Acculab Vic 123 Problems

[shcal]

I finally got a chance to use my new Acculab Vic 123 yesterday, I needed to reload 50 cases for my 6BR. I set the scale up, calibrated it, changed the measurement settings to grains from grams and zeroed it. Now I must tell you that I was using a 20 foot heavy gauge grounded extension chord and a surge protector. The outlet I was plugged into also had a radio running out of it. Half way through my powder measuring I noticed that my initial reading on my powder throws were starting to go way off, they became light and lighter causing me to add more powder from my trickler,Redding hand trickler). I thought I would recalibrate and then re zero, but this problem just kept happening. I went back and remeasured some of my earlier loads immediately after I re calibrated and re zeroed and found that I was consistently high,about .2 grains). So after this I reloaded about half of the cases I had previously loaded with powder. Only now I had to re zero the scale at every measure otherwise I would obtain a reading that was high.

Has anyone experienced this problem with their Acculab Vic 123/Mxx 123? Can anyone shed any light on this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, shcal

 

[hairtrigger]

My MX123, which is I believe the same scale internaly likes to be turned on at least several hours prior to using. Some leave them on for 24 hrs. prior to use. You may want to set the enviromental mode to unstable. In anything but a lab enviroment the defalt mode is too sensitive. I hit the zero buttom after I dump a charge and after I have put the empty pan back on the scale. Should take about 2 seconds to zero. The Reloaders Nest web site has the simplified directions to change the enviromental setting. I did my brothers Acculab so I know they work.

 

[shcal]

Thanks for the input hairtrigger. I forgot to mention in my initial posting that I set the environment for very unstable. While I reload in my garage, the garage door has rubber seals at the threshold and jams, so the reloading environment is not what I would describe as having an unstable,breezy or even leaky)condition.

It would seem to me that this scale should perform better than having to re-zero the scale every time you measure a new load. Yes, I do agree the zeroing task is a quick one, but still, having to do it every time you measure a weight seems contrary to what I would expect in a higher quality scale.

Has anyone out there experienced the same?

BTW, I wanted to load up a box of 75gr V-max and try a little squirrel shooting in the morning on Sunday before the wind came up. But by the time I was ready to go and I opened the door the wind was blowing at about 25 mph, just no fun to go out and shoot little moving targets at long distance.

It's been a very poor year for squirrel shooting this year, I have only been out a handful of times and each of those outings have proven very disappointing, very few targets. I don't know what has happened to the squirrels in California this year. Has anyone observed the same thing?
shcal

 

[mikecr]

Mine does the same.
The zero won't hold for 30sec...
Was thinking last I tried it, that it may be super sensitive to level.

I don't have a solution yet and rely on my Chargemaster scale at the moment.

 

[243Mendoza]

I have a MXX-123 and have the same problem with drifting. I think the instrument is overly temperature sensitive. If I leave it on and not use it, it will not drift but once I use it, it starts drifting. I have returned to using the RCBS 505 balance beam for dribbling the powder.

 

[shcal]

Haven't tried the auto zero yet. But when I reload nobody is in the same room and all of the doors are shut, I like it that way. I'll give it a try with auto zero and leave it on for a while and report back to you.
shcal

 

[Silverfox]

You may need more than just a surge protector and heavy-duty grounded cord. Maybe the voltage to your scale is fluctuating. I'd suggest buying an uninterruptible power supply with the voltage regulator feature like I did. For my setup, I even wired a totally separate circuit for my ChargeMaster and my MXX-123 scale.

I leave both my RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 and my MXX-123 scale on 24/7 and don't have the kind of problems you describe. Yes, once in awhile, after I get the empty pan back on the scale, the scale seems to drift .02 to .04 gr., but that is very seldom. Most of the time, if I wait long enough the scale will go back to the zero reading. If it doesn't, I just press the Zero button and I'm back in business.

 

[memilanuk]

I have an AccuLab VIC 123 that is setting on a 2" thick granite surface plate on my bench, plugged into a UPS, auto zero turned on, environment set to 'Very Unstable, any thing that would cause stray breezes or EMI turned off, etc. Damn thing still drifts. Literally had the engineer that designed it on the phone, and *he* couldn't find anything wrong w/ my setup, and the answer basically came down to that for a milligram,0.001g) scale... this is a relatively cheaply constructed unit.

I don't know what it is about my local environ, but sometimes the scale will work just like advertised, other times it's a royal PITA to keep zeroed... it'll literally drift while I'm trickling into it. It'll hold '0.00gr' for days and weeks... but put something in that pan and sometimes it'll behave itself, and sometimes it won't.

Very frustrating, to say the least.

Monte