Abstract: A powder feeding apparatus in which a feed shoe, open at the top and bottom, is movable along a feed plate from a remote powder filling location to a position directly overlying a cavity into which the powder is to be fed. The apparatus includes a wire grid suspended in a horizontal plane near the bottom of the feed shoe and coupled to means for reciprocating it relative to the feed shoe to dispense fluent powdered material into the cavity. A photocell scanning system is provided for controlling the desired powder level and for detecting powder supply exhaustion.