RCBS Chargemaster / Hornady Auto Charge Pro / Frankfort Arsenal intellidroper

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sfl_gunner

sfl_gunner

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Looking to upgrade my scale. I currently have an RCBS balance and a Hornady electronic scale. I don’t have the dough to drop $1k or more on the fanciest setups. My question is does anybody have any experience with the RCBS, Hornady, or Frankfort Arsenal auto charging setups. What are the good, bad and ugly details of each? Would you recommend any of them? I intend on using these to reload for competition rifles.
 
I have the RCBS chargemaster. It does what it’s supposed to do. They are occasionally on sale, or they were in the past at least with a rebate. There are hacks to speed up the dispensing time (I have an older model), and the McDonald’s straw trick, but in general they’ll throw a charge to within a small deviation. It depends on the powders to some degree (stick/ball), and the intended usage, but after a while you’ll determine if you need to adjust these charges or use them as is. Good luck.
 
I have the CM 1500 for 5 yrs now. I routinely check it against my gem pro 250. I've found that if you re-zero/tare every 10 rounds you will get a more consistent drop. Always leave the pan on the scale when using it . Leaving it off for extended time cause zero drift. I do the same thing with the GemPro. As far as accuracy it normally within ± 0.02 0.04 gr of your target load. I've changed system parameters on my alone with using a insert to reduce the drop tube. Not sure if there is a hack list for the newer scales.
 
I have a chargemaster lite, and it does a very good job. Just like @Blue68f100, when checking what it dispenses I've noticed it seems to stay more consistent if you re-zero/tare on an empty pan about every 10 loads. No big deal at all, takes about a second.
 
Another ChargeMaster Lite. Very accurate but slow. How I use it, I'll take accuracy over speed.
 
sfl_gunner said:
Looking to upgrade my scale. I currently have an RCBS balance and a Hornady electronic scale. I don’t have the dough to drop $1k or more on the fanciest setups. My question is does anybody have any experience with the RCBS, Hornady, or Frankfort Arsenal auto charging setups. What are the good, bad and ugly details of each? Would you recommend any of them? I intend on using these to reload for competition rifles.
Click to expand...

What is your budget? If you can spend $500 on it, I highly suggest just buying an FX120i. Add in a Hornady vibratory trickler for $30 and call it good. Drop most of the charge on a rotary drop to get close. Trickle the last grain up in about 5 seconds. This opens the door to add an AutoTrickler down the road if you feel you need it.

Here is my take on the 3 scales you listed.
Yes they work
Accuracy can vary wildly
The RCBS CM1500 is the best of the bunch and if I was going to pick one, this would be it.

All the scales you listed use a strain gauge mechanism, which can be accurate, but its not consistent. Once I had my FX120i I found that my CM1500 was consistently .06-.08gr heavy, so at least it was consistently off the mark about 80% of the time. I also found that if the trickler and hit the mark without a trickle up, it was off more than .1gr either heavy or light. I had suspected this for a long time, and always threw these charges back and re-ran them, my FX120i just confirmed this.

To make the CM1500 work better, I did reprogram it, as well as doing the straw mod. I always left mine on, I always calibrated before use, and I constantly watched for drift. They are usable, but you have to temper your expectations for accuracy.
 
sfl_gunner said:
I don’t want to spend more than $500 at the absolute most.
Click to expand...
I had a hard time justifying the cost as well, however something like an FX120i with its magnetic force restoration load cell is a lifetime piece of equipment.

https://www.dataweigh.com/device/ad/fx-i-series-toploader-balance/fx-120i
Get a quote from DWS. I think they run right around $475.

I know autotrickler.com can get you just the scale as well
https://ceproducts.shop/collections/current-offerings/products/fx-120i-reloading-scale-122g-x-0-001g
Follow the directions on the webpage and they come out at $465
 
sfl_gunner said:
What are the good, bad and ugly details of each? Would you recommend any of them? I intend on using these to reload for competition rifles.
Click to expand...

What game are you playing? For some of them I wouldn’t recommend trickling at all, no matter what device.

I have a couple of Chargemasters and understanding their limitations, I still like and use them. The three you list are what, +/- .1 grain accuracy before they auto zero on you each time?



A cheap photoelectric switch, latching push button, relay and gear motor can have a beam scale, repeat to a few hundredths of a grain.

This is .02 grains variation with a decades old 505.

 
jmorris said:
What game are you playing? For some of them I wouldn’t recommend trickling at all, no matter what device.
Click to expand...

I shoot High Power across the course and mid-range. So .223 out to 600 yards. I’m averaging between 10-15 FPS standard deviation. I’d like to get it below 10 consistently.
 
I bought the Frankford Arsenal Intellidropper. It has been a sweet addition to my bench. Incredibly accurate, fast drops, once the powder calibration function is performed. Mostly, I couldn't dream of justifying the higher prices for the other dispensers with how accurate this is, and how cheap I got it ($172 delivered). I don't care for the emptying port, though I've gotten used to it. I have digital scale that measures to .02gr. Whenever the drop is off I've found it to be no more than 0.05gr...usually less. Depending on what I'm loading I will often use the "bad" charge anyway, as it's always less than .1gr off, usually light.
 
I have the Charge Master lite, and two of the Intellidroppers . I would go with the RCBs. I have two Intellidroppers because the first one I bought is possessed . I sent it in and they sent the same one back ,sure enough it went crazy again . Called them again, told me to keep the faulty one and sent a new one . New one works as it should, only problem I have is it drifts too much for my liking . I have to re-zero it often while the RCBS setting right next to it is fine . What I mean by possessed is the thing turns itself on , and starts to dispense . Luckily it did not have powder in it when this happened. My situation could be a one time thing , no way of knowing.
 
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I really like my FA Intellidropper. I had a Hornady but it wouldn’t drop pistol loads very well and would always overweight the 5-8 grain loads so I sold it.

Buddy of mine has the Chargemaster and it’s nice but I still like my FA better.
 
lordpaxman said:
I have the RCBS chargemaster. It does what it’s supposed to do. They are occasionally on sale, or they were in the past at least with a rebate. There are hacks to speed up the dispensing time (I have an older model), and the McDonald’s straw trick, but in general they’ll throw a charge to within a small deviation. It depends on the powders to some degree (stick/ball), and the intended usage, but after a while you’ll determine if you need to adjust these charges or use them as is. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Same as above.
I have been running the Chargemaster for close to 10 years.
I am very happy with it.
 
If your beam scale is functional you should get repeatability well inside that even without the photoelectric switch but one might want one so it’s throwing a charge while you are assembling the round you just charged, I understand that.

This is the wiring.


The $9 PE switch.
https://www.ebay.com/p/1053390233

$4 relay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-DC-Coi...735373?hash=item289e6e868d:g:W6gAAOSwdm1bHdKK

$3.20 gear motor.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/300-geared...824907?hash=item4b544c2a4b:g:2pMAAOSw1uVb4aa3

$2 latching switch.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2Pcs-R16-5...970100?hash=item549723f974:g:svoAAOSwY0hZrMqd

$5 110vac/12vdc 3A power supply.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-...701839?hash=item23e835e64f:g:St4AAOSw-OFa9oqE

Puts you at under $25 shipped for the above.

Even beams that don’t have the mechanical repeatability of the good RCBS models can stay inside a tenth.

This is another way I have combined all the parts.

56808ABE-5190-45DB-AC7C-9EA65F2ECC86.jpeg
 
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jmorris said:
If your beam scale is functional you should get repeatability well inside that even without the photo electric switch but I’d you want one so it’s doing it while you are assembling the round you just charged, I understand that.

This is the wiring.


The $9 PE switch.
https://www.ebay.com/p/1053390233

$4 relay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-DC-Coi...735373?hash=item289e6e868d:g:W6gAAOSwdm1bHdKK

$3.20 gear motor.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/300-geared...824907?hash=item4b544c2a4b:g:2pMAAOSw1uVb4aa3

$2 latching switch.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2Pcs-R16-5...970100?hash=item549723f974:g:svoAAOSwY0hZrMqd

$5 110vac/12vdc 3A power supply.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-...701839?hash=item23e835e64f:g:St4AAOSw-OFa9oqE

Puts you at under $25 shipped for the above.

Even beams that don’t have the mechanical repeatability of the good RCBS models can stay inside a tenth.

This is another way I have combined all the parts.

View attachment 984307
Click to expand...

Pretty ingenuous set up.
 
I didn’t invent the concept just sourced parts that were the least amount of work to assemble for the highest resolution given.

Even this version using a magnetic proximity switch, isn’t too shabby in that area.



You are not going to get sensitivity in the 1-2 kernel range with the cheap digital ones your looking at.

In the end, you are still counting on the beam moving; however, now you can detect movements of it that you cannot perceive with your eye and controlling the trickler by that means.
 
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lordpaxman said:
I have the RCBS chargemaster. It does what it’s supposed to do.
Click to expand...
Same. Bought it when they first came out and it has thrown countless charges. Used it today for throwing 5.0 grains of Bullseye for .38 Special loads. Really like it for my rifle loads like .308 Win and 30-06 Springfield. No complaints with it. Yes, does what it's supposed to do. Oh yeah, easy to make a battery pack for it to use at the range.

Ron
 
jmorris said:
Worth noting that the chargemaster 1500 has been made in at least 3 different voltages. I have two of them, the 10v and 12v DC versions.

View attachment 984706
Click to expand...
I want to recall when we compared notes on this previously curiosity got me so I opened mine up. I think (operative word being "think") all the electronics ran off an internal regulated 5.0 volts and the motor ran off whatever DC input voltage was there. I can't remember though. Mine does not even have the label like yours. I just have a 9 volt 1,000 mA wall wart it came with but ran just fine using a 12 volt SLA battery. I also measured the current with and without motor running and should have written that down. Pretty sure it was this forum we discussed it in and I posted the numbers I got.

Ron
 
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