Dillon Low Powder Sensor

thingiverse

During the last batch of reloads I made, I foolishly ran out of powder before I ran out of cartridges. The last 8 bullets had little or no powder in them. Luckily I weigh every 5th shell to make sure they are the same and I caught it. I had to pull the bullets and re-reload them. To make sure that never happened again, I designed this powder sensor. The micro switch I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JL3Y36P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 Has a pretty strong lever spring so I added a big washer to the top of the bottom piece, which weighs it down without adding extra height to it. With a powder baffle in place the added weight will not be an issue on the amount of powder dropped into each shell. The brass rod: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H1FC42W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Needs to be threaded to ¼" x 20 TPI as that is the size of the hole in both the bottom and top pieces. To keep the alarm quiet during servicing the power drop, I added the safety, which stops the top from activating the micro switch when in place. You may want to print a couple of them as I did break one when installing it, but I have since "beefed" it up from the original design. You may need to smooth out the edges of the safety switch to facilitate a smooth fit. Nuts and bolts are all 5 mm. I didn't incorporate the switch mount into the cap for two reasons. It's easier to mount the switch and I wanted to print it all without supports. You don't need to print the dummy switch, it was made to determine where the holes need to be placed but you may wish to save it if you incorporate the same switch into other designs.