Component Weighing

[buyobuyo]

Once I find an alloy that I like, I would like to mix up a good bit of it to have on hand, and I was wondering how you measure out the various components. All I have right now are my reloading beam scales, which won't be feasible when trying to mix up 50+ lb batches.

[sargenv]

A bathroom scale might be useful when weighing larger amounts.. most of those will weigh up to 300 pounds.. usually tolerance is about 3% though.. 3% of 300 pounds is 9 pounds difference.. Another option would be to ingot to a certain size and get an electronic kitchen scale that goes up to about 6 pounds... Once you know ingot weights you can get fairly in the ball park in that manner.

[lwknight]

Any cheap scale will do just fine as long as you compare similar weights.
weighing up 100 pounds of lead and weighing 2 pounds of tin may not work out very well on a cheap 300 pound scale.
Weighing a 40 pounder vs a 60 pounder wqould be a good comparison. We're not talking nuclear physics here so if you weigh 2 pounds on a kitchen scale and 100 pounds on a bathroom scale , it would be good enough for what we do. Just don't trust the 300 pound bathroom scale to accurately weigh 2 pounds vs 2.5 pounds.

[HORNET]

I use a spring-type kitchen scale that reads to 25 Lb and has graduations in ounces. You can always make smaller batches and blend the batches. I get very consistent weights from one casting lot to another doing it that way.

[fredj338]

An old postal scale or inexpensive kitchen scale that goes to at least 10# works fine.

[buyobuyo]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see what I can find the next time I head to ABQ. It looks like Harbor Freight has a scale that may fit the bill. My batches won't be too big (50-75 lb) due to pot size limits.

[jbelder]

I picked up a refurbished Royal ex315w shipping scale for around 50 bucks shipped online.
http://www.postalscales.com/product_info.php?products_id=385

[captain-03]

An old postal scale or inexpensive kitchen scale that goes to at least 10# works fine.


I use a postal scale -- goes to 35 lbs and does show lbs and ounces ... I think I payed around $20.00 for it and have been using it for years ...

[cajun shooter]

You may purchase from Flea Bay a digital postal scale that goes up to 50 lbs. My wife and I have two of them and they are around $28 The name is Weigh Max. Two years of use so far. In the art of lube making I have found that a few oz's either way makes no difference.

[Von Gruff]

When I do a smelt of either straight lino, ww or pure, they are all made into 4 lb ingots and stored in named boxes. When I want to make a batch of a particular alloy I do it by count. Will put 12 of pure and 12 ww back into the smelt pan and make 24 ingots ot 50/50 so I get about 100lb (ok 96lb) of ingots that are going to give me the same boolit strength and hardness so should perform the same. I do all my alloys by count rather than weight simply by knowing the average weight of my ingots.

Von Gruff.

[H-Marlin]

This is a good company to buy from.

http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/

I purchased this scale from them about 3 years ago and it works great.

http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/weston-flat-top-44.aspx