Scales In the $300 Range

[wedgy]

I know I know I know but I can't afford the fx-120 so in the mean time I was looking at the Veritas S63, recommended by a reloader at the scale store.
http://www.affordablescales.com/veritas/s-grain/s63.asp#.VbFCVU_wuM8
Other options were the Ej123 but was told the S63 was better.
http://www.affordablescales.com/and/newton-ej/ej-123.asp#.VbFCxE_wuM8
My limit is $300 and that's a stretch but the 3rd Gempro is all over the place and I need something else, hopefully a step in the right direction. I can't afford the fx-120 just in case you missed it the first time.
Thanks

edit; measuring powder up to ~100 grains(most under 50) trickling in the last 0.02 and bullets up to 230 grains

Sorry I should have been more clear. Yes, mostly trickling in the last bit of powder to the scales precision, 0.02 in the Gempro's case. The gempro won't register up to 0.10 without lifting the pan off and reweighing it.

 

[hogan]

If you are controlling total weight of assembled ammunition in terms of brass and bullet weight variations, then probably a scale with capacity exceeding 500gr can be of value. If loading .50bmg or other behemoth loads, maybe need large capacity as well.

If only considering electronic scales, maybe think again?

Most precision handloading scales were made for RCBS, Lyman etc by Ohaus. A quality beam scale with something like the RCBS deluxe checkweight set enables you to have Nth degree of precision.

To Be Sure of your precision, you set your scale to zero by the exact weight you want to measure... Most realistically this will apply to powder charge weights.

If you have sorted through great numbers of brass and bullets as Raw Materiel, you may be able to sort a usable quantity that fulfills your search for perfection. Not really that necessary if beginning with a good product to begin with, but your goals are as you define them...

I use RCBS 10-10 an 5-0-5 scales and rarely use the extra capacity of the 10-10. Lyman scale with beam raising stud is another scale have enjoyed and gotten great results from. Used RCBS is still fully warranted and excellent value. Buy your checkweight set new, to be sure. Nice to own tools that don't have electrical dependencies and can be fine-tuned by their owner.

 

[TAJ45]

Scott Parker will tune your beam scales. He is kind of the "Gold Standard" for such things.

 

[normmatzen]

First, you want a Magnetic Force Restoration balance.
I, too, wanted a better balance but couldn't justify a new lab balance for $1000 or more.

I went to ebay and found an Ohaus TS200. This is a proper lab balance with resolution to 1mg. Depending on the age of this series of balances, some can indicate many scales such as Gram, Grains, Oz etc. My TS200 does all of them. I often use the gram scale to weigh charges for larger cartridges as on gr scale it increments in 0.02gr steps and on gram scale 1 mg. 1 mg is about 0.015gr. I know, it isn't much but, "Aim small, Shoot small!"
I bought another of these scales , a model TS120. This has a full scale of 120 gram instead of the 200 gram of my first one, but it only indicates grams, same resolution as TS200. They made another one the TS400D (NOT TS400) which has two ranges, 400gr and 40 gr. So, this one has 1mg resolution. Incidentally, the resolution is also the accuracy and max drift.

I paid on the order of $100 for each of these and if the seller claims proper functionality you are pretty safe. I bought a TS120 that didn't work for a really cheap price and found it needed a bunch of "flexures" that Ohaus will sell you for $20 ea!

I downloaded both the manual and maintenance manual from Ohaus. You can do a lot of repair and adjustment if you are inclined.

I have one of my balances in the garage where I do most of my reloading and one in my office where I hide when it is hot here. As these balances are designed for a lab environment, they start drifting at about the temp you start being uncomfortable. So, I do the powder weighing and bullet seating in my office.

Try ebay, you will be happy. Incidentally, many of the premium balance makers have similar old balances on ebay from time to time.

 

[hogan]

RCBS Deluxe Checkweight set comes with: .1, .2, .5, 10g, (2) 20g, 50g, (2) 100g weights, and a set of tweezers to handle the small stuff. Maybe there are couple other sizes; made the list above from memory. Maybe Redding and Ohaus offer a better set? The RCBS was best I saw when I bought, 20yrs ago.


Set your scale to zero with closest value you can compile from checkset for powdercharge you want to assemble. Maybe a grain or two off from being exact, but you are achieving a KNOWN VALUE on a specific day and time. Set your scale to your selected weight and you achieve consistency, and precision.

If you don't verify, calibrate you are subject to variations, no matter how good your scale is or who "adjusted" it.

 

[jlow]

The gempro won't register up to 0.10 without lifting the pan off and reweighing it.

Geeez, you are acting like a squirrel in heat... ;D Just calm down.

Here is how people who use balance for a living (vs. a hobby...) gets a scale to register small changes. First, use a small weighting spatula to move ball powder around. If you are weighting extruded powder use a pair of tweezers.

Once you put that last bit of powder on the scale, put either the tip of the spatula or tweezers on the weighting pan. Don't drop it on the pan, just touch it and immediately take it off. That will over scale the pan briefly as to what is in it. Now it will quickly and accurately stabilize to the true weight of the powder on the pan.

Always works and will give you reproducible weighting. So it's not the scale but the technique. Good luck.

 

[DennisPA]

Wedgy I'm in the same boat with my Gempro 250 it's floating all over. Have you tried jlow's technique? Did it help? I was looking at the Veritas S123.

 

[Linko]

I am ready to add the next decimal place to my powder measurment. right now I use a RCBE Chargemaster 1500, so all I measure is xx.x weight. I want to guy a secondary scale and use my chargemaster then trickle in the new scale to the desired weight. because I have way too many gun projects each pull for my cash I can't buy a very expensive scale.

I saw this post and it fit my quest to spend about 300 bucks to get to hundreth decimal place.

I read these two scales quite often:

Gempro 250
FX120

Satorius GD503
this scale is rated high by members its larger and more money, but discontinued.

Like a good one that short of a Prometheus I will keep and be happy with. I dont want to waste my limited funds.

what other choices should I consider?

(Right now I dont want a balance scale.)

 

[dkhunt14]

Linko the Sartorius Entris 64 is a really good scale. It weighs to .001. It is probably the best scale for accuracy for the money. The next best would be the FX120I. Matt

 

[jimcasey01]

First, you want a Magnetic Force Restoration balance.
I, too, wanted a better balance but couldn't justify a new lab balance for $1000 or more.

I went to ebay and found an Ohaus TS200. This is a proper lab balance with resolution to 1mg. Depending on the age of this series of balances, some can indicate many scales such as Gram, Grains, Oz etc. My TS200 does all of them. I often use the gram scale to weigh charges for larger cartridges as on gr scale it increments in 0.02gr steps and on gram scale 1 mg. 1 mg is about 0.015gr. I know, it isn't much but, "Aim small, Shoot small!"
I bought another of these scales , a model TS120. This has a full scale of 120 gram instead of the 200 gram of my first one, but it only indicates grams, same resolution as TS200. They made another one the TS400D (NOT TS400) which has two ranges, 400gr and 40 gr. So, this one has 1mg resolution. Incidentally, the resolution is also the accuracy and max drift.

I paid on the order of $100 for each of these and if the seller claims proper functionality you are pretty safe. I bought a TS120 that didn't work for a really cheap price and found it needed a bunch of "flexures" that Ohaus will sell you for $20 ea!

I downloaded both the manual and maintenance manual from Ohaus. You can do a lot of repair and adjustment if you are inclined.

I have one of my balances in the garage where I do most of my reloading and one in my office where I hide when it is hot here. As these balances are designed for a lab environment, they start drifting at about the temp you start being uncomfortable. So, I do the powder weighing and bullet seating in my office.

Try ebay, you will be happy. Incidentally, many of the premium balance makers have similar old balances on ebay from time to time.

If you are working on a budget, or just plain don't want to spend big bucks, this is a very good alternative. Granted it does not have the cool factor to it, but they are great scales. .001gram = .015 grain which is about 1 kernel of LT-32 or 1/2 kernel of VV N140. Unless you are working in baby powder fine gun powders, you will not be able to weigh to less than 1 mg.
Another vote for the Ohaus TS series (mine is the TS120) of scales at $100.00

 

[Dos XX]

In my opinion, you don't need the Chargemaster to throw the initial charge. I have an FX120I and was using my Chargemaster to throw the initial charge, then using an Omega trickler to finish on the FX120I.

I bought a Lee Perfect Powder Throw for about $25.00. I throw under with it and finish with the Omega. In no time I was outrunning the Chargemaster, so I sold it and recovered about half the money I spent on the FX120I.

 

[Rope2horns]

[youtube]http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=erik+cortina+youtube&qpvt=erik+cortina+youtube&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=0FEF15115F8DB22204E70FEF15115F8DB22204E7[/youtube]

 

[Sheldon N]

RCBS Deluxe Checkweight set comes with: .1, .2, .5, 10g, (2) 20g, 50g, (2) 100g weights, and a set of tweezers to handle the small stuff. Maybe there are couple other sizes; made the list above from memory. Maybe Redding and Ohaus offer a better set? The RCBS was best I saw when I bought, 20yrs ago.


Set your scale to zero with closest value you can compile from checkset for powdercharge you want to assemble. Maybe a grain or two off from being exact, but you are achieving a KNOWN VALUE on a specific day and time. Set your scale to your selected weight and you achieve consistency, and precision.

If you don't verify, calibrate you are subject to variations, no matter how good your scale is or who "adjusted" it.

I just took a small nail and went after it with a file until it registered exactly 45.00 gr on two different scales (GemPro and Acculab). I made another one for 60.00g. Both of these are very close to the different powder weights that I'm loading for in different calibers.

Now as I load I will just periodically toss the nail in the pan between powder charges and see if there is any drift or deviation.

 

[Mozella]

The gempro won't register up to 0.10 without lifting the pan off and reweighing it.

Geeez, you are acting like a squirrel in heat... ;D Just calm down.

Here is how people who use balance for a living (vs. a hobby...) gets a scale to register small changes. First, use a small weighting spatula to move ball powder around. If you are weighting extruded powder use a pair of tweezers.

Once you put that last bit of powder on the scale, put either the tip of the spatula or tweezers on the weighting pan. Don't drop it on the pan, just touch it and immediately take it off. That will over scale the pan briefly as to what is in it. Now it will quickly and accurately stabilize to the true weight of the powder on the pan.

Always works and will give you reproducible weighting. So it's not the scale but the technique. Good luck.

I guess I'm stupid. I figured anyone using an electronic scale to weight small increments of powder either knew about this technique or could quickly discover it themselves. A Gempro 250 will sometimes react immediately and correctly when you trickle in the last few kernels of powder. But sometimes it doesn't. If I'm real close to my target weight and I add a kernel or two and nothing happens, that's my clue to take action in which case just touching the pan lightly, as you say, will force the correct reading.

Personally, I use my Lock-N-Load case activated powder dispenser for preliminary loading. I aim for a tenth under the desired weight. Usually I load a tray of 50 cases and then dump, weigh, and trickle from there.

The scale has a resolution of .002gr, so I accept my target weight or .002 over. Anything outside that range gets rejected. I don't know what the true precision actually is, but I'm satisfied that my equipment and technique is good enough for my purposes.

 

[Terry]

I have a AY123 $300 shipped.

 

[SHootSTraight22]

The gempro won't register up to 0.10 without lifting the pan off and reweighing it.

Geeez, you are acting like a squirrel in heat... ;D Just calm down.

Here is how people who use balance for a living (vs. a hobby...) gets a scale to register small changes. First, use a small weighting spatula to move ball powder around. If you are weighting extruded powder use a pair of tweezers.

Once you put that last bit of powder on the scale, put either the tip of the spatula or tweezers on the weighting pan. Don't drop it on the pan, just touch it and immediately take it off. That will over scale the pan briefly as to what is in it. Now it will quickly and accurately stabilize to the true weight of the powder on the pan.

Always works and will give you reproducible weighting. So it's not the scale but the technique. Good luck.

I guess I'm stupid. I figured anyone using an electronic scale to weight small increments of powder either knew about this technique or could quickly discover it themselves. A Gempro 250 will sometimes react immediately and correctly when you trickle in the last few kernels of powder. But sometimes it doesn't. If I'm real close to my target weight and I add a kernel or two and nothing happens, that's my clue to take action in which case just touching the pan lightly, as you say, will force the correct reading.

Personally, I use my Lock-N-Load case activated powder dispenser for preliminary loading. I aim for a tenth under the desired weight. Usually I load a tray of 50 cases and then dump, weigh, and trickle from there.

The scale has a resolution of .002gr, so I accept my target weight or .002 over. Anything outside that range gets rejected. I don't know what the true precision actually is, but I'm satisfied that my equipment and technique is good enough for my purposes.

Same here! I thought every one periodically pushed down on their reloading table or even the scale to scramble the digital numbers some... This always helps while using any type of scale.. When using my balance beam scale I mostly just pick the pan back up but sometimes I'm lazy and just blow on the pan.. It works enough to have an S-D of 8.8fps so don't knock it till you try it..

 

[waldo1979]

In my opinion, you don't need the Chargemaster to throw the initial charge. I have an FX120I and was using my Chargemaster to throw the initial charge, then using an Omega trickler to finish on the FX120I.

I bought a Lee Perfect Powder Throw for about $25.00. I throw under with it and finish with the Omega. In no time I was outrunning the Chargemaster, so I sold it and recovered about half the money I spent on the FX120I.

I'm not sure if it's a problem but I've notice my RCBS powder drop shears extruded powders. Every couple of pulls you get some resistance.

 

[Ringostar]

In my opinion, you don't need the Chargemaster to throw the initial charge. I have an FX120I and was using my Chargemaster to throw the initial charge, then using an Omega trickler to finish on the FX120I.

I bought a Lee Perfect Powder Throw for about $25.00. I throw under with it and finish with the Omega. In no time I was outrunning the Chargemaster, so I sold it and recovered about half the money I spent on the FX120I.

I'm not sure if it's a problem but I've notice my RCBS powder drop shears extruded powders. Every couple of pulls you get some resistance.

i gave up on my Gempro last year. I found a good used Ohous 10-10 at a gun show for $30. My scores instantly went up, with better consistently weighed charges. I started throwing with my old Lee measure, then adding a few kernels with a tweezer. I then got a used RCBS powder throw. I was surprised that the Inexpensive Lee throws more consistent than the RCBS, but will sometimes bridge the powder inside. I have to tap it on the side a couple times with each throw, to make sure that all the powder comes out. It doesn't cut kernels though.