Feedback on HF scale

[Xcaliber]

Does anybody have one of those Harbour Freight scales . I'm looking into buying one but wanted to know if anyone already has one and has used it. It says in the flyer that its $10 and battery powered . Measures in grains , grams and oz. For the money it sounds good. Anybody here have one ?

[jcwit]

No feed-back but I can hear it now how any electronic scale that only costs $10.00 could never be worth anything.

All to soon we forget, My first pocket calcator cost close to $300 bucks and all it did was the basics, now you can buy them for $1.00 or less and they even have memory.

[DLCTEX]

I have heard that the average pocket calculator now has more computing power than the computers that landed the lunar module on the moon. Reminds me of Templer's "Future Shock" which stated that knowledge is doubling on the half times. In other words, for the amount of knowledge acquired in a period of time, the knowledge will double again in half that time. For $10 I'll test one out and see how they perform.

[BCall]

I'd double check, the one I have doesn't measure in grains. Unless they have a different one than is listed on their site, I don't see one that will do grains. mine was not purchased for reloading, and worked very well for what I needed, but that was less precise than weighing powder or boolits. Billy

[jcwit]

The one they list now sayes it measures in grains, part No. 97920.

Thats correct about the calculators we now have today.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I looked at it in the store and if I remember correctly it only measures to the .5 grain, which is not good enough for reloading. You can look it up by part number on their web site and look at the instruction manual as they usually have the manuals posted online.

G

[mooman76]

I would be good enough to weigh bullets.

[Throckmorton]

my buddy has one of their scales,and it's nuts-on with my balance beam every time we double check our loads,and we've done it many many times just to see if it stays nuts-on.
No lost nuts yet. ;)

[Rat-Man]

I have one I think is the same model. The one I have is 1000g x 0.1 g model.

It is a good deal for the price, if you want something to weight bullets and such, it is not any good for weighing powder it only weighs to the nearest grain. I seem to be accurate to within 2 grains for weighing the bullets that I checked it against on my RCBS powder scale.

[Xcaliber]

Well, went into the big city of San Angelo and got one of those scales advertised
as the US Magnum 1000xr on HF flyer. I got out my RCBS scale and zeroed the scale until I was satisfied it was a zero reading. Didn't want to open a can of powder so I used sugar instead. Got 10 grs. of sugar weighed and put it on my new pocket scale and surprisingly weighed out 10 grs. I don't know if sugar makes
any difference ., but it looked good enough for me to use either way with the out
come I got. So far its been the best $10.00 I've ever spent in awile. Could have
bought a 6-pack of beer...But then I would just drink it. Oh ..well. MERRY Christmas to everyone here on Cast Boolits.

[jcwit]

Even if a scale weights off a tenth or two but repeats the same every time it shouldn't be a big thing.

AS LONG AS YOU STAY UNDER MAX MORE THAN JUST A FEW TENTHS OF A GRAIN!!

I normally start low and work up for accuracy, then quit before it starts hurting my arthritis.
Work up for accuracy, at least thats what I call it. hehehehe

YES a Very Merry Christmas to everyone.

[Texasflyboy]

Does anybody have one of those Harbour Freight scales . I'm looking into buying one but wanted to know if anyone already has one and has used it. It says in the flyer that its $10 and battery powered . Measures in grains , grams and oz. For the money it sounds good. Anybody here have one ?

I have the Harbor Freight $10 model. Actually, I had three of them. I bought them for a project at work and decided to keep them after the job for reloading use.

They are unreliable under 5 grains. If you have check weights in the .5 or 1.0 grain you will see swings as wide as + or - three grains when trying to weigh 5 grains and under.

I tested all three loading .38 special with 3.5 grains of bullseye. I loaded 20 cases with a 3.5 grain indicated charge (zero'ing each case each time). It was nearly impossible to get repeatable charges with these scales.

I tossed all three and found a fairly useful and accurate digital scale on eBay for about $40 delivered. It checks 100% with the Lyman Check weights.

[jcwit]

Why would you toss them? Take them back and get your money back, H/F is very good at this. Or do you have money to throw away? Just asking.

[Green Frog]

About the minimum you can get by with and depend on the accuracy and repeatability of the unit is the MTM unit which retails for $39.95 complete with carry case, check weight and powder pan. You can probably score one of these for $30 or less in the Christmas Shopping Season or its aftermath. I would think the rest of your reloading would demand at least this much of an outlay for the critical step of powder measurement, but that's JMHO, YMMV!

Froggie

[Texasflyboy]

Why would you toss them? Take them back and get your money back, H/F is very good at this. Or do you have money to throw away? Just asking.

Ignorance. I didn't know HF would give me the money back. I do now.

I don't have money to throw away, but at the same time, hardly any tool I have ever bought at Harbor Freight was purchased with longevity in mind. Otherwise, I would head over to Sears instead.

[jcwit]

I don't have money to throw away, but at the same time, hardly any tool I have ever bought at Harbor Freight was purchased with longevity in mind. Otherwise, I would head over to Sears instead.


Right I know what you mean. I do use them for tools that I may not use much ect. At my age of upper 60's many tools don't need to last a lifetime anymore, not being morbid, just honest with myself. My bigest problem is trying to find where I put whatever tool that I want to use . They all seem to disappear, and my wife swears she never touches them.

Anyway glad to know about the scales as I had thought of getting one.

Merry Christmas to you and yours jcwit

[HeavyMetal]

Just like Texasflyboy I tried one of the Habor Freight scales.

He's right it won't check anything under 5 grains accurately and had a habit of "rounding" up or down as well! This is what I think Texasflyboy saw in his units.

OK for weighing boolits but useless for powder! Since my goal at that time was ot have a light weight portable reloading station to take to the range with me I returned it to HB with no questions asked.

[partsman]

save your money and get a better one, i have tried useing H F tools over the years and they might work ok but it wont work for long.
the older i get i just would rather spend the money once on a quality product instead of messing with the half assed stuff..

[TAWILDCATT]

some things are made for a purpose.the cheap drill bits are good for wood not steel.a lot of the tools are also sold by others at a higher price.look at your Lyman and RCBS electric verniers. I have a HF vernier thats the same as Lyman and RCBS.how about the tumblers?? do you know where any are made??The scales are probably not made to specs for powder.so why complain just recomend not getting them.:coffee:

[jcwit]

the older i get i just would rather spend the money once on a quality product instead of messing with the half assed stuff

The older I get the less I like to spend, don't see any sense in buying tools for my kids. If the tools last for no more longer than I have thats all that counts to me.

[Edubya]

The older I get the less I like to spend, don't see any sense in buying tools for my kids. If the tools last for no more longer than I have thats all that counts to me.
Who of us knows how long that we have?
If your're using stuff that is inaccurate for what we're doing it might shorten the time that we have. I'll be one that admits that I don't have the best of everything, but Ido scrimp on the things that matter less. I have a Lee pot, but my main casting pot is a RCBS. I have a couple of RCBS moulds, but I have many SAECO moulds and I have a RCBS 10-10, but I also have a couple OHAUS scales. My calipers are top notch and my presses are Dillon 550s and two of my sizers are Star.
I load for my S&W revolvers and Springfield pistols.
I am a poor but proud man, and will die as such!
EW

[jcwit]

Who of us knows how long that we have?


No one but GOD has that info, for sure I have no idea. With that said having a heart condition, being diabetic, and having leukemia, sorta puts the odds against one.

I really wasn't talking about reloading tools.

However I do not consider myself poor by any means, but very frugal.

[Philngruvy]

I bought the HF scale and I was so excited when I started weighing bullets. It seemed to be very consistent. But then I started weighing powder for my 9 mm and .38 loads and :( . So I gave it to my wife to measure her meal portions (diet thing).