More knowledge I have gained here

[wallenba]

Today, UPS delivered an RCBS micrometer metering insert I ordered from Midway to update my old Uniflow. Eager to try it out, I filled the hopper with 231, calibrated and zeroed a new electronic scale and began weighing throws from a random setting to check consistancy. Every third or fourth throw grew by about a tenth grain until I was fully one grain over where I started. I rechecked everything, stirred the hopper below the baffle. The uniflow was well used and seasoned, so bridging or sticking was not an issue. I was quickly losing confidence in the new part. Finally I decided to take a break and come back to it later and put the empty pan back on the scale. Yup...that's when I noticed the tare weight had gone from '0' to 1.0.

Somewhere here, at sometime, someone said that these scales can do that when the pan was too light. The circuitry gets confused, and the cure was to tape a washer to the bottom of the pan. Problem cured, the error was with the scale not the meter. So...thanks again guys. If I had never read that I would still be pulling my hair out. :)

[burfurd]

That is exactly one of the reasons that I do not use a digital scale. I trust only a beam scale as the digital scales simply cause too many problems.

I used to run the maintenance department for a pharmaceutical repackaging facility and we had in house probably 40 to 50 sets of digital scales (some costing several hundreds of dollars, up to over $100,000). These scales gave more problems than anything else in the facility, including the really expensive ones.

Just my 2 cents.

burfurd

[Dennis Eugene]

+ 1 with Burfurd I have avery nice digtal scale sitting on a shelf I used it for a couple months or more befor retireing it and going back to my beamscale. Dennis

[mooman76]

I have also heard when they are cold and first turned on sometimes they will climb in weight. Mine as done it twice but was easily recognizable. It was cured after a calibration ot by then it had warmed up. I keep a set of check weights handy and have a backup beam scale just in case.

[zomby woof]

Digital scales must be calibrated and warmed up every time. I've had no problems and I have three digital scales. You also encounter static problems if your scale is in a very dry place. I wipe with a dryer sheet and that takes care of it.

[Crash_Corrigan]

Yeah the dryer sheet idea is good. I reside in Las Vegas and you cannot find a drier climate than here. I have a 750 GR electronic scale which I love but I must check it with a known weight from time to time.

I like it because it is so fast to use when weighing boolits after being cast.

[AZ-Stew]

Somewhere here, at sometime, someone said that these scales can do that when the pan was too light. The circuitry gets confused, and the cure was to tape a washer to the bottom of the pan. Problem cured, the error was with the scale not the meter. So...thanks again guys. If I had never read that I would still be pulling my hair out. :)

I'll have to try this with my Lyman DPS-1200. It works well with charges of 20 grains or more, but is erratic with lighter charges.

I also keep mine plugged in all the time so I don't have to wait for it to "warm up".


Yeah the dryer sheet idea is good. I reside in Las Vegas and you cannot find a drier climate than here.

OK, OK, it's not drier here, but it's just as dry, and we have static issues with the digital scales, too. I was going to try to find a way to thoroughly ground mine, since I did all the electrical in my shop and I KNOW all the sockets are grounded, but the dryer sheet sounds like a much better idea. The problem with the power supplies for the digital scales is that the wall wart power supplies for them completely isolate the DC output from the AC socket connection, and therefore they also isolate ground from the scale. This is not a safety hazard, but the scale "floats" electrically, allowing it to retain a static charge.

Regards,

Stew