RCBS Powder Master Dispenser problem

[MJE2083]

Hoping someone can offer some insight to a problem I'm having.

I have an older RCBS Powder Master Dispenser. It's the older model made by PACT with the digital "eye" that communicates with the scale. The unit is probably 15 years old, out of warranty.

There is a crack in the plastic housing that was not there before. I recently had some guys doing work at my house and I suspect that one of them knocked my dispenser on the ground and broke it. Before anyone brings it up, it's a complex set of circumstances and it would be virtually impossible for me to try to go after them for the damage. In fact I'm not even sure that it was them.

That being said, the dispenser will not calibrate. Scale works fine and dispenser registers that it's communicating with the dispenser. When I fill the dispenser and try to calibrate it to the powder, the light just blinks but the motors do not turn. I've seen that you can do a factory re-set on the scale(and I've tried that), but no mention of that for the dispenser. Anyone ever have this problem, or know how I could fix it?

I'm planning to call RCBS on Monday to see if they have any solutions, but at this point I suspect that I'll be buying a new unit.

Thanks

 

[mtmuley]

Just me, but I use an old school scale and weigh every charge. Good luck. mtmuley

 

[Dan O]

15 years old, it might be time to upgrade.

 

[MJE2083]

I tinkered with this thing for a couple hours this morning, no luck. Tore it apart hoping to find an easy fix inside, no luck. I convinced myself that something was wrong electronically and threw it in the trash.

Local gun shop had a sale on RCBS Chargemaster Lite so I bought one.

 

[mtmuley]

I just can't bring myself to use one of the electronic dispensers. mtmuley

 

[Laelkhunter]

I just can't bring myself to use one of the electronic dispensers. mtmuley

Same here. Old school best for me. If you have to "confirm" the charge with a beam scale, I will just eliminate the "Hi Tech" gadget, and use the beam scale and powder trickler in the first place. OH, and it is a manual powder trickler, not the high falutin' lectronic one.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

RCBS might surprise you. They've been very good to me in the past with out of warranty products.

 

[OhHeyThereBen]

I've always wondered about those electronic scale/trickler dealeos. Do they really save you that much time? For me the Lee powder dumper thing is accurate enough to dump all of my pistol charges without measuring each one and to dump my rifle charges a half grain low so I can trickle up to what I want.

I suppose if you're loading a bunch of rifle rounds it would be worth it? Or maybe commercially reloading? I'd be interested to hear you guys' opinions.

 

[MJE2083]

I ended up just cutting my losses and buying a new RCBS Chargemaster Lite. So far I really like it. According the PACT's website(the original manuf.) they don't have any parts for these units any more so I assumed that RCBS didn't either. Like I said, it was 15+ years old. I tore that old one apart and tinkered with it for hours with no luck so I threw it in the trash.

 

[MJE2083]

I've always wondered about those electronic scale/trickler dealeos. Do they really save you that much time? For me the Lee powder dumper thing is accurate enough to dump all of my pistol charges without measuring each one and to dump my rifle charges a half grain low so I can trickle up to what I want.

I suppose if you're loading a bunch of rifle rounds it would be worth it? Or maybe commercially reloading? I'd be interested to hear you guys' opinions.

I haven't really tried this new unit yet so I can't really say how fast it is, but with my old one I would say that it doesn't really save you time per se. I say that because it probably takes 20-30 seconds to dispense 1 charge. You can probably do it by hand and trickle just as fast, if not faster.

However, it does probably save you time in the fact that you can do something else while it's dispensing & trickling for you. The way I do it i'll dump the powder in the case and seat the bullet while I'm waiting for another powder charge to be dispensed. So it really streamlines my process.

I actually use a old school manual dispenser for my pistol loads because i'm not that concerned with exact weights, especially for plinking ammo. The electronic dispenser is nice because you can change charge weights very quickly and easily by just hitting a few buttons.

 

[MJE2083]

Same here. Old school best for me. If you have to "confirm" the charge with a beam scale, I will just eliminate the "Hi Tech" gadget, and use the beam scale and powder trickler in the first place. OH, and it is a manual powder trickler, not the high falutin' lectronic one.

I don't confirm with a beam scale. In fact I've never even owned a beam scale. Maybe I'm crazy, but I trust the digital scale and I've never had a problem with it. The margin of error with the dispenser is .1 grain and that's close enough for me.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I'd quit reloading if I couldn't use my electronic scale dispenser. I couldn't stand the slowness and inconsistency I got with a beam scale.

 

[Bluejeep]

I love my charge master. I did the beam scale for a few years, then got an electronic scale and that was nice. Now with the charge master and my order of operations, when I am done seating the last round checking it , the next charge is ready and waiting. If mine broke, I'd buy another

 

[MJE2083]

Just to give a follow up to this. I finally got around to loading a set of .223. The Chargemaster Lite is FAST. Much faster than my old model. In fact it's so fast that I don't have time to seat my bullets while it's dispensing. That being said, because it's so fast it doesn't seem to be as accurate as my old dispenser. It's frequently over by .01-.02 Grains. You can however manually trickle so I've heard of some people setting the charge .02 low and then trickling up. I haven't tried that yet, but I assume it would work well. .01 variance is good enough for me, so I'm not too concerned.