Best balance beam scale
- Thread starter JRS
- Start date
JRS: I've been using the RCBS 505 for years, and never had a problem. Made by Ohaus, one of the biggest names in the weight measuring industry. On the other hand, recently used a friends scale, made "in house", by another large reloading equipment company, shall remain nameless), and the holder for the powder pan had a flat surface. If you did not set the pan in the exact center of the flat surface, the pan, filled with powder, of course) would slide off onto the loading bench. One of the dumbest designs I've ever seen! Had to have been designed by someone who had no clue about weighing powder. The RCBS has a dished-out area that securely holds the pan.
AckleymanII
Gold $$ Contributor
The RCBS 10/10,Ohaus) and RCBS 505 are really fantastic scales.
Prometheus, period!
I have been using the same RCBS 505 for the past 30 years and don't plan on getting another scale because I have never had any major problem with it. The only problem I have ever had is a poor house keeping issue. When I don't put a cover over the scale when I get done using it sometimes dust will get into where the balance pins of the beam fit into the frame of the scale and cause the beam not to pivot smooth. I just life the beam up and take a cotton swab and clean the pivot point in the stand and it goes back to measuring like the champ it is.
It's a long story, but the RCBS 1010 that I've been using for 20 yrs got inconsistant, and I didn't pick up on it. I weigh all powder charges on it. and had noticed for the last 2 years or so that powder charges were sitting at different levels in the necks of cases, particularly 7-08 loads. I just passed it off as different density as I dumped them out of the pan, but I also started getting some weird groups, like 4 shots together and one out that I didn't shoot. One night I moved a 49.5 gr load of H-414,that was dead on) over to my digital to check the digital and it showed 50.2 grs, so I re-zeroed the digital and set the pan back in the 1010. This time the beam pointer end bottomed and when I rolled the tenth's cylinder back to balance, it weighed 49.0 grains. I couldn't believe it, so I went back and forth with the same pan of powder and got weights all over the place on my 1010. I also dumped and re-weighed the 15 loads that were waiting for bullets, and half of them were way off.
After posting and talking to several people, the best bet was that the copper damping plate had developed some residual magnetism. Everything else was fine,,cleanliness, knife edges, agate bearings, etc) so as implausible as it sounded, I took the plate off and annealed it. It lost a 10th of a grain or so of weight when I glass-beaded the heat scale off, but after rebalancing, it has worked perfectly, with no more variation from load to load. Incidentally, the 250 gr test weight was still accurate before I annealed the plate. The scale was very inconsistent at light powder charge weights, but wasn't nearly as bad at 120 gr powder charge weights.
I don't have a better explanation, and haven't talked to RCBS, so am just passing this along.
Tom
After posting and talking to several people, the best bet was that the copper damping plate had developed some residual magnetism. Everything else was fine,,cleanliness, knife edges, agate bearings, etc) so as implausible as it sounded, I took the plate off and annealed it. It lost a 10th of a grain or so of weight when I glass-beaded the heat scale off, but after rebalancing, it has worked perfectly, with no more variation from load to load. Incidentally, the 250 gr test weight was still accurate before I annealed the plate. The scale was very inconsistent at light powder charge weights, but wasn't nearly as bad at 120 gr powder charge weights.
I don't have a better explanation, and haven't talked to RCBS, so am just passing this along.
Tom
Any new beam scales on the market?
shooterk
Silver $$ Contributor
2nd on a Scott Parker. I have an old Redding he tuned. Super accurate.
I'm new to reloading and bought a RCBS Model M500 scale for my new bench. Previously I'd been reloading at my friends house with his RCBS 505 scale and was very familiar with and liked the 505.Well as for the RCBS Model M500, I don't like that the Zero is inside the frame near the pivot and hard to see/access. The beam on left side is marked in 5 grain increments. The beam on the right side is labeled in 1 grain increments, 1 to 5, and then graduations are marked every 0.1 grain between the labeled whole grains. You almost need a mathematical algorithm to calculate where to set the two sliding weights.
There is no white mark on the large sliding weight on the left side of the pivot to help with alignment with the upper mark, you need a headlamp to verify you are on the correct mark on the beam. It is so easy to be off 5 grains on the left side of the pivot and not see it. At sometime during my weighing out 50 cases of '06 it moved and I didn't see it. Had to repeat all work.
Photo shows 6.5 grains setting for pistol load.
As soon as I can afford it I'm going to buy a different scale.
Same here but it's got a Scott Parker tune. I still find it has to be level front to back so the ends of the blades aren't riding against the scale.
sparker
Silver $$ Contributor
Not unobtainable. Not really desirable. Anyone who used the metric version of the scale (Dial-O-Gram) in middle school science knows why.
Scott Parker
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