What the hell with scales?

KnotRight

KnotRight

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I have an RCBS 505 that is in great shape and have 2 Hornady digital scales. one is about 34 and the other one is about $80. If I throw say 5 grains of powder I will have 3 different readings. All 3 were zeroed balance out before weighing. I used RCBS and Hornady weights. This was before I got into the single barrel
Bourbon but the posting is after a couple stiff on the rocks drinks.

All drinking took place after all loading equipment was locked up............GOOD IDEA
 
Did you use the same weights during each zeroing? How far off are they? Have you tried adding a known weight, say 150gr to the pans before weighing the charge, sometimes the sensors don’t seem to be as consistent at the bottom of their range.

I have never had problems with the electronic scales other than a little drift at the bottom of the range, but some folks seem to have problems all the time. I’d trust the 505.
 
I think all digital scales will "drift" over time and temperature. I know my RCBS Chargemaster scale does. Also scales at that price point are not known for their accuracy. They are probably specd at +/- 0.1 grain so one could be 5.1grns and the other could be 4.9grains easily. That is a 0.3 grain spread. My Chargemaster scale is no better. The price of a good +/-0.01 grain scale is down to around $300 but then you need a power supply filter, no electronics lights, no mobile phone near it, no drafts/air movement, stable temp, etc.
 
I use either a 505 or a 1010 ohaus, I tried electronic scales and unless you drop a lot of money they never come close to the old ohaus scales. mine may be antique but I trust my life to them. the 1010 is old and still within specs the 505 is newer and they both are on the money as far as single wt. charges. I have a set of the check weights and they both are within 0.1 of each other.
 
Tonight I am going to zero out the 2 Hornady scales and use the RCBS weight check kit at different weights to see how much off all 3 scales are. I do have a couple 505 scales and need to see if they read the same. Results will be posted on Thursday.
 
You haven't said how far apart the readings were. I would not expect three devices to give me the exact same reading every time when each of them is +/- 0.1gn. I would expect them to all agree within a couple 10ths of a grain though.
 
One thing I have done to make my cheapish (about $30) Hornady digital scale more consistent is to make sure what I'm weighing is placed on the same spot on the scale each time. I found that different places on the scale would give me slightly different readings, up to .2gr difference, so I made a small sharpie mark and make sure I am on it for every reading. The other thing is to make sure there are no wind currents from heat/air ducts, even if they are not directly over the scale it will make a difference if they are blowing in the room.

Maybe I am lucky but my digital scale and balance beam scale are both pretty spot on, verified by check weights. I occasionally get a tenth or two of difference in a reading but I attribute that to a little rounding error.
 
I've got one of those cheapie Gemini 20 scales off of Amazon that I have been pleased with. I like it more than the Frankford digital scale I started with. Always correlates with the Chargemaster or my check weights.
 
I took an RCBS 505 scale, Hornady Loc-n-Load and a Hornady GS 1500 scale to see how far apart they are using a set of RCBS check weights. The RCBS was always the same as one of the Hornady scales. A couple times the Hornady scales were +/- .1 gns off from each other. I used weights for 5 to 200 grams.
With these results i figure that the RCBS beam scale is the one to trust the most.
 
Toprudder said:
I've got one of those cheapie Gemini 20 scales off of Amazon that I have been pleased with. I like it more than the Frankford digital scale I started with. Always correlates with the Chargemaster or my check weights.
Click to expand...

I use one of these also and it is always dead on. I'll bring out the check weights in the middle of loading and it is still dead on.
 
I gave up on my Hornady digital scale. Anybody want to buy it? Trickling up to a weight on it is a crapshoot, especially if you are loading .223 or something that only takes 25 gr or less powder. I have a RCBS 505 and a Lyman M5 that are dead reliable and repeatable. I' not going to use digital scales any more. I spent too much time chasing my tail on loads that weren't repeatable.
 
I am not fond of my Hornady digital scale either. I rely on my balance beam scale and check zero before I start and I have a Lymans weight check set also that I use.
 
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