Baffles...

[BCB]

How do they actually perform their intended use in powder measures...

AND are they worthwhile in an RCBS Uniflow?...

Thanks...BCB

[VHoward]

A baffle in a powder measure keeps a consistent pressure of powder over the measuring chamber by supporting the weight of the powder on top of it. As you use the powder up, the powder flows around the baffle and into the measuring chamber. If the baffle was not there, the amount you measure out each time would decrease as the amount of powder in the measure hopper decreased. I think baffles are very worth while in any measure.

[country gent]

A baffle is a big plus for several reasons in a powder measure and is normally a improvement in consistency. It helps to keep the wieght of the powder in the hopper from affecting the fill of the cavity and the compression of the powder in the measuring cavity. A full hopper with no baffle exerts more pressure and compression on the measuring cavity than an almost empty one. ANother benifit is I believe it helps to orient stick powders grains into the cavity as they flow around the baffle and down thru the actual measuring volumne. If you look in the sides when running the measure you can see this effect in the open area under the baffle. It seems to have a similar effect similar to using a drop to to pour powder into a case. Baffles are simple and cheap to make, They can be made from Plastic soda bottles, aluminum flashing, Brass shimn stock or to just try card board. Fold material in half and gut a oval 1/2-3/4" longer one way that fits in the hopper. cit a cflat across long end 1/4"-3/8" from radioused edge. With plastic soda bottle there is enough spring to it to hold in place. Ideally you want powder to flow over baffle around sides thru the small cut outs and back around into cavity with a small consistant amount to draw from.

[tryNto]

Uncle Nick's Baffle templates 141917

And one for RCBS & Redding by GWS 141916

[smoked turkey]

Thanks for the Baffle template instructions. This is something I want to try.

[BCB]

Thanks for the Baffle template instructions. This is something I want to try.

I agree with that...

I printed the templates and I wonder if a guy could make it out of aluminum flashing or maybe even an aluminum can?...

Any thoughts on what might be a good material to attempt to make the baffle?...

Thanks...BCB

[VHoward]

The instructions with Uncle Nick's baffles says you can use roof flashing in either aluminum or copper. You can also use milk jug plastic, but you need to treat it for static electricity (anti-static rub down). Don't use paper or cardboard as those will absorb water and possible ruin/contaminate your powder.

[jmort]

If there were ever a man to listen to, it is Uncle Nick

[country gent]

The only draw back to Aluinum or copper roof flashing is that it dosnt have the "spring" to help hold it in place like the Plastic pop bottle does.

[M-Tecs]

Uncle Nick's Baffle templates 141917

And one for RCBS & Redding by GWS 141916

Thanks for posting!!!!!!!!!

[VHoward]

The aluminum roof flashing I bought to use to make gas checks from has too much springyness to use for gas checks. It would work fine for baffles.

[hornetman]

I make them from beer cans. Easy to cut and works great.

[BCB]

I used the template that one poster listed…

I made and attached it to a beer can that I had laid out flat…

Shaped it with a dremel tool and then bent it to fit inside the powder thrower…

Good fit, but to get it to function, you have to put a lot of powder in the powder measurer. If you are loading light loads of a given powder, you have bunches of powder to get out of the measurer. So you have to unscrew the measure from the holder and dump into the canister…

It is a bit clumsy to unscrew as the handle is always in the way as you turn the measurer…

Lee has the nice setup where you can remove the measurer and dump to the canister…

Baffle might be O.K. for large charges where lots of powder is needed…

Thanks…BCB

[Hardcast416taylor]

I got a baffle in a deal I did one time. I liked how it worked in my RCBS measure so I decided to make a few more for my other measures. I folded flat the original baffle and traced the outline. I took some pop cans and cut them open, washed then and applied the tracing to the can. I cut them out, bent the angle and now have Pepsi cola baffles in my measures.Robert

[country gent]

I made mine from plastic soda bottles and they work very well. I didnt make any templates just layed them out with a set of dividers and cut along the scribed lines. I thought about a punch to cut them out and then just fold in half but decided I didnt need that many. I have made them in the vee style and the double plates at an ange both work well. I have 2 measures with the angled baffles one opposite the other , first ( top) baffle limits powder flow to 3/8" flow dia of hopper second has a 1/4" radious cut into edge to restrict flow again. Works good and makes a very consistent flow of powder into the measuring chamber. I believe the baffles do help and are usefull especially with stick and some other powders. When unsecrewing a powder measure to empty use a rubber band to hold handle up out of the way. Another trick is make a removeable hopper for the measures. I have several set up with clamp mounts and removeable hoppers. ( use the actual powder bottles) Su clamd mount remove tip upside down and shake. unscrew bottle and put lid on. Another trick with powder measires is to throw 10-15 carges to settle the flow in the hopper before loading.

[4306]

Has anyone actually tested baffled/nonbaffled thrown charges??

[country gent]

I ran a hopper of Imr 4895 ( Charge of 41.5 grns) thru an rcbs measure with and with out the baffle. With out the baffle after about half a hopper charges would start to get light. With the baffle set at bottom of hoppers edge the charges styed consistent right up to the cut outs in the baffle started showing. Actual charges seemed to be more consistant ( slightly) also, not by alot but the consistency of the charges not varying with hopper level was a big improvement meaning I didnt hve to refill nearly as often to maintain consistency. I used to have a piece of tape on the uniflows hopper marking level where this drop would start to show up. Baffles can be a big help with certain powders and measures. I also suspect with stick powders the added flowaround the baffle may help alighn the granuales of powder. With the colored hopper its hard to see at times. A conrtroled fill hopper for the measure helps maintain consistancy. The old belding and mull measures used this system. The big thing witha powder measure is consistency of operation

[rockshooter]

I just put a funnel on the top of the measure with a narrow bottom- the weight of the powder stays constant because it is held by the funnel
Loren

[GrayTech]

Try a few strips of that roof flashing in the oven at max temp. It may anneal Just enough to work for gas checks. Anneal temp for Al is close to 800 F, so check what your oven is capable of. It worked for me, gas checks crimp on perfectly.

[44magLeo]

These baffles are a bit more fancy than what I use. I just find a plastic cap that just fits inside the hopper, drill a 1/4 inch hole in the middle, or if I feel fancy one at each edge.
Then just drop it down in the hopper.
leo

[bedbugbilly]

Great thread! I learned something new today . . . I am no longer "baffled" by "baffles"!!! Great information!

[country gent]

Most redding measures come with a baffle, RCBS, and lymans and others with a rotary drum may also benifit from a baffle of some sorts. I have seen and made several styles. A simple Vee type with 2 small cut outs to allow powder to flow. ANother are a series of flat discs tha sit at an angle with a cutout on the lower edges, ussually 2 of these 90* to each other. Have seen funnels used also as a means of limiting powder force. a funnel of appropriate size with a light tube down to withing 1/2"-1" of bottom of hopper will also work nicely. One plus to the funnel is with the right one capacity can be maintained or even increased. A little looking will find a funnel that a coffee can lid or similar will fit on also. All work all are easy enough to make up and all have their pluses and minuses. One minus to baffles is gtting powder out at times.as they tend to only flow smoothly in one direction.

[Motor]

I got my Uniflow in 1985 with my "kit". I used it up until about 2 years ago without a baffle and never had an issue. BUT: For a couple bucks or free if you make your own I figured "why not". Honestly I can't tell you if it made a difference or not but "it looks good in there" LOL

I use the small drum in my Uniflow for everything that it will handle volume wise. It is definatly more accurate than the large drum for disspencing pistol charges of flake type powder.

Motor

[Whiterabbit]

I actually qualitatively track this. I do not use a baffle. With respect to charges getting lighter as the powder column decreases, yep, it happens. But here's the thing. Not till there is about 3-8 (roughly) charges left. I mean, WAY low on powder. Much beyond that, it doesn't matter if I have a couple shotglasses of powder in there or the hopper 100% full. It's just the same, throw after throw.

If I am loading something where I measure every charge, I can tell you when I'm about 5 throws to empty. But most of the time, I just keep more than a shotglass of powder in there and everything works just great.

[Motor]

I actually qualitatively track this. I do not use a baffle. With respect to charges getting lighter as the powder column decreases, yep, it happens. But here's the thing. Not till there is about 3-8 (roughly) charges left. I mean, WAY low on powder. Much beyond that, it doesn't matter if I have a couple shotglasses of powder in there or the hopper 100% full. It's just the same, throw after throw.

If I am loading something where I measure every charge, I can tell you when I'm about 5 throws to empty. But most of the time, I just keep more than a shotglass of powder in there and everything works just great.

Well I didn't want to go there but my experience with my Uniflow has been like this also. As I stated I've been using mine for 30 years now. As most people know the Uniflow will throw ball powder very accurately. At times I have thrown charges right down to empty with mine using ball powder. This was done out of nessesscity (using all available) of course when I do this I weigh every charge but every time it's been good right down to the last full charge.

If any powder is going to have compression effect I would think it would be fine ball powder. I actually got the baffle hoping it would help when throwing light charges of Unique and Bullseye etc. So far I can't really tell if it has.

Motor

[Whiterabbit]

Motor, your experience matches mine. the charges get lighter with stick powder more so.

[Motor]

Motor, your experience matches mine. the charges get lighter with stick powder more so.

The Uniflow is not very good with stick powders to start with. With powers like 4350, 4064 etc plus or minus 1gr can be expected. For this reason I got away from stick powders until about 5 years ago when the Mrs. got me a Change Master 1500 for Christmas. Before then I'd throw low and hand trickle up.

Now all stick type goes in the CM-1500. Everything else goes through the Uniflow.

Motor

[Whiterabbit]

The Uniflow is not very good with stick powders to start with. With powers like 4350, 4064 etc plus or minus 1gr can be expected.

OK, this does NOT match my experience. I get +/- .2 grains easily. This has yielded perfectly accurate rounds for my purposes, though I do not target shoot at ranges with a comma in the distance.

[Motor]

OK, this does NOT match my experience. I get +/- .2 grains easily. This has yielded perfectly accurate rounds for my purposes, though I do not target shoot at ranges with a comma in the distance.

Don't you get a lot of "crunching" as the drum chops the little sticks? Some smaller stick is not bad like Short Cut but the large extruded always did a lot of chopping for me and chopping always resulted in lower accuracy.

Motor

[mold maker]

The number of crunched granules, varies very little from load to load IME. Stick powder is much worse though. Since I usually shoot at under 200 yds. the difference isn't noticeable.

[Whiterabbit]

yes, I expect any powder drop to be able to cut granules of powder. If it can't cut them smoothly, time to get a new drop. The cuts (for me) do not yield innacuracies that go to 1gr of difference. In fact, I very seldom see any inaccuracies that go beyond .2gr. When I do, tends to be isolated. And NEVER EVER above .4gr.

variance of 1gr is a very foreign concept to me, including very long stick powder like IMR4198.

[Motor]

It very well could be different with the small drum too. 1gr is the extreme and that is with the largest stick and the large drum. I used to throw my practice ammo but would hand trickle my match ammo. My rifle was tolerant of the small change in fact it would stay at 1" group or less +\- 1gr. This was a .308 Win.

I have read several threads where guys wax the drum and the bore of the Uniflow and get smoother more accurate drops with course powder. Since getting the Charge Master I don't bother with stick powders in the Uniflow.

Motor

[kywoodwrkr]

Herters model 40 actually had baffles molded into their powder measure hopper tube.
That was about 1960 I think.