I’ve been using a GemPro 250 for several years. I have been fairly happy with it, but thought I would discuss some of its marginal attributes. I’m also intersted if other people have had similar results, found better techniques or moved on to better scales.
Like most, I suppose, I’m looking for consistency and accuracy. Speed would be nice but it’s not my top priority. I use my Gem Pro on a metal workbench that has an MDF top. I place the scale on a foam pad and I slide the RFI trap on the power cord up to the bench top also. It is a level surface. Even though my primary light source is a fluorescent light I haven’t seen any problems with the scale.
There is supposedly a trickling mode for this scale. I just read about it but have not tried it yet.
What I’ve noticed, while this scale reads in .02 gr increments, it is pretty slow to pick up that one last single grain of powder. Many of the powders I use have granules in the .02 neighborhood. The scale often takes 8-10 seconds to register that one grain. I have learned to be patient and not pull the tray off too soon. For this reason, I’ve stopped using a trickler because it will sometimes drop 2-3 granules. AND Since I have 8-10 seconds to wait for the scale to settle, I use a thin metal spoon to manually pick up one powder granule at a time and drop it onto the scale tray.
I do notice some small inconsistencies. There is some drift over time. If I leave for 5 minutes and come back to the bench, the scale will often have drifted .02-.04. I’ve begun hitting the tare button in between each powder charge. This seems to have mostly eliminated drifting issues for each charge.
Anyone found other ways to improve the performance of this scale? Or found another scale which is better? Not sure I’m ready to drop the big coin on the $500+ scales, but someday maybe.
Like most, I suppose, I’m looking for consistency and accuracy. Speed would be nice but it’s not my top priority. I use my Gem Pro on a metal workbench that has an MDF top. I place the scale on a foam pad and I slide the RFI trap on the power cord up to the bench top also. It is a level surface. Even though my primary light source is a fluorescent light I haven’t seen any problems with the scale.
There is supposedly a trickling mode for this scale. I just read about it but have not tried it yet.
What I’ve noticed, while this scale reads in .02 gr increments, it is pretty slow to pick up that one last single grain of powder. Many of the powders I use have granules in the .02 neighborhood. The scale often takes 8-10 seconds to register that one grain. I have learned to be patient and not pull the tray off too soon. For this reason, I’ve stopped using a trickler because it will sometimes drop 2-3 granules. AND Since I have 8-10 seconds to wait for the scale to settle, I use a thin metal spoon to manually pick up one powder granule at a time and drop it onto the scale tray.
I do notice some small inconsistencies. There is some drift over time. If I leave for 5 minutes and come back to the bench, the scale will often have drifted .02-.04. I’ve begun hitting the tare button in between each powder charge. This seems to have mostly eliminated drifting issues for each charge.
Anyone found other ways to improve the performance of this scale? Or found another scale which is better? Not sure I’m ready to drop the big coin on the $500+ scales, but someday maybe.
