Powder Scale Recommendations

[TAMU74]

Started out to reload yesterday and my electronic scale is haywire. It will not hold zero, and when powder is added (with Lee Dipper) the weight just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. My first thought was the battery, so bought a new one and installed it and didn't change a thing. So I think it time to replace it. I am retired on a small pension so money matters alot. I would like to hear recommendations for an inexpensive, reliable replacement. I use my old Lee dippers to get close then trickle to get the load I want and weigh each load.

[DonMountain]

Buy a used mechanical scale off of ebaaa from someone with enough money that is upgrading to one of the expensive electronic scales. My RCBS 10-10 scale has been the best and I have seen them pretty cheap used. [smilie=2:

[1hole]

ANY beam scale is just as accurate, just as 'fast' to obtain a steady reading and much more relieable than reloading digitals. Just don't sit a beam scale flat on the bench top where it will be difficult to read. I put mine on a sturdy wood self so it's about chin high.

[wcp4570]

Before you give up on your electronic scale try using static guard spray on a rag and wiping it down really good. I read this awhile back, may have been here, don't remember. Static buildup will cause this symptom.

wcp

[462]

Electrons have a very perturbing habit of not doing what we'd like them to. On the other hand, gravity always works as advertized.

If you trickle powder, an electronic scale is slow to read the added weight, while a balance beam scale is not.

I think all the major reloading companies state that their various scales are accurate to within +/- .10 grain, so there doesn't seem to be any advantage there. Buy whatever balance beam scale fits your budget, and you'll will probably be very satisfied.

[Kraschenbirn]

+1 on a magnetic-damped beam scale. For many years, an RCBS 10-10 was my only scale...until it was damaged (broken beam) when knocked off my reloading bench...won't go into the messy details but there was a frisky golden retriever and an old tomcat involved. Anyway, rather than having my old RCBS repaired, I went the 'electronic' route. After about two years and a half-dozen different electronic scales (more than half of those were warranty replacements) I blew the dust off my old 10-10 and called RCBS about a repair job. RCBS Customer Service said "No Repair!" but offered to accept my old scale as a trade-in on a brand-new 10-10. Don't recall but the precise cost but it was less than I'd paid for my old scale twenty years earlier and RCBS included a prepaid shipping label with the new scale for the return of my 'trade-in.' Been using the 'new' RCBS for going on four years, now, and have never looked back.

As has already been stated, I've found that, with a bit of practice, a quality beam scale is every bit as accurate as most 'reloader' electronic models and just a fast to use.

Bill

[uscra112]

+2 on a beam scale. I have never yet seen an electronic scale that wouldn't drift half a grain per minute. Temperature affects the load cell and the decoder electronics, RFI in the room affects them, static electricity can affect them, und-und-und (as my German friends say). Maybe there's a lab grade scale that won't drift so badly, but I can't afford the $1000 and up that they cost to find out.

Only thing I use one for now is sorting .22 ammo, and at that I have to keep a check weight handy. It goes in the pan before I weigh a cartridge, and after. If the second reading of the check weight is not the same as the first, I re-zero and do it again. That's every 4th or 5th cycle at best. But after a while a rhythm develops, so it's still a bit quicker than using the beam scale.

[Rory McCanuck]

There might be nothing wrong with your digital scale.
Most of the "less expensive" ones will read accurately when the weight is applied,
but the weight will then increase the longer it sits on the scale.
This makes trickling up very difficult.
If you remove the pan, then trickle in some powder and re-weigh it, you will get more
accurate results. Maybe not the most efficient way to do it, but it works with what you
have right now.

[r1kk1]

We have digital scales at work that weigh either hundredth or thousands of a gram or grain depending on which scales. They run 24/7 and have a plastic sheet that does minimize wind movement. They are checked and zeroed once a shift or when needed. Too bad the price is too much to bare. I use a 10-10 and an old Dillon. The new Dillon does not have the capacity that I need. So if the old one ever gives up, I'll look for a new digital that has a 1000 grain capacity. I use check weights before each session on both. The digital gets a 30 minute warm up prior to loading and air vent is closed in the room.

I really like the 10-10 and they quit making the old Dillon. The new unit has a 750 grain capacity if I remember right, just not enough for me.

Take care

r1kk1

[TAMU74]

Tried my scale again this morning, following wcp4570's advice, I didn't have any anti-static spray so I wiped the scale and all of its parts with a dryer sheet and it worked. It held a zero and weighed the check weights correctly.

Thanks for all of your help and I will be buying a balance type scale in the very near future; gravity is constant and electrons are erratic.

[Mk42gunner]

Over the past thirty plus years, I have used several different scales; both balance beam and electronic.

I don't like how most of the electronic scales have the calibration drift while in use.

I also do not like how easy some of the balance beams are to misadjust while in use. The scales I like the best are the ones with a micrometer adjustment for the single and tenths position, like the RCBS 5-10 and 10-10.

In my personal opinion, the best thing you can do is get a set of scale check weights and use them religously.

Robert

[o6Patient]

+ (??) balance beam.

[doulos]

Over the past thirty plus years, I have used several different scales; both balance beam and electronic.

I don't like how most of the electronic scales have the calibration drift while in use.

I also do not like how easy some of the balance beams are to misadjust while in use. The scales I like the best are the ones with a micrometer adjustment for the single and tenths position, like the RCBS 5-10 and 10-10.

In my personal opinion, the best thing you can do is get a set of scale check weights and use them religously.

Robert
I agree wholeheartedly. I have 2 balance beams and 1 digital. I check them all with a set of check weights.

[David2011]

The RCBS 5-0-5 is my favorite moderately priced scale. I bought my first one in the early '90s. It has separate poises for 1 grain and 1/10 grain increments and is easy to set and verify visually even for aging eyes. It settles quickly, too. I had anoter perfectly good scale but when I ran across a second 5-0-5 in a LGS at a price I couldn't ignore I bought it and sold the other brand. I just wanted both scales to be the trusted 5-0-5.

David

[marten]

I use a BEL analytical balance backed up with an Ohaus dial'o'grain. I have a 5-0-5 to take to my range for on range reloading.

[doulos]

My 2 beam scales are a RCBS 10-10 and a Dillion . You can pick up the Dillion I believe for 65 bucks. Worth every penny IMO. Any beam scale made by Ohaus usually is warrantied for life also. I believe all RCBS beam and Dillon beam scales are made by Ohaus. And I think they make scales for Lyman, and Redding also.

[willk]

Amen on the Ohaus made balance beam scales. Mount them on a good shelf, chin high, don't drop them or use them roughly and they last forever. My check weights like my ten year old Dillon. As good as new. My son abandoned his electronic setup and purchased a good RCBS Balance Beam Scale and never looked back.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I still use a pair of Redding beam scales with the brown crinkle finish that I bought many decades ago. I keep them honest with a set of calibration weights that check on their accuracy. They have never wandered. I keep them in a couple of small wooden boxes with padding around them. They have no magnetic dampening, just the oil dampening system, but I never used it. Maybe a bit slow, but I never had any problems. LLS