Remarkable little scale

[BoydAllen]

Some time back in a thread about scales, one poster mentioned a scale, almost apologetically, I think because it is so inexpensive. His post seemed to indicate that he was an intelligent and experienced person, so I took a very small chance, and ordered one. Boy, was he right. I am delighted with it. The furnished pan is way too small, but the one from my RCBS balance scale works just fine, so that is not an issue. It comes in a box with a magnetic latch, and is as neat as can be. If you do not balk at $25 experiments, and do not have one of the force restoration scales, I suggest that you try this one. Mine shuts off after a half minute, but I understand that later models may not have this feature. It is not really a problem because all I have to do is touch the pan and it stays on. All I do after turning it on is put my pan on it, push tare and pick up the pan a couple of times before weighing my first charge. I bought it to check thrown charges at the range, but it works just fine at home. I can adjust a load by pinching a little powder from a container, and dropping a few granules in the pan to adjust the load into my short range benchrest charge weight limits, which are as good or better than a Chargemaster, +-.1 gr. Staying well inside that is simple, and the scale response time for small adjustments is excellent, for its type.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESHDGOI/?tag=accuratescom-20

 

[nmkid]

I've got one of them cheapies and it more than serves its purpose.

 

[Pawnee Bill]

What is the capacity?

 

[46and2]

Looks like 20 grams...I think that is 308 grains. ??? Including the pan.

 

[Fast14riot]

I bought one when that was posted in the thread, I've been happy with it and being able to trickle up to a charge has not been a problem for me. Mine shuts off after 1 minute, so as long as I keep a steady rhythm going it doesn't shut off. Quite pleased with it.

Side note, it's also a small enough foot print for me to use on my turntable to set vertical tracking force of the tone arm, sensitive enough too.

 

[BoydAllen]

Looks like 20 grams...I think that is 308 grains. ??? Including the pan.

Yes on both, not a problem for the powder charges that I weigh. I think that one reason that it works so well is that charges represent a greater percentage of scale capacity.

 

[chromatica]

A buddy turned me on to this inexpensive scale and it is working like a charm:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075Q44TC9/?tag=accuratescom-20

 

[argh]

I have been using one for years and it outlasted my Gempro. For 3 years it was all i used. In that time I won our fclass club championship once and came second another year.
About 6 months ago i finally claimed my gempro on warranty and got a replacement GemPro 300. That scale is accurate but doesnt resolve small changes in weight when trickling charges up. So i now use the little scale to get to weight, and the GemPro to check weight. Takes an extra 5 seconds per charge to do a second weigh. The little scale is spot on 90 to 95% of the time, and every now and then will weigh about 0.04 to a maximum 0.2 of a grain off. Thats pretty accurate, but may explain the odd bit of random one off vertical on the target.
They certainly are an amazing scale for the price, but you do need to continually check the zero/no an weight between xharges to make sure the zero doesn't wander
YMMV
Adrian

 

[46and2]

I have been using one for years and it outlasted my Gempro. For 3 years it was all i used. In that time I won our fclass club championship once and came second another year.
About 6 months ago i finally claimed my gempro on warranty and got a replacement GemPro 300. That scale is accurate but doesnt resolve small changes in weight when trickling charges up. So i now use the little scale to get to weight, and the GemPro to check weight. Takes an extra 5 seconds per charge to do a second weigh. The little scale is spot on 90 to 95% of the time, and every now and then will weigh about 0.04 to a maximum 0.2 of a grain off. Thats pretty accurate, but may explain the odd bit of random one off vertical on the target.
They certainly are an amazing scale for the price, but you do need to continually check the zero/no an weight between xharges to make sure the zero doesn't wander
YMMV
Adrian

I use the Hornady auto charge then check that dump of a charge on my Gem-Pro.
Like you said it only takes 5 extra seconds to check and or trickle...it's worth it.

That AutoCharge has tried to kill me a couple of times

 

[Brians356]

The furnished pan is way too small, but my RCBS balance scale works just fine, ...

Boyd, you probably meant "... my RCBS balance scale pan works ...".

Thanks for the tip. All that remains to discover is how long it will live, but one could buy several spare copies at this price.
-

 

[Falfan2017]

20$ frank ford arsenal pocket scale has been surprisingly good. Checked it against my sartorius and it’s reliably within a couple kernels every time.

 

[Albany Mountain]

Wish I had one of these scales a couple weeks ago. Gonna buy one now

 

[BoydAllen]

I have been using one for years and it outlasted my Gempro. For 3 years it was all i used. In that time I won our fclass club championship once and came second another year.
About 6 months ago i finally claimed my gempro on warranty and got a replacement GemPro 300. That scale is accurate but doesnt resolve small changes in weight when trickling charges up. So i now use the little scale to get to weight, and the GemPro to check weight. Takes an extra 5 seconds per charge to do a second weigh. The little scale is spot on 90 to 95% of the time, and every now and then will weigh about 0.04 to a maximum 0.2 of a grain off. Thats pretty accurate, but may explain the odd bit of random one off vertical on the target.
They certainly are an amazing scale for the price, but you do need to continually check the zero/no an weight between xharges to make sure the zero doesn't wander
YMMV
Adrian

To get an idea, just put the larger pan on the scale and without hitting tare, pick it up and set it down as many times as you like. So far, it seems good to go. If I have any doubt, I use a second pan to dump the load into from the one that I am using, then I re-tare the scale with the empty pan, transfer the charge back into it, and reweigh. It takes much less time to do than explain.

 

[Baddog0302]

Semi needing a quick reading scale I used the link provided my Mr. Allen and added the scale to my Amazon cart. Now, when I went to check out, the F'n CROOKS at Amazon decided on their own to by-pass the page where you select which form of shipping you want to pay for, from FREE to $$$$$ and get it tomorrow and process my order with a shipping charge.
After a ph. call that ,first goi me some female in the Philippines who could just barely speak English to someone in the US. hopefully everything got straightened out.
MY POINT OF THIS RANT IS NEVER TRUST Amazon WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING CHARGES, this is the 3rd time they have tried to pull this crap. Guess they were trying to make up for the "free shipping with Prime" they slipped in on me. one item ordered every other day keep my postman busy

 

[Depart123]

I am on my second Gem20 scale. The first one ran like a champ until it quit in spectacular fashion after a year and a half of regular use.

What finally killed it was weight sorting 4,000 pieces of 223 and 308 brass!

I must have had a premonition, cause I ordered a back up just "because". The back up arrived the day the first one quit.

I have 2 force restoration analytical balances. I use my vintage Ohaus 505 and the little Gem20 the vast majority of the time.

 

[46and2]

Is the Gem20 battery operated only??

 

[Depart123]

Is the Gem20 battery operated only??

Yes. But they last a long time. Upside is no electronic interference from the power source.

 

[46and2]

Would it loose accuracy when low on batteries or does it have a indicator to show battery life? Or maybe just fade the display?

 

[Depart123]

Would it loose accuracy when low on batteries or does it have a indicator to show battery life? Or maybe just fade the display?

Honestly I don't know. I put in a fresh set of duracell when I got it, and I think I changed them before I started weighing all the brass that killed it.

 

[Ccrider]

Would it loose accuracy when low on batteries or does it have a indicator to show battery life? Or maybe just fade the display?

Yes you can tell when the batteries are getting low. It starts to float and looses accuracy. Otherwise it’s a neat scale.