Digital Scales

I will add that I own an OHause Dial-O-Gram I can use if the electricity fails. I also have a small (60-gram limit) self-calibrating digital analytical balance by Torbal with a force restoration transducer that resolves 0.1 milligrams native, or 0.00154 grains and doesn't drift, either. I checked my powder scale check weights on it and had to trim some of them (light sandpaper to lighten and aluminum air duct tape slivers to add weight). The ones that come with powder scales are typically class 6 and not particularly tight. So far, all my scales are in good behaving agreement.

I meant to say, when I left the National Metallic scale for a month, I accidentally left it turned on for a month and it hadn't drifted.

Here's a chart I put together of standard check weight accuracy by class.

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I have two beams LOL, one bought lo many year ago, one my brother gave me when he realized he was no longer going to reload.

Of course if the power goes out I can load with them! By the light of my LED lantern.

Of course I can charge up the lantern with the Generator once a day so my freezers stay frozen.
 
I have a frankford and a Hornaday. I have had several others. I almost never use digital for powder. I use them mostly for weighing .22lr for competition.
 
RC20 said:
Of course if the power goes out I can load with them! By the light of my LED lantern.

Of course I can charge up the lantern with the Generator once a day so my freezers stay frozen.
Click to expand...

I would go with a solar-powered light by loading in the daytime.
 
Anything digital comes with uncertainty of +/-1/2LSB (least significant bit). For most cheap digital scales, 10mg (0.17gr) is the LSB. That's why the displayed weight dithers between 2 numbers with 0.2gr difference. That's not drift, but the nature of the machine. The true result is somewhere between those 2 numbers. Very occasionally you will see 3 numbers with extreme difference of 0.4gr. The result is the number in the middle almost exact.

So the uncertainty is about +/-0.1gr, which is an absolute amount regardless the measured weight. Little or no problem for a rifle load of say 50gr, as the percentage error is +/-0.2%. But it will be quite a different story when I need to load 0.25acp with 1gr of trailboss.

The solution is a better scale with finer LSB. I bought a gem pro 250 with LSB of 1mg (0.02gr). It has been working great. Normal scales require only one reference weight for calibration, meaning it is doing a 2-point Cal. This one requires 2 reference weights; a 3-point Cal. Whenever I turn it on, I check it with its own powder pan, 41.8gr. Never misses unless the battery runs lower than the minimum.

I wouldn't mind having a good beam scale if I have room to keep them. Digital is good and tiny. Well at least it good enough for me.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
I use an RCBS balance, a Harbor Freight electronic balance, and a weight caliber set I bought on Ebay. Both the balance and the scale match. I like using the balance for powder measuring and the electronic scale to separate bullets and finished cases by weight.
 
My RCBS 1010 scale hasn’t seen daylight in maybe 10 years. I switched to a PACT electronic for a few years, and still have it. Bought a Lyman 1200 DPS 3 and used it for maybe 6 or 8 years till it died. Replaced it with an RCBS Chargemaster.

When the Lyman died, I dragged out the Lyman 55 powder thrower. I was almost finished all the loading when the Lyman died, but still had 20 or 30 rounds to load. So, going with that setup, I was reminded just how slow the process is without the Lyman. Not going back to a beam scale. No way.
 
After learning on a beam scale i eventually graduated to a digital scale.
For my needs the digital is SO much easier and more than accurate enough for me.

I currently have a RBCS rangemaster scale and a 1500 chargemaster dispenser. both are consistent and reliable.
 
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