Get rid of static on powder measure?

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I store used dryer sheets in my powder measures when not being used, I have a lot of static in my reloading room in the winter when the air dries out.
This has helped me a lot.
Get a can of Static Guard and drift some down in the hopper and let it set for about 10 minutes before you use the measure. It help a lot when it is really dry, but a word of caution, don't swipe your wife's can, get your own.
I have found out in the last, almost 50 years of reloading, that you will never get rid of all the powder clinging to the hopper problem in it's entirety , light flakey powders will cling a lot worse than the denser powder will, mostly due to the fact it is a light flake, ball powders don't cause me as much trouble as the flake powders do.
It's just a fact of life. I use an artist paint brush to reach down in there and knock the stubborn ones loose with.
 
I use the Spray & Sheets as well.

Both may not be necessary, but I figured I'd just roll with it since it made a big improvement.

Static in my area of Texas isn't as big of an issue as compared to other locations.

We usually complain about the humidity most of the time.
 
Dryer sheets and grounding! I'm already enjoying the information from this forum. I've just blown the powder out only to wipe it off my face later! I just figured, oil on my face working on my truck, powder on my face when reloading. I'm really curious about the grounding. My ham radio ground strap runs behind the reloading bench and directly to a ground rod just outside my man cave. I'm gonna give it a try!
 
BigIron76 said:
... My ham radio ground strap runs behind the reloading bench and directly to a ground rod just outside my man cave. I'm gonna give it a try!
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good idea especially if your reloading space is carpeted as, apparently, some of them here are.

I do that for all of my computer tables in my house and touch a metal spot on the table prior to engaging in computer activity. When the RH in the house approaches the "spark zone" (low 40 percentiles) it helps keep the systems happy. :)
 
BigIron76 said:
Dryer sheets and grounding! I'm already enjoying the information from this forum. I've just blown the powder out only to wipe it off my face later! I just figured, oil on my face working on my truck, powder on my face when reloading. I'm really curious about the grounding. My ham radio ground strap runs behind the reloading bench and directly to a ground rod just outside my man cave. I'm gonna give it a try!
Click to expand...
Nice to see another fellow Ham Radio
operator.
 
Make sure there’s no oily residue where the powder will be touching first. That includes the hopper, charge bars and drop tubes. Various manufacturing processes can leave sticky residue that you don’t want there. Spray it down with one shot cleaner or similar product and it’ll really help. I’ve used dryer sheets but some powders still stick, like Titegroup which etches plastic, apparently due to the high nitro content. I’ll have to dig out my old ESD straps and see how they work. Good luck.
 
lightman said:
If the hopper will come off....
Click to expand...
• The Dillon powder hoppers can be easily removed with the 2 Phillips-head screws you see visible on the sides.
• The only issue you may encounter is during reassembly. Those 2 screws thread into thin plastic and can't really take any torque. Simply run them down until the heads bottom-out and then stop !
 
Vern56 said:
Set up my dillon 550. Notice the powder measure has powder sticking to the sides.

Any quick way to get rid of it?
Click to expand...

Over time, you will build up a layer of graphite from the coating on the powders. This will greatly reduce static. Don't clean the inside of your measure as it will remove this graphite layer.

Just pour out the powder, empty the drop area by cycling the measure and "sweep" any remaining kernels from the hopper. For the latter, I have a long handle artist brush, some folks us a bit of compressed air.

Austin Albright said:
Nice to see another fellow Ham Radio
operator.
Click to expand...

Another shooting ham operator here.
 
I'm a ham radio operator, too.
I understand the concept of grounding the press, of course.
I'm not sure that is a good idea.
If your antenna(s) take a lightening strike/nearby strike or your house electric has a surge, some of that current will go to your press, with its gunpowder and primers...not a great thing to have happen.
I'm sure there will be 100 replies from people who insist that "electricity takes the path of least resistance" and that all of the current goes to ground, etc. Yeah, right, actually, wrong. It is easier for electricity to travel through the path of least resistance but not impossible for some of the current to travel through the higher resistance pathways. Any connected system is at risk if there is a surge on the connected lines. Probably a bigger risk if the ham radio antennas are conducting electricity from lightening, but nonetheless even a house-ground connection to the press without any ham radio stuff being involved makes me very nervous. I'm sure that connecting equipment with gunpowder and primers to the house ground is a violation of the spirit if not the wording of the NEC.
 
valleyforge.1777 said:
I'm a ham radio operator, too.
I understand the concept of grounding the press, of course.
I'm not sure that is a good idea.
If your antenna(s) take a lightening strike/nearby strike or your house electric has a surge, some of that current will go to your press, with its gunpowder and primers...not a great thing to have happen.
I'm sure there will be 100 replies from people who insist that "electricity takes the path of least resistance" and that all of the current goes to ground, etc. Yeah, right, actually, wrong. It is easier for electricity to travel through the path of least resistance but not impossible for some of the current to travel through the higher resistance pathways. Any connected system is at risk if there is a surge on the connected lines. Probably a bigger risk if the ham radio antennas are conducting electricity from lightening, but nonetheless even a house-ground connection to the press without any ham radio stuff being involved makes me very nervous. I'm sure that connecting equipment with gunpowder and primers to the house ground is a violation of the spirit if not the wording of the NEC.
Click to expand...


Interesting, but I spent many years in an industry with millions of dollars of electronic equipment that was "grounded"! Never heard of an instance of grounding of "lightening rod" not protecting equipment. The only instances were where grounds were missing!

Circuits coming into any facility have "protectors" to prevent spurious voltage damage. At the same time facilities have lightning protection! If this doesn't work why do we still do it?

Smiles,
 
+1 to

dryer sheets

cleaning the clear plastic in dawn dish washing detergent and not rinsing it well.

grounding the press

I'm a ham radio operator also, but with all due respect, some of the goofy superstitious stuff I've heard hams say about lightning protection is funny.

Look at the equipment at any cell tower, broadcast station tower, sheriffs dept repeater, telcom central office, things are well grounded.

ammo factories have grounded floors, require special shoes, controlled humidity etc.


.
 
I have to agree with valleyforge.1777.

We ran ground plane antennae's at home on the farm so we could talk to the other farms in the area.
They had grounding rods and when they got hit they would still blow either the radio or the power supply to the radio.
I'm an industrial electrician and controls guy for close to 40 years now and have seen lightning destroy a lot of equipment in the facilities I've worked for.

I almost lost my life from a lightning strike that hit the concrete blocks of the foundation of a building and blew through it and got to an i-beam.
I was sitting on another i-beam in the building when it hit and it threw me 12 feet and that was the last thing I remembered until I was being resuscitated.
That was at a Boron gas station I was working at when I was a kid. That place was well grounded. It also blew out all the fluorescent tubes in the building.

Another time I went to work one morning at the corrugated box company I worked for and went to start one of our screw air compressors and when it didn't start I opened the fuse box to see if a fuse was blown and there was nothing left inside the box except the steel parts. It looked like a bomb went off in there. It was grounded and mounted on a 14" I-beam.
We had a thunder storm the night before.
Had to replace the service wiring back about 35' as well as it was also cooked.

LIghtning does what lightning wants to do and reasons we still ground everything is because it is still the best way of mitigating damage from lightning and surges, but is it not absolute protection. Why do they still tell us on the news to unplug tv's and other expensive equipment in lightning storms?
Even surge protectors will not stop a heavy surge from blasting a computer, because no matter how quick a surge suppressor can blow to interrupt a circuit, some of the surge is still going to get through if the surge is high enough.


I don't leave powder in my measures when I'm done but I do leave primers in the tubes and I won't be grounding my press just because of what I have seen lightning do over my last 62 years.
 
I have used the wash with dish soap and allow to air day. I have dryer sheets for use in the dryer. Might as well try that. Lubricating moving parts should be done with graphite or mica. Not liquid at all. One shot and allow to dry; never tried it, but will if none of the other plans do not fit.
 
splattergun said:
dryer sheet.
Also, once the powder measure has a good coat of graphite it will be less prone to static.
Click to expand...

Was going to say the same thing. I have a few Dillon powder measures all of them had some static even after being washed with dish soap, left to dry and wiped with dryer sheet (which helps a ton). But after a couple powder changes feel like the static is completely gone.
 
I ran a few pounds of powder through my hopper and I fastened a dryer sheet around the outside of the hopper with rubber bands and now my measure is totally static free.
 
Not an electrician, but years ago I worked for a high school district as a Network/PC guy. We set up a new school, new servers, switches, PCs etc.
One week before the school was set to open the transformer in the parking lot took a hit from lightning. Killed all kinds of connected equipment, (some insides blown to Sh!p) the small UPSes that protect from
minor surges were not up to the task and got fried as well. Everything was grounded, but a lightning strike is a lot of juice, high voltage, high amperage where it doesn't belong=bad news
Major pain to say the least.

If you hook the press up to the ground I would suggest not reloading during thunderstorms!

Used dryer sheets work well for me. I save the ones that come out of the dryer to wipe stuff down with.
If you dry tumble cut up pieces of them work well to help clean your media, toss in when cleaning cases.
 
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