New Toy In My Loading Room

[dixieppc]

New toy in my loading room.

On the left is my new A&D FX-120i and on the right, for comparison, is a Gempro 250. Shipping label says 9lb 13oz. Big sucker aint it?

I am wading through the manual right now. Unlike most manuals, which are nothing more than a few pieces of paper folded over, this manual is an actual booklet that is very detailed and technical. From first impression, these scales are a heck of a lot smarter than I am.

First thing was to calibrate the scales but they do not come with a calibration weight, you have to provide your own. I have calibration weights but not really sure if they are as accurate as the A & D manual says you need. It says you should use a 100g weight that is within +/- .05g of 100g and you must know exactly how much that weight is (99.95g to 100.05g) so you can tell the scales that.

Even without calibrating it, I decided to check its sensitivity to one granule of varget. First, it has three sensitivity or response settings, Fast, Medium & Slow. Set to Fast, you can't even look at this thing without it registering while setting it to Slow makes it less jumpy but also less sensitive to a single granule of varget dropped into the pan. Medium is hit and miss on catching that single granule.

I threw a few short throws and trickled up to 30 grains then removed the pan of powder and set it back on the scale and it registered within .04 of 30 grains every time. Four times within .04 and six times within .02. Repeatability with a capital R.

One thing extra that I'm going to need is one of the breeze break shields. I want to cut a hole in one of the side shields large enough to stick the trickler tube through and do not want to do it to one of the four shields that came with the scales. I guess I could manufacture one out of a piece of cardstock weight paper, it doesn't have to be clear.

There is a hole in the lid to the shield but that is a pretty far drop for granules of powder and I'm afraid that they will bounce out of the pan.

Anyway just wanted to share my new toy.

Regards....

 

[jbarnwell]

Very nice looking scale. I am contemplating the purchase of the same one now that I found out I'm not going to have to roof my house this year. Where did you buy this one?

Thanks,

Jarvis

 

[MrMajestic]

You'll love it! It makes powder weighing a joy instead of drudgery!

 

[JamesnTN]

You need to get the required calibration weight if you use say a weight from another scale aka rcbs you will mess up the calibration in the machine. Don't ask how I know this just take my word.

BTW great scale

 

[CoverDog]

Have you checked the accuracy of the GemPro 250 against the FX120i ?

 

[Leeman]

Dixie,

You could try resting a funnel through the hole in the top and simply place the trickler on top of the shield. I'm using a Lee funnel to do just that although it's a bit on the short side, when I'm loading for cases that take 50 or so grains of powder, I haven't had any jump out of the pan, but certainly have with BR sized cases. I have to either get a funnel with longer stem or extend the lee one with some suitable tubing. I removed one of the side panels completely to allow me to place the pan on the scales and I haven't noticed any drift when the pan is left on the scale for 10 minutes or so, but may depend on your particular environment of course.

Richard.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Repeatability was within .04 gr? That's actually pretty bad, calibrating might help. My Sartorious GD-503 will repeat to .005 gr.

 

[dixieppc]

Very nice looking scale. I am contemplating the purchase of the same one now that I found out I'm not going to have to roof my house this year. Where did you buy this one?

Thanks,

Jarvis

Sitting in a VA waiting room and will try to do some replies before getting called in. I purchased this off this site. Ad said unused backup still packed in original box. the price was so attractive I could not pass it up. Unit came as advertised.

Regards....

 

[dixieppc]

You need to get the required calibration weight if you use say a weight from another scale aka rcbs you will mess up the calibration in the machine. Don't ask how I know this just take my word.

BTW great scale

I was assuming that if I have a weight that is within .05g of what A&D says is needed that I would be okay.

Regards....

 

[ultramagbrion]

That's a sweet looking unit.

Very nice looking scale. I am contemplating the purchase of the same one now that I found out I'm not going to have to roof my house this year. Where did you buy this one?

Thanks,

Jarvis

I had to snicker to myself , as I just found out that I AM going to have to put a roof on , at this camp :-\

fml

 

[dixieppc]

Have you checked the accuracy of the GemPro 250 against the FX120i ?

No and probably will not since this was not a replacement for the Gempro. I grabbed the Gempro from a classroom where we do loading classes for a wounded warrior project and used them just to show the size difference in the picture. I could have done a weight comparison but do not have a weight ready to calibrate the A&D yet.

Regards.....

 

[dixieppc]

Repeatability was within .04 gr? That's actually pretty bad, calibrating might help. My Sartorious GD-503 will repeat to .005 gr.

Remember I had just unboxed and turned them on. Had not leveled them or given time to warm up plus no way tp calibrate them yet. I'm sure when they are properly ready to use, they will do better. However, I was impressed with what an unlevel, cold, uncalibrated set of scales showed.

Regards....

 

[dixieppc]

Dixie,

You could try resting a funnel through the hole in the top and simply place the trickler on top of the shield. I'm using a Lee funnel to do just that although it's a bit on the short side, when I'm loading for cases that take 50 or so grains of powder, I haven't had any jump out of the pan, but certainly have with BR sized cases. I have to either get a funnel with longer stem or extend the lee one with some suitable tubing. I removed one of the side panels completely to allow me to place the pan on the scales and I haven't noticed any drift when the pan is left on the scale for 10 minutes or so, but may depend on your particular environment of course.

Richard.

Actually, your suggestion of just removing the side panel will probably work since I don't have a breeze in the room.

Regards....

 

[ryanjay11]

Just drill a 1" hole in one of the clear shields.....

 

[carlsbad]

Repeatability was within .04 gr? That's actually pretty bad, calibrating might help. My Sartorious GD-503 will repeat to .005 gr.

Erik,
I use a Sartorius too but accept +/- .01 grain to keep within rounding error on my .1 gr load spec. The reason I do this is to avoid splitting powder kernels, each of which weigh about .02 each.

Are you loading to +/- .005gr? I guess that would work with some fine ball powers like AA2460. Haven't tried them though as I use them mostly for AR plinking.

To me the huge disadvantage that disqualifies the gempro from consideration is the strain gauge measuring cell that requires a bump to register making it unsuitable for trickling.

--Jerry

 

[rduckwor]

Repeatability was within .04 gr? That's actually pretty bad, calibrating might help. My Sartorious GD-503 will repeat to .005 gr.

Didn't your Sartorius cost 3X as much?

The guy just got the scale, give him a bit to work out the use. It will be more accurate and repeatable than 0.04 Gr.

RMD

 

[dixieppc]

Well, just got home from a grueling day at the VA. On the way home I stopped at my Gun Smiths and dropped off my two 50 grain check weights. One of his other customers is a pharmacist which does pharmaceutical compounds which requires a set of scales well beyond anything that we probably use. Already knowing that my two 50's are on the high side of 50, he is going to "adjust" them both down close enough to 50 grains so both together will weigh 100g +/- .05g which is what A&D says is optimal for calibrating this scale. Even though I will not get the scales calibrated for a few days or so, I am going to let them warm up for 24 hours, level them and do that repeatability test again. They don't have to be calibrated to test repeatability unless linear calibration effects that (not sure). I'll post the numbers when done. I'm sure they will be a lot better than they were on a cold, unlevel scale.

Regards.....

 

[ridgeway]

Awesome scale...you will definitely love it. Anti-electronic people would be impressed as this scale does not exhibit any traits as the average reloading scale does. It does not required to be on 24-7, flourecents do not bother it, my cell phone can sit on top of it, no problems. Rock solid, repeatable EVERY time! I don't care how tuned your balance beam is, still does not come close to this scale!

I drilled a side panel for the omega to reach in. On the front panel, made a duct tape hinge so I can open and close easy. Sometimes the blower on my furnace creates a slight draft and closing the scale to meter eliminates any draft problems. Yes, its that sensitive!

As for check weights, I got a 50g right from Cambridge for like $10 more. They have anything you would need.

I calibrate each time I turn it on just for piece of mind, but I doubt it needs done. My pan weighs the same every time I turn it on to load with.

 

[Jet]

Dixie

I have had my FX120I for 18 months now and have weighed thousands of powder charges and it has performed great.

Always turn it on 30 minutes prior, level it, and calibrate it prior to use. Mine has always stayed true to .02 gr of measurment and each kernel of Varget has always registered.

You will be happy with it.

Good Shooting.

Rich

 

[dixieppc]

Anti-electronic people would be impressed as this scale does not exhibit any traits as the average reloading scale does.

And I am/Was one of those anti-electronics people. After trying three electronic scales in the $150 to $250 range, I finally threw my hands up and swore them off. I would say the best one out of the litter was/is the Gempro 250 that we use in the reloading class. It has acceptable repeatability but needs constant re-zeroing and as Jerry (carlsbad) said above, does not lend well to trickling.

Anyway when I finally threw my hands up, I pulled my antique 40 year old set of Ohaus 10-10 balance beam scales out and sent them off to Scott Parker and had them tuned. Got them back and have really enjoyed the sensitivity of those things and haven't given a second thought to ever getting near another set of electronic scales.

The only thing that would have changed my mind would have been if I could have ever been able to afford a magnetic force restoration scale. Then out of nowhere it fell right into my lap, an FX-120i that had been purchased as a backup and was never used, never setup and still packed in the original box for a price well below the cost of a new set.

I still love my Tuned Balance Beam Scales though. They'll never run out of gas and will never fail to start.

Regards.....