Digital powder scales

Which brand name digital scale would you purchase?

  • Hornady

    Votes: 6 24.0%

  • Frankford Arsenal

    Votes: 5 20.0%

  • Lee Precision

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • RCBS

    Votes: 12 48.0%

  • Lyman

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .
A&D FX200i. I got mine for $350 when they offered a rebate on them last year. The deal was too good to pass up IMO. I spent more, after I bought the Auto Trickler, Auto Throw and some Area 419 goodies. With the Auto Throw and Trickler, you tell it what to throw and it throws the charge automatically. And it throws the charge really fast.

I've owned a Dillon balance beam, couple of Myweigh scales (including the Gempro 250), Hornady Auto Dispense Scale, and the RCBS 1500 Chargemaster. The A&D scale is the first scale I felt I could trust the readings. Love it.
 

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A&D FX-120i.

I've had 2 sets of these for approaching a decade. Stability, repeatability, resistance to environmentals, but above all: fast settling time set them apart. I have more accurate scales (0.1mg vs 1mg), but prefer the A&Ds for reloading by far. I can have a charge to +/- 0.06 in about 5 seconds, or +/- 0.02 in 10 seconds.
 
For some strange reason about 10 years ago I decided I wanted to collect some of the legacy balance beam scales when they were all over Ebay. I ended up with about eight scales that went back over 30 years or so. The ones with the all brass beam and weights were really nice when cleaned up a little bit.

Long story short, using a set of check weights all of the scales were within 1/10 grain accuracy even after all those years. Might be an argument that gravity is constant as long as you are on the same place on earth. Regardless of the brand of the scales, Ohaus made most of the ones I was able to collect. Made in USA and used USA gravity to function :D

None of the digital scales I have used (all under $75.00) have ever given me as consistent readings as the balance beam.

If I want to weigh powder I use a balance beam.

If I want to separate case or bullet weights I use a digital. Relative as opposed to accurate is the key in this case.
 
Jsnake711 said:
I have a hornady and I like it pretty well. Only complaint is after a few minutes it powers off
Click to expand...
This was my first scale. Use lots of Hornady products...but the short timeout finally got to me about the time that Midway USA introduced the National Metallic scale. At half price, I couldn’t resist. Now it’s all I use. My Hornady was/is quite accurate, but it always took a minute or so to stabilize on power up...even if I caught it right after auto-shutdown. I’m quite pleased with the National Metallic scale.
 
RCBS 1500

I started with a RCBS 5-0-5 in the 80's then thought I needed a digital scale so being that 99% of my reloading bench green equipment I bought a 1500 Chargemaster some 12 years back.
I liked it, but now I find it "changing" while in use.:confused:
I'm constantly having to re-calibrate with the check weights as the "zero" will gain a grain or two over a period with an empty pan on it.
Ex. A first throw will start at say 8.5 gr then after 20 or so minutes other throws will read 8.6 - 8.7 gr. A check of the throws on my old 5-0-5 shows 8.5 gr. I've tried turning it on and using immediately and leaving it on a hour prior to using. I've set it up on a different table disconnected from the press bench thinking vibrations were affecting it? This didn't help.
A re-calibrate of the 1500 fixes the increasing grains issue, but only until they begin to rise once again. Thankfully my Uniflow stays consistent and after each re-calibration of my 1500, the powder charge is what I need it to be. I am now double checking the 1500 with my old 5-0-5 for safety.
Maybe these electronic scales have a built-in lifespan?
I may contact RCBS to see what they say.
E.
 
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