Tim Wescott wrote in
:

Doug White wrote:
I have a new progressive reloading press (a Dillon XL650), which has
an automatic alarm device to tell you when the powder hopper is
getting low. It's basically a weighted piston that rides on top of
the powder, and when it gets down far enough, a knob on top hits a
switch & the alarm goes off. I'd like to store the thing in the
hopper, but there's no off switch.

I can easily make a small block (~ 3/4" cube) with a notch cut in it
that will hold the knob up high enough to miss the switch. However,
I'd like to make it highly visible as a reminder to remove it before
use. I could dangle a red tag off of it, but making it out of
something like bright red or yellow plastic would work OK. The catch
is that I don't have any eye catching colorful plastic in suitable
blocks.

I checked McMaster Carr, and they have red Turcite in 1" rods ($$$,
and I'm not sure how red it is), red acrylic in sheets only, and the
yellow they have is Kevlar, which isn't a good screaming yellow, and
could be nasty to machine.

There are lots of options, from cutting up a small red aerosol can
cap, to paint or tape on any miscellaneous plastic. Paint or tape
will probably chip or peel over time. I have red & yellow caplugs
that I could make a solid core for, or I could find a piece of bright
plastic to use as a "flag" on a more boring colored plug. Nothing
I've come up with so far has set off my "tidy & effective solution"
detector.

This is hardly a major project of any great import, but if anyone has
any ideas they'd like to suggest, I'd be happy to add them to the
options collection.

How about a more physical lockout? Is this gizmo lever actuated?
Could your block have a string on it, and could that string hold the
lever such that you can't run the machine with the string in place?

Here's a pictu

http://www.dillonprecision.com/conte...520/?viewImg=1

The switch is a small black push button on top that the aluminum knob
hits on its way down. A physical lockout is tricky, because before I
fire up the press at all, I have to remove the whole alarm assembly to
fill the powder hopper. I just want a block to disable the alarm for
storage, but visible enough to remind me to remove it. It will also help
me find it when I'm done so I can put it back.

If I want to get fancy, I could make it so it only stays put when the
hopper is empty. As soon as the knob is lifted by a hopper full of
powder, it could fall off (on a short cord).

It's getting better all the time...

Thanks again!

Doug White