Cheap scale part 2

[JimSC]

Part 1 at http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/cheap-scale-test-part-1-repeatability.3961911/



Today I wanted to see how it performed for tricking up loads. I divided this into two parts, first I weighed charges on my Redding M7 which has an extended pointer and webcam mod. I have a lot of faith in this scale. It shows movement down to a kernel of Varget and my velocities have great consistency.



I set the Redding to 5, 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 grains, threw low and trickled to weight. Then converted it to grams and weighed it on the electronic then calculated the difference between the beam and the electronic. It did fairly well on that everything was about within 2 kernels of Varget.



Trickling on the electronic then confirming on the beam the electronic did not do so well. At 5, 10, 20 and 40 grains it was smack dead on and poasse with flying colors. However when I di the 80 grain and put it on the beam scale it was off by 1 tick mark high on the Lyman's indicator. From experience I know it takes about 5 grains of Varget to move the indicator 1 tick mark. I dumped the pan and did it a second and a third time with the same results. To see if this was a trend I threw and trickled 100 grains on the electronic. Again on the beam it was also off by 1 tick mark high. I could have went higher but why bother, I had the answer I was looking for.



Summary



Just speaking for myself this would be a great little scale for setting powder throws and weighing that orphan bullet on the bench but that is about it. The 1 minute auto shutoff is irritating, it is slow to settle and wanders a lot. I could live with that for occasional use but looks like the accuracy starts to deteriorate above 50 grains. This one will be set on a shelf and only used for setting throws to be trickled up on my beam scale. The good news was I ran it for about two hours and the cheap batteries are still hanging in there

 

[Sheldon N]

Were you able to cross reference that the beam was the reference standard and the electronic was the one that was incorrect? Would be easy to do, just find two items that were around 40gr each, weigh them separately then weigh them in unison to see which one held true with higher totals.

 

[JimSC]

Were you able to cross reference that the beam was the reference standard and the electronic was the one that was incorrect? Would be easy to do, just find two items that were around 40gr each, weigh them separately then weigh them in unison to see which one held true with higher totals.

@ 40 grains the electronic and the beam were dead on, it was at 80 gns and above it fell apart. I would have to use 240 gns of check weight though. The powder pan tares at 162 then 80 gns of powder would put the total weight at 242 gns .

I might check the batteries and add fresh ones also. I wasn't expecting much for $20 but I will take the time to run a test between the beam and the electronic 69 to 200 gn bullets and see exactly where it went south. Then run a test on fifteen 142 gns using the scale and the beam. If it is precise enough to sort bullets I will be happy. For that I could care less if it is off a tenth or even a full grain as long as it is consistently off. I have access to a Sartorius Entris to check it against but it is a 3.5 hour trip to get to it and a 20 buck scale just ain't worth the gas for that

 

[Ccrider]

I have one of these scales. When the battery stars getting low, it definitely affects the accuracy.

 

[JimSC]

did a quick test this morning with 53 gn Hornady VMaxes. It looks like the accuracy starts going at around the 15 gram (250 grain) mark. I would redo this test a couple of times but at first glance the scale appears to be plenty accurate to weigh either bullets or small amounts of powder. The included pan tares at about 36 grains and is plenty large enough for 25 to 30 grains of powder. My final judgement on it is it is a cost effective way to weigh bullets up to 250 grains and pistol or small rifle loads to 25 grains using the supplied pan. I found it surprisingly accurate for measuring small amounts of weight and I do not regret the 20 dollars spent. I feel as long as I don't push it past it's limits it will be reliable. As time goes by I may buy one of the $50 - $150 Chinese scales to see if their repeatability is as good as this small scale.

edit - the reason I would not go over 25 grains is due to the small size of the supplied pan. As long as the combined weight does not exceed 250 grains you could use a larger pan and go higher than 25 grains

 

[Depart123]

I have an update on this scale, (the smart weigh Gem20). After having used it for a year, and after weighing 4,000+ pieces of brass and probably at least a few hundred powder charges, it has finally shit the bed.

It didn't go slowly, it went all at once. I was using it yesterday, and it was still holding +/- .02 grains. I went to calibrate it today, and it was just going crazy and wouldn't even stand still long enough to tare it, much less calibrate it. I messed with it for about 30 minutes doing various things to make sure it was actually gone.

"But alas, Rest In Peace little scale. Ihave spent $23 on many things far less productive than you."

I must have had a premonition about it. I thought last week that I should buy another one as a backup. The new one arrived to my door step literally within the hour of my other one dying.