Stickey Powder Measures

[Rockindaddy]

We all use powder measures. Most of the older Lyman and RCBS measures utilize a rotary drum to measure charge powder. Often the charge gets dumped directly into a primed cartridge case. Sometimes the measured charge goes into a scale pan to trickle a few more gains to produce a precise rifle charge down to a tenth of a grain. For those who own a precision electronic scale, the manual trickling of a 1/4 grain of powder is of no concern. My old rotary measures get difficult to rotate. Oil messes them up making things worse. Discovered spray graphite! I use ZEP Spray Graphite on my boolit moulds to keep the sprue plates gliding over the mould tops. Oil just does not work! My Magma Master Caster loves the ZEP Spray Graphite. The semi-auto Magma really turns out the boolits!! The spray graphite works great on the rotary powder measures. My RCBS and Lyman measures all have a black stain on them. But the graphite is carried by a thin liquid carrier as it is sprayed. The carrier evaporates and leaves the very fine graphite. No more difficult to turn rotary measures. I even have used the spray graphite on my Dillon presses as they have slide bar measurers. Just one little trick I have stumbled on! Maybe this little remedy will help a fellow boolit caster!!!

[HWooldridge]

Spray Teflon works, too. It tends to stay in place once the carrier aerosol evaporates.

[imashooter2]

I’ve never experienced the problem having used RCBS, Lyman and Dillon mechanical measures. The graphite from the powder has always been adequate lubrication.

[Winger Ed.]

I try to minimize using graphite.
Sure it works, but for me it gets on everything like a two year old running around with sticky/gooey hands.

My rotary drums get sticky too mostly with stick powder. I've had good luck with car wax on the drum for them.
The flake & ball powders seem to do OK by just keeping the drum frame and rotor clean & dry with a T shirt rag.

[indian joe]

I try to minimize using graphite.
Sure it works, but for me it gets on everything like a two year old running around with sticky/gooey hands.

My rotary drums get sticky too mostly with stick powder. I've had good luck with car wax on the drum for them.
The flake & ball powders seem to do OK by just keeping the drum frame and rotor clean & dry with a T shirt rag.

powdered graphite - just need a touch of the stuff and wipe off the excess

[G W Wade]

Instead of adding, have you tried cleaning? Years ago a rep at Dillon told me some powders have additives that coat and may cause sticking. Clean with alcohol and not the cheap (70%) stuff. GW

[Shawlerbrook]

I have and like my Redding’s. Like Winger Ed they might bind a little with certain stick powder but nothing that needs attention.

[GregLaROCHE]

I use regular graphite powder when needed. Works great for me.

[uscra112]

I've been using the same RCBS measure for twenty years without doing anything to it, so I'm curious to know what factors might induce one to get "sticky".

[Winger Ed.]

I've been using the same RCBS measure for twenty years without doing anything to it, so I'm curious to know what factors might induce one to get "sticky".

I've had both my old and the new Hornady ones dry out and 'gall' the way an engine or bearing does when it gets dry.
Without some sort of 'slick-um' the 2 parts don't want to slide freely on each other.
I think the graphite coating on power specks does a good job, but sometimes they want to hang up and bind anyway.

For me, It might have something to do with the high humidity here.

[stubshaft]

Clean the drum and coat it with graphite is what I do.

[Walks]

I've experienced this only once in over 60yrs of reloading. And it was My fault for having sticky on My hands while setting up My old Pro-Jector.

[Green Frog]

I clean well then "powder" the rotor with powdered graphite from a little tube I got from an auto parts place. They sell it for lubricating locks. A lot goes a looooonnng way!

Froggie

[gwpercle]

Spray Teflon works, too. It tends to stay in place once the carrier aerosol evaporates.

Any of the Dry Lube Sprays that have a Micro-Teflon base such as Liquid Wrench Dry Lube (L512) work well ... the Liquid Wrench Dry Lube comes in a spray and a liquid .
Disassemble the parts , apply dry lube and let dry , re-assemble .
The Teflon flim lubricates the parts but doesn't contaminate the powder .
Gary

[Minerat]

I've been using the same RCBS measure for twenty years without doing anything to it, so I'm curious to know what factors might induce one to get "sticky".

Same here, I have 2 of the 1980's era duel RCBS measures and never had sticking problems just hard operating when cutting stick powders like 4064. I keep all lubes away from the drums.

[farmbif]

here where the humidity is high anything not stored properly gets "sticky" ive resurrected powder measures, hornady, belding and mull, Lyman 55 by disassembling. scrub all moving parts with 0000 steel wool soaked in kroil. cleaning thoroughly all parts with clean paper towels and alcohol. reassemble and put them back to work. a little powdered graphite like is used in locks cant hurt anything.

[lightman]

I had a measure once that was rough and I used a small engine cylinder hone, or a brake cylinder hone, I don't remember which, on the cast part to smooth it up. I also waxed the drum with a hard automotive paste wax. I never thought about those spray graphite lubes!

[poppy42]

Froglube CLP is my go cleaner and lube For all things firearm and reloading related! I’ve been cleaning my guns with it for about five years now and wouldn’t switch to anything else. It’s cut my cleaning time in half from my firearms pistol or rifle. I tried it as a lubricant on a couple of presses and it works so good I lube everything with it! it doesn’t take much! Wipe a little lawn heat the item up with a hairdryer or a heat gun and wipe all the excess off. And bonds with the metal or something I don’t know read their website. All I know is it works. As a matter of fact I’ve used it on quite a few non-firearms related items. My shower curtain was hanging up on my shower curtain rod, I guess from mineral deposits from the water. Put a little Froglube on, doesn’t hang up anymore! Oh yeah and you can eat it too! Lol at least that’s what it says on the website.