Playing with a photo switch and powder measure

This one has been waiting on me awhile so after lunch I made a very simple trickler made from UHMW, .25" stainless tubing and a bit of aluminum.

I threaded the bottom of the "trickler housing" and it will be mounted to a base plate.
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The base plate will also be large enough to mount the motor, have room for the scale.

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Also an RCBS measure to throw the main charge and mounts for at least one, likely two photo electric switches like the one in the OP to control the trickler.
 
Very cool. Looks faster than traditional digital powder dispensers. No resampling of data. Seems like it may be tough to adjust the trickle speed.
 
I wonder if anyone has ever tried using a vibratory pan feeder to trickle powder.

Having had quite a bit of experience in the snack food industry packaging corn chips, potato chips, etc. I would point out that virtually all of the flex bag packaging machines use a vibratory feed to convey the chips to the weigh scale on the machine. The feed pan is usually sloped at about a 15 degree angle and either the vibration frequency or the strength of the vibratory impulse is variable to obtain the desired feed volume. The pan dumps into a scale which when a set weight is made, stops the vibrator and then the scale dumps into the bag making part of the packaging machine.

Granted corn chips, etc. are somewhat larger than grains of powder, but I would think the feed principle used on snack food packaging machines would work for powder as well.

Just an idea for the experimenters who have a lot of time on their hands.:D
 
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