Trusting Digital Scales

[Aussie_bob]

Hi Guys just a quick one but how can you trust digital scales.
I have a set of Dillon De-terminators and when batching projectiles or even .22 ammo into weight i start weighing and putting into batches of say .2gr different now and then i will go back and re-weigh a bullet or projectile and it may be that .2 of a grain either way so recalibrate and check a few others. Now if you were weighing powder and it was .2 out it could make quite a difference in some loads that's why when doing loads i stick with the balance beam type weighing system can`t seem to trust electronic scales.

 

[Preacher]

I check weights for my old RCBS Model 90 a few times during a loading session and it has never been off once it's set up. I have a few odds and ends that I use to check weight, and they are always the same once it has stabilized.

 

[ReedG]

I have similar problems with my Lyman 1200 scale. I calibrate, put the pan on and zero and then start weighing powder charges. Each time I dump in powder, note the weight, and then remove the pan to dump the powder, the number in the window -- which is a minus of the tare weight of the pan -- varies by as much as .3 sometimes. When weighing cases, after I remove one from the scale the idling display which should be 0.0 is almost always 0.1 or 0.2 and sometimes it will blink 0.2 then go back to 0.0. If I weigh something without rezeroing it will not weigh accurately. And I've about worn the covering off the zero button!

I have used several different models of electronic scales and have never seen one that will maintain a true zero and accurate weight to +/- .1 over more than two or three items.

I use mine just for a test weight of something now and then but never for anything that requires consistent accuracy. In my experience nothing yet beats a good quality balance beam scale like my old Redding with the oil reservoir.

 

[Dean]

I am also an "EX" digital scale user.I had absolutely no faith in it what-so-ever.If I re-weighed a charge it would always be different.
Got myself a beam scale and my ES was cut in half.Can't argue with that.
I have heard that jewelers digital scales are more reliable but also more expensive.

Just my .02
Dean

 

[Vulcan]

I also had the Dillion scale and had the same problem. There is no way it is consistant to .1 grain like they say. Mine could vary by .2 grain or more.

I think to get a digital scale you can really trust you have to spend the money and buy the acculab 123 or denver instrument scale. They have their problems such as being to sensitive and wondering off zero a bit but once you learn to be patient and let it settle on zero, they give good consistant weights.

 

[Mikem]

I have both types, but only use the electronic one, if you understand that there affected by temperature change and any air movement, there easy to live with.
What I do is make up load check weights, using led shot and masking tape. Ill make a check weight for all of my usual loads, check them on both scales, and compare them with the store bought check weights, so I know there correct, and weigh what they say.
Then when I'm weighing powder, say 30.6g I can drop the check weight that has 30.6g written on it in the pan at any time, and if all is well, it will read 30.6, or the same as the load I'm dropping.
I do trickle all loads for accuracy, so I find it easy to keep track of the scales accuracy.
Just the way I do it.
Mike..