Time for a balance beam I think

[C Valentine]

Have been trying to reload for Sundays match since yesterday and both of my electronic scales (GemPro and RCBS) have decided they don't want to play nice. I think I would give my eye teeth for a 10-10-10 right now! Never had any problem with my electronic ones jumping all over the place until yesterday. I have unplugged everything else in the shop, left the cell phone in the house, used anti-static spray, checked level, etc. No go.
Am even beginning to wonder if the big solar flare we had Tuesday could affect them! Arrrgh!

 

[dixieppc]

I gave up on digital scales except for rough sorting of brass and bullets. I had my mid 70s vintage set of Ohaus 10-10 scales tuned and have not looked back since. Absolutely flawless repeatability with sensitivity to a single granule of Varget.

I have said this before on this forum and I say again, we put a man on the Moon 46 years ago and yet industry still can't seem to produce and/or offer an "Affordable" set of digital scales that are accurate and REPEATABLE..... Sad!

Regards.....

 

[bigedp51]

How about 10 Lee powder scoops for $10.00 plus $10.00 shipping and handling. :

The smaller scoops help prevent warped banana shaped cases.

I also understand CatShooter has his first set of scales for sale from the time when he worked in Anubis test labs.

 

[jonbearman]

Think the scale is all at fault, we just had a huge solar storm and it knocked out my internet several times in the last few days. It screws with anything electronic. Wait a few days and see how it behaves.

 

[Jay Christopherson]

I gave up on digital scales except for rough sorting of brass and bullets. I had my mid 70s vintage set of Ohaus 10-10 scales tuned and have not looked back since. Absolutely flawless repeatability with sensitivity to a single granule of Varget.

I have said this before on this forum and I say again, we put a man on the Moon 46 years ago and yet industry still can't seem to produce and/or offer an "Affordable" set of digital scales that are accurate and REPEATABLE..... Sad!

Regards.....

It depends on what your definition of "affordable" is, and whether or not you take in to account other factors (the value of your time for instance) into that definition. FWIW, my $900 GD503 is not having issues and for me personally, the investment was worthwhile. The newer A&D FXi, at ~$500, is probably an even better value, again depending on your needs and how you measure value...

 

[bench]

bigedp51

That is some funny stuff------LOL

 

[ridgeway]

I gave up on digital scales except for rough sorting of brass and bullets. I had my mid 70s vintage set of Ohaus 10-10 scales tuned and have not looked back since. Absolutely flawless repeatability with sensitivity to a single granule of Varget.

I have said this before on this forum and I say again, we put a man on the Moon 46 years ago and yet industry still can't seem to produce and/or offer an "Affordable" set of digital scales that are accurate and REPEATABLE..... Sad!

Regards.....

Do you have any experience with a higher end magnetic force restoration scale. I too have an old Ohaus beam scale that is kernel sensitive, but my A&D FX-120i is far superior. I believe if you used one, you would convert.

 

[C Valentine]

Think the scale is all at fault, we just had a huge solar storm and it knocked out my internet several times in the last few days. It screws with anything electronic. Wait a few days and see how it behaves.

Could be Jon. My internet was flaky and my phone had static on it. Static is gone now and the RCBS seems to have regained it's sanity. The GemPro is still in time out. ;D

 

[Lbart]

Xhuntress,
I have used an electronic scale for something over 15 years and would never go back to a balance beam. The speed and convenience of a GOOD digital has to be experienced to be believed. Even more so when weighing bullets and brass.

Having said that before I bought my first digital I tried a few of those marketed by the reloading companies belonging to friends. I was not impressed.

My first buy was a Denver Instruments which measured to 0.1 grains since this was what DI tech said was more than adequate : A number of years later I moved up to a DI TR-603D which I used up until a few weeks ago when I purchased a Sartorius Entris64-iS . http://balance.balances.com/scales/569 A quality scale as Jay said is worth the money in my opinion.

 

[sparky123321]

Expensive but a magnetic force restoration scale is well worth it. I love my analytical balance. Wish i had one years ago. Nice to have a scale repeatable to + or - .002gr.

 

[ericbc7]

Do you notice a difference when using batteries rather than house current? I have my charge master (and gempro when I rarely use it) plugged into a ups (uninterruptible power supply) made for computers. If those options don't work you could try an Aluminum hat I guess...

 

[6mmcldasher]

Gempro is a p.o.s , ask me how I know.

 

[Chappy]

Xhuntress,
I have used an electronic scale for something over 15 years and would never go back to a balance beam. The speed and convenience of a GOOD digital has to be experienced to be believed. Even more so when weighing bullets and brass.

Having said that before I bought my first digital I tried a few of those marketed by the reloading companies belonging to friends. I was not impressed.

My first buy was a Denver Instruments which measured to 0.1 grains since this was what DI tech said was more than adequate : A number of years later I moved up to a DI TR-603D which I used up until a few weeks ago when I purchased a Sartorius Entris64-iS . http://balance.balances.com/scales/569 A quality scale as Jay said is worth the money in my opinion.

Damn near had a stroke when I seen the price!!! That's OCD to the next 3 levels! ;D

 

[C Valentine]

You guys are away out of my league! All I want is a non-digital alternative for when the aliens start shooting their ray guns at my digital ones. LOL Personally, spending that kind of money on bullets, powder, cases and primers and getting a lot of range time would do me a heck of a lot more good than a scale that weighs to .002gn!

 

[nhm16]

You guys are away out of my league! All I want is a non-digital alternative for when the aliens start shooting their ray guns at my digital ones. LOL Personally, spending that kind of money on bullets, powder, cases and primers and getting a lot of range time would do me a heck of a lot more good than a scale that weighs to .002gn!

I used to have a $150 GemPro 250, which is a strain gauge balance that also supposedly goes down to 0.02gn. I recently upgraded to an A&D FX-120i, which at less than $500 to your door is probably the least expensive magnetic force restoration balance you can buy, and though it's no more sensitive (at least in terms of published specification), it's been a major upgrade. The advantage is that you get an accurate, repeatable reading quickly, without having to constantly worry about drift and re-zeroing, or waiting for the balance to "settle down".

 

[BenchShooter]

Well, I for one can see what you mean Dixieppc. After 3 digital scales completely failing on me in 5 years, I have gone back to old school beam scales. And those three scales were not cheap scales by my economical standards.

My beam scales are not tuned but they work just fine because I have always babied them. And when I bought them years back, they cost less than $50. They are accurate, dependable and repeatable every single time. I can also throw a short charge and trickle up to weight just as fast on my beam scales as I did on those three digital lemons I had.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for everyone that has had positive experiences with digital scales or at least had the money to afford the cost of getting up to an accurate, dependable and repeatable digital scale level. But all I could afford during my digital scale search was a measly $300 at each try.

 

[wapiti25]

Anyone tried the Bald Eagle scale?

 

[escopeta]

I used a 10-10 for years and finally sold it here a few months back as I use the FX-120i
exclusively now and have calibration weights just to be sure. Used for over a year in my 6Dasher and other calibers. I throw with a Redding BR measure slightly under and with fingers place the last few kernels to exact weight.

 

[BoydAllen]

One thing that is worth mentioning is that a properly tuned beam scale is in a whole other category from the same scale out of the box. Given their relative rarity, I think that everyone who does not have one should watch a video so that they can become familiar with what is being discussed when a tuned scale is the topic. Fellows tend to think that because they have had a beam scale for years, that they know all about them. Generally, without some exposure to the tuned version, they have no idea. Here is a link to a search results page that has includes several videos on the subject. I have never seen an out of the box balance scale that would even come close to a tuned scale's performance. None of this should be taken to mean that I am against electronic scales. It is just that I am unwilling to part with the money that a very good and reliable one costs, and have learned to tune my own balance scales.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Youtube+scott+parker+scale&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=tuned+reloading+scale&tbm=vid

 

[sparky123321]

I'm a bargain shopper and didn't pay very much for the 3 analytical balances(.002gr) I purchased recently. I paid $50 for a used Ohaus Pro AV264C Digital Balance, $200 for a used Ohaus Adventurer Pro AV114 and $400 for a used A&D GR-120.

I use the A&D GR-120 with a power trickler after dropping a light charge with my Lyman Gen 6. I gave one of the other scales to my brother and I keep the other was a backup just in case. Considering the thousands I spend on barrels, actions, brass, bullets, powder and primers each year I feel it was money well spent. Scales at this level are pretty much 100% repeatable and the A&D internally calibrates itself automatically anytime it determines the environmental conditions have changed(movement, vibrations, temp).

I'm not knocking balance scales. A good balance scale is hard to beat, but there is a reason ever scientific lab out there has switched from mechanical balance scales to magnetic force restoration analytical, semi-micro or micro balances.