Beam Scales ?
- Thread starter LIUNA
- Start date
I started reloading with a 505 and used it for more than a decade before the siren call of a Dillon electronic got the better of me. Electronic is great when it worked, but after a few years it started to drift during use and I finally put it on a shelf and got out the old 505. I will admit that the electronic is a lot more convenient if you're doing +/- sorting of cases or bullets, but for setting a Redding powder measure, gravity is beating electrons for me.
BTW, the Dillon beam scale seems to be a 505 with a different shape to the base and different paint. It's usually a fair bit cheaper than the green model. The two friends I've gotten into reloading in the past few years got the Dillon and are very pleased with it. (I haven't noticed where theirs were made, though.)
BTW, the Dillon beam scale seems to be a 505 with a different shape to the base and different paint. It's usually a fair bit cheaper than the green model. The two friends I've gotten into reloading in the past few years got the Dillon and are very pleased with it. (I haven't noticed where theirs were made, though.)
BoydAllen
Gold $$ Contributor
Although I don't have one, a friend has a scale that reads to .02 gr. that came with calibration weights. He lets me borrow it from time to time. Now that I have tuned up my 10-10 I don't have much need for it. One time, when it was spending a few days at my house, I carefully weighed some coins, wrapped them in a piece of paper that had their weights written on it, and clamped the whole assembly together with an office type spring clamp. I keep that in the drawer with my scale, for future reference. Not as good as a set of check weights, but a lot better than nothing.
I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful advise and suggestions, I didn't mention what scale I use, its the RCBS 5-0-5 and lately I have noticed it wanting to drift, and the little metal indicator that is used to indicate tenths of a grain seems to slip all the way to the right against the pan hanger, I will reset it and after a couple minutes its back to the right again, gets me irritated. I saw a new Hornady beam scale on you tube looks good, but don't know much about it. will continue to review whats out there.
Thanks, Bob
Thanks, Bob
LIUNA said:
That WOULD be irritating. Looking at my own 505, though, I have a hard time seeing how the 1/10 poise (that's what the sliding pieces are called) could be moving on its own. There isn't enough slope on the beam for the thing to slide by gravity, even when the indicator is full "up" on the other end, and even if the poise were sliding on a smooth beam top. Which of course, it isn't - it has to "jump" over the bump between each of the 1/10th notches.
Before you give up and just buy another brand of scale, can you identify any external forces that might be working on that poise? Localized puffs of air, for example, from canned air being used to clean stuff in the neighborhood, or a compressor hose nearby, with a leak? (I'm just making things up - look at your own environment.) If you were bumping it with a sleeve it would be unlikely that you would just brush it hard enough to move the poise but never hard enough to make the whole scale jump so that you'd see that the scale itself was too close to where you have to reach.
Or is the poise itself buggered? Get a magnifier on it if you can, and see if it's flat on both sides, with no burrs on the edge or corners that engage the notches on the beam. On mine, the poise nestles down into each of the notches at the 1/10 marks, and swings quite freely there, parallel to the beam. It has to be lifted up before it will move to another notch. For yours to slide on its own, it sounds like there would have to be something holding it above the notches all the time.
Just some thoughts. But the beam with poises is pretty old technology with not a lot to go wrong on top, especially with something as simple as a 505 scale. Would hate for you to toss yours if there is some detail glitch that's keeping it from working as it used to.
wrangler5 said:
Agree with all of that. - If the 1/10 poise is LEANING right or left it shouldn't make any difference, the centre of gravity stays the same. If the poise is jumping the notches on the beam then I would say that it's when you are removing the pan to tip the charge. As you remove the pan the beam crashes down until it bottoms out with the damper hitting the base of it's operating slot. With the 5-10 and the 10/10 scale there is a light leaf spring under the damper (approach to weight indicator) to help cushion this effect but not on the 502 or 505.
A very simple mod is to place a thin strip of felt in the bottom of the damper slot. Apart from making the scales quieter and smoother to use I believe that the constant jarring when the pan is removed is the main cause of dull knife edges.
Seen here:
Lot here on that prism. I don't have a photo, but I have a laptop and a camera set up on the bench with the scale sitting on the bench as well. Camera is at scale level focused on the two lines of the scale and the screen is 15" diagonal. Helps a great deal with paralax, eye strain and my back.
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