at say 30 grains, up ten lines to 40 grains etc. (or with a finer graph paper it could be done in 1/0th grain incriments)

set a minimum charge on the measure and weigh it several times for accuracy and make a pencil dot at the corisponding point on the graph. IE: if 2 turns open equals 30 grains of powder make a mark at that point on the graph, following 30 grains over to the 2 index mark at the bottom

Next pick a load exceeding your maximum by several grains, and make a corrisponding mark on the graph paper, say 60 grains, and that equals 4 turns open on the micrometer adjustment follow the 60 grain line over to the line corrisponding with the 4 index mark on the powder measure and make a pencil mark at that point.

All that remains is connect the dots with a pencil line and you can reference any powder load you wish, to get the measure close with an initial setting. Find the charge you wish to use, read over to your pencil line & down to the measurement setting listed at the bottom & voila, your close. usually two or 3 little tweaks will get you right on the money for the charge you want to throw.

alot of you old timers may well know this trick, but for those who dont, it makes adjusting a mic type powder measure a snap.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Thanks for the tip, just cut and pasted it to my saved articles on reloading.

Dave

[NVcurmudgeon]

I've been doing a somewhat less sophisticated version of the same idea for about 30 years with my RCBS Uniflow. In my "everything about what I load" binder I keep a list of the powders I use. Under each powder I list 5 or 6 loads with settings for each. For example 18.0 gr. 2400 is marked "2+3." That means exactly on the number 2 plus 3 turns. And 49.0 gr. IMR4350 (also H4831 and RL 15) is marked "8+1 1/4." That means exactly on the number 8 plus 1 1/4 turns. This is close enough to be in the ballpark so I can do final tweaking when I check the measure against the scale. For loads that are not in my binder, it is easy to interpolate between two that are.

[John Boy]

Gents, I've been reloading a long time but never with a micro dial charger until I started shooting BPCR. I use the Lee Perfect Powder Measure quite frequently.

Must have read Mr Lee's instruction how to set the micro dial ... at least a half dozen times and still couldn't get the hang of it.

Plus, I'm the worst record keeper, scraps of paper in the drawer for settings

Dang, I GOT the hang of it now... both spottedpony's and NVcurmudgeon's methods. I'z a Born Again Reloader!:drinks:

[utk]

Use this Excel worksheet to create a charge table for your micrometer powder measure.
"Calibrate the measure" by first setting the micrometer to a high setting and enter the weight/setting into this Excel worksheet. After doing the same thing at a low setting of the micrometer, Excel will create a table of micrometer setting versus powder weight at the desired intervals. And a table of powder weight versus micrometer setting.
This Excel worksheet is part of Joe Brennan's CB Book.
Enter your data on the first sheet CALCULATOR. The tables in sheet 2-3 will then be calculated automatically and can be printed.

Urban

http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/AG-0RaO6TMgHpxOTtckXBUPbfwrfYego1fUXwosL63l5zFcuOBu66 k4m9sRPUV4Gbd34l6b8N7KCDQNrw2zFGhAhFMU/SETTING%20A%20MICROMETER%20POWDER%20MEASURE-URBAN%20KVENSLER.xls

Edit: If you can´t open it, I can e-mail a copy to you, or you can become a member of Joe's group at: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/CB-BOOK/

[454PB]

I hope all of us store our powder measures "empty", I do. When I'm done using it, I measure the protrusion of the metering rod with a vernier caliper. I then write that measurement and the weight of powder on a business card and store it in the empty hopper. I then know what it was set for when used again. After the business card is full, I save the measurements in a small notebook and start another one. It really is a time saver, and I've found I can reset the metering rod within .5 grains using the vernier calipers.

[spottedpony]

I measure the protrusion of the metering rod with a vernier caliper. I then write that measurement and the weight of powder ...............

i use this method also with known loads and find it to be a real time saver in setting up a measure.

the big advantage i've found to graphing my measure is it makes it fast to find the measure setting for unrecorded powder charges, such as a caliber or bullet weight change, or initially finding the calbration for an untried powder.
the simplicity of this is with only 2 powder measure changes, a low and a high setting, the graph can be drawn to get reasonably close to the desired charge weight quickly, fine tuned for the exact setting. Then record a caliper reading on the stem.

ive found what works best for me, on the back of my graph i write the grains of powder, then caliper reading, and each entry i use different color pens. (black red and green) to help eliminate the possiblity of mis reading between 2 lines.
the old eyes dont see as well as they used to ya know?

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

I just use the same version of recording that NVcurmudgeon does, get the weight of the particular powder right and then record (in the reloading record) the corresponding number off the scale on the micrometer. Not that hard to return to that number in the future when going back to a particular loading.

The reading needs to be checked with a scale reading anyways, so having the numbers written down with the corresponding load in the record just seems easier to me.

[redneckdan]

I use the lee system. Get out the brochure with the volumetric weights of different powders, do the linear proportion equation and set the perfect powder measure, usually dead nutz, but occasionally up to a qaurter grain light.