In Praise Of Gravity/Beam Scales

[1bamashooter]

After watching a video by @Keith Glasscock on the little itty-bitty velocity variation of a .1 of a grain has on a load i believe ill stick with my 10-10 that resolves a kernel of powder before I go back to the drift of a digital, even if the amount of drift +or- falls within that tenth of a grain.

My Fx120i doesn't drift and is much faster than your beam and jsut as accurate. I keep a beam for emergencies but I'll never load with a beam scale ever again

 

[sparker]

My Fx120i doesn't drift and is much faster than your beam and jsut as accurate. I keep a beam for emergencies but I'll never load with a beam scale ever again

4 seconds to dampen out and read the beam. Knowing that it will always do that the same way when my grand kids use it, priceless!

 

[1bamashooter]

4 seconds to dampen out and read the beam. Knowing that it will always do that the same way when my grand kids use it, priceless!

I'll tell you what's priceless treating your customers with respect and not keeping their shit for a year or more. I was told how long I had to wait for my V4 and it was to the week I was quoted.

 

[sparker]

I am happy that you are happy with your purchase. Enjoy your V4.

 

[SEGARE]

....That said. I’m at a place now where I can tell a customer when to ship a scale to me and get it turned around in a week. So, DLT, should you decide to risk it all and inquire about potentially getting one or another of your scales tuned and calibrated, I assure you I will have it for the absolute minimum time possible.

All the best!

Scott

This is good to hear. I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes to advise me on my new scale purchase. I would never had guessed that you topped of the oil and checked the wiper blade!!! I have one of you tuned M5's, and I have a self-tuned M5 as well. Both do remarkably well at resolving a single kernel. I also appreciate you owning up to some of your past shortcomings, I wish you well moving forward. Forgiveness comes easier for some of us than others. The older I get, the more I understand that concept: it's a very empowering act.

 

[sparker]

This is good to hear. I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes to advise me on my new scale purchase. I would never had guessed that you topped of the oil and checked the wiper blade!!! I have one of you tuned M5's, and I have a self-tuned M5 as well. Both do remarkably well at resolving a single kernel. I also appreciate you owning up to some of your past shortcomings, I wish you well moving forward. Forgiveness comes easier for some of us than others. The older I get, the more I understand that concept: it's a very empowering act.

Thank you for your kindness.

 

[snert]

I sure do understand the benefit of a good scale. But I have had to admit that if I ever had a chance of shooting so well I could discern that benefit, it is long past. So I will just keep tossing and weighing on my POS Ohous , because I need every excuse I can list!

 

[Bc'z]

My Fx120i doesn't drift and is much faster than your beam and jsut as accurate. I keep a beam for emergencies but I'll never load with a beam scale ever again

I appreciate the ability of the fx120, but the cost of that scale with the v4 just isn't for everyone including myself.
I enjoy loading and the easily achieved accuracy from the simplest of methods, speed is not a concern for me in my throwing/trickling process.
Except for trimming necks, I hate trimming to length even though it only take a half hour to do 50 cases.

 

[Doom]

After watching a video by @Keith Glasscock on the little itty-bitty velocity variation of a .1 of a grain has on a load i believe ill stick with my 10-10 that resolves a kernel of powder before I go back to the drift of a digital, even if the amount of drift +or- falls within that tenth of a grain.

Keith put together a very good presentation and his analysis is correct. He does however make one glaring mistake. The RCBS scale he is using should be ZEROed before every charge. This is common practice and eliminates drift issues. It is a simple and unavoidable fact that electronic scales drift and lower cost scales will tend to drift more than higher priced scales/balances.

 

[CacheCropp]

That why they make check weights.
A digital scale sold and calibrated in Canada will need to be recalibrated with an "Apparent Mass" in Florida because of a change in Latitude (and altitude). A single calibration point takes care of Gravity calibration. Beam scales carry their own "Apparent Mass".

No, sorry, but it actually is: “Changes in latitudes, Changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same” Jimmy Buffett

 

[CacheCropp]

Ok, y’all made me go dig out my Scott tuned beam scale out from a packing box that hasn’t been opened since I moved cross country 4.5 years ago. I’m going to test it and maybe start using it again. We’ll see. Beautiful scale though.

 

[jonbearman]

I have 2 rcbs 510's sparker did for me and they dead on and if you put 1 kernel on you can see the balance move. I have an A&D scale I throw low and trickle up on and could do it with either 510 and get great results. I will never sell my manual scales ever.

 

[BoydAllen]

For those of you who use balance scales that have been tuned and who want to make the most of that sensitivity, I suggest that you might want to use something like a web cam to magnify and eliminate parallax. Beam deflection from small charge weight additions is so small that it makes parallax much more of an issue and unmagnified reading consistently and quickly more difficult. For an experiment balance your scale, then change its setting by .1 grain and then let it settle to see how little the difference moves the beam pointer.

 

[BoydAllen]

I don’t find parallax to be an issue that can be identified on paper out to one thousand yards.
One kernel can move the beam but one kernel will not change the target.

To be clear, I was referring to parallax as it applies to reading a balance scale.

 

[BoydAllen]

Yes sir, I understood your post shall I clarify mine ?

I think that I understand what you wrote. Have you ever read a balance scale using a webcam combined with a computer and monitor? Here is a video.

 

[M-61]

Mounting the scale at EYE level eliminates any parallax problem.
I have a RCBS 304
Mounted eye level for ME. No computer screen, camera, electric etc.
Now if you’re really tall this could be a problem. If others who are not your height same thing: problem
For me the only one using it the solution was easy.

 

[R.Morehouse]

Aim a cheap webcam at the pointer and run it through any tablet or laptop. That is exactly what I use with a Parker-tuned beam scale. I KNOW I have just repeated myself......But it's O.K........I'm old.

 

[mikecockcroft]

according to the internet I have the only FX120 that drifts, damn my luck

 

[DJL]

I have my tuned Lyman M5 mounted at eye level on a solid 12 inch high heavy wood pedestal I built that sits on a 1/2 inch thick 12 inch square marble tile I glued rubber feet on the underside corners for grip.
Then I made a swivel mount bracket for the handle of a 4 x 2.5 inch magnifier with a 4x bifocal lens built in and put that in front, this setup works very well for my needs. Excellent repeatability and linearity as checked with a very high end set of check weights borrowed from my local Pharmacy.
I've owned 2 Ohaus built RCBS 5-10's, one was NOS in box from the late 70's, neither was as good as this M-5,IMO.

 

[BoydAllen]

@BoydAlllen

I don’t wish to bring any negative outlook towards cameras or prisms rather just a ham &egg LR br guy that uses a tuned beam scale so I have perhaps over analyzed many aspects including viewing heights on these scales and what I’ve seen is when viewing at any reasonable height that when the indicators line up there is not enough parallax error that a single kernel one way of the other will change the outcome on the target. So from my perspective there are far bigger knobs turn that will influence the long range target.

The posts were more along the line of letting people know that such an option is available, and was not intended as a criticism of those who choose not to go that way. Absolutely, you do not have to have any of the viewing accessories.