Considering a new digital scale

[Lloyd Smale]

your dipper loads probably shot just fine too and im betting you still can see and have all your fingers. Heck we have guys here that think you need a 4000 dollar precisions chemists scale to weight powder and we have guys that think there lee scale is a precision instrument. After all there called lee precision. Now if they could get lee to make a nice red electronic one for 30 bucks they would probably step over to the dark side. All I know is ive been loading with digital scales exclusively for more then 20 years and probably load as much or more then anyone on here and have NOT ONCE had a problem with a load because of a defective reading on my digital scales. Half of them loading on a pro 1000 lee press with a plastic powder measure leaking all over everything and verifying the charge weight with a plastic lee PRECISION scale and come here and say there paranoid of electronic scales because my digital scale might be off .05 grains.

I'm pretty much with you, Lloyd. Despite having that GenPro 250, yesterday I loaded up 100 rds of 32 H&R Mag using my Lee Dippers. Weighed the first scoop to make sure it was well under the Max and let fly. Use them exclusively at my hunting camp.

[lightman]

I like the digital scales that I have had. I got one of the first Dillon's and used it until it died. It was pretty bad to drift off of zero and needed to be rezeroed pretty often. I checked it everytime that I rezeroed it with a beam scale. It was always spot on. I grew to trust it, but it had to earn that trust.

My current digital scale is an RCBS ChargeMaster. It hardly ever drifts off of zero and has always been spot on. But like the Dillon, it had to earn that trust. I check it with a check weight and a beam scale.

Just for the record, my loading room is in my house and is in a controlled environment. Although I did close off the nearest air vent! My bench is also very stable!

I use the scale part of the ChargeMaster to weigh bullets, cases and to check thrown charges from my powder measure. The dispenser part is used for throwing charges of extruded powder.

Anyway, my advice is to buy a digital scale if thats what you want. I would buy something at least midway in the price range. And I would check it with a beam scale, at least long enough for it to earn your trust.

[1hole]

I like the digital scales that I have had. I got one of the first Dillon's and used it until it died. It was pretty bad to drift off of zero and needed to be rezeroed pretty often. .......

My current digital scale is an RCBS ChargeMaster. It hardly ever drifts off of zero and has always been spot on.

Glad you're still happy with your digitals after one loss.

But, one thing about your ChargeMaster ... it is not, as such, a simple scale, it's more a part of an automatic powder measure system. And, in that, it's priced way above what most digital reloading scales cost so you have a right to expect a bit better reliability and I hope you get it. I've not used one myself - and don't need one even if it were free - but I've read several web reports of people who have experienced various failures with ChargeMasters.

For background, I spent some 45 years maintaining/calibrating very costly space/military electronic measurement equipment and had very good job security. Now retired, I no longer have access to the sophisticated test equipment and bench standards to do that work. The only digital anything in my loading room is a small clock, an AM/FM radio and a cheapo scale I sometimes use for bullets and cases. (If/when the scale fails - and it will - I don't know of anyone who lost part of himself because of an over or under weight case or cast bullet! )

[country gent]

Like all precision tools a scales should be calibrated checked before each use dosnt matter if its digital balance beam or analytical balance. I will set my mechanical to the charge weight and use check weights to check it at the setting. Like a dial indicator zero is zero is zero. If your loads are worked up to your scales and loaded with your scales even if the scales is off a small amount Zero is zero and a load at a given setting that is zero is that. Yes load data might seem light or heavy but this is one of the reasons we are all told to drop loads and work up.

I use several scales depending on what Im doing. An old Dillon digital, a gempro 250, A rcbs 5-10 an old redding oil dampened, A RCBS dial o grain and a RCBS 505. Not for accuracy but for the task at hand. I like the old redding since changing the oil can speed or slow dampening.

One scale mod that was popular was replacing the single line 0 point with scales that gave tenths up or down either side of zero. this allowed seeing the amount off.They could be made easily and made it simple to see what it was off.

Scales can be affected by many things even the best is affected by drafts. Check you scales when the heating air conditioning is off and running.

Like mikes that are off a .001 as long as all parts are measured with the same set they fit together.

[str8wal]

I'm not sure why anyone would want to use a balance beam anymore. Even a cheap Franklin Electronic is faster and just as accurate.

Because balance beam scales rely on gravity, whereas digital scales rely on a sensor. Gravity has been consistant since the beginning of time. Electronic sensors work until they don't, and you won't know when that happens. I will never trust a digital scale to weigh powder, especially when a dampened beam scale will weigh with a second's time of a digital.

[1hole]

Electronic sensors work until they don't, and you won't know when that happens. I will never trust a digital scale to weigh powder, especially when a dampened beam scale will weigh with a second's time of a digital.

Well said; an additional second per each round is probably about right. When loading as many as 200 rounds that amounts to less than 3 minutes difference and that has to ignore the original set up and zeroing and intermittent rechecking the zero and calibration time of a digital! No one's life is going to be improved by a very few seconds or even minutes of time saved per reloading session.

That's why the often heard judgement that digitals are "faster" amaze me; if that's true someone isn't handling his beam scale properly. Or he tried a 60+ year old scale without magnetic damping. Or he's just parroting what he's been told/read?

[Wansingct]

I've been using a cheap chinese {{GASP}} digital scale as my primary for reloading for about 5 years now. If you want my experience I have posted it HERE a while back. I've found digital scales (even cheap ones) to work well as long as you know your reloading gear and trust it within its capabilities (just like other things funny enough) they work just fine. Get something you're willing to use enough to figure out its quirks, get to where you feel you can trust it and do your thing. I can say that I've been using a $25 chinese scale from Amazon across 1 replacement and they've worked well enough for me to recommend it and trust it won't blow anyone up.