Help pick a scale

I don't have to worry about the power going out any more because I moved. I still use mechanical tools to do everything but tumble. I have always had a generator and when the power was out I dragged it around so the neighbors could keep their freezers frozen. (that's just what neighbors do)
I trust my balance beam scales and I can calibrate them and check the calibration against my lab scale that gets professionally calibrated every year. The point I was making was that I find it hard to trust the electronic scales since the few that I have tried didn't work out well. That was a few years ago and the more expensive scales are probably adequate but, like I said, "maybe I'm old fashioned or a bit nostalgic..."
I am not going to tell you not to use your electronic scale - just that I prefer my beam scales.
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I am pretty much a stick in the mud for new things but when I got the first electronic scale it was like being liberated.

While I still keep the old balance beams I don't even bother to use them for cross check. Between the cal weight and the pan cross check I have seen no need.

I won't tell anyone that a beam is worthless, its not, it works.

I have gotten fond of fuel injection and not having to set the choke on the engine and pump fuel pedal a few times though. Pretty much the same thing.

Just a side note: Our whole neighborhood pulled together, it was the people who did not come ask for help that lost stuff.

One guy next door went out and bought a big generator and powered up himself and two other neighbors. That was generous of them, ours was barely enough to power up our stuff. We did check the adjacent ones and they were ok, if not we could have rotated them in and out.

By the time it was into it two days I had the utility disconnected and back powered the whole house.

Interesting the only thing that caused issues was the garbage disposal. That is a power hog. left it off and good.

We were the second longest without. They could not figure out where I feed came from. We had a friend that took 10 days to get back.

Our area they finally jumped across a main street with a wire and got it going.

Then they called in an outside electrical company, something like 12 rigs working the neighborhood to find it (they finally did).

One neighbor was on his generator for 3 weeks as his service entry wires and meter got ripped off and not an electrician to be had in town of course.
 
To be clear, if someone uses a beam its not like they have a disease.

Logically I don't get it as the digitals are far more accurate and versatile but certainly I would be happy to have a neighbor who used a beam vs snorting cocaine.


About 35 years ago, I felt that way about volt meters, until I had to use a Fluke Digital as I could not get the accuracy I needed from the analog.

Hmm, this works pretty good. Yea it did have a drawback, it needed a battery. Solution was to carry a spare.

Same thing with slide rules, I really liked them, but the resolution was ball park.

Digital calculators, I grew to love them (and even more so HP with RPN)

I did use a beam as a cross check as I got used to the digitals, haven't had them off the shelf in two years now.

For someone getting started, that's a tough one.

The issue does get into knowing how to watch one, drift and what to do about it.

In that regard beams don't have those characteristics.

I am very interesting in the Gen 6 Lyaman as it seems to have its own built in auto zero. Put a pan on it, tell it to accept it as a given weight (making sure it is right) and then self correct to that if it drifts (if I have that right)

Keeping in mind its $160 for the entire dispenser, just the scale should be no more than $80 and not reason you can't build that into stand alone scales.

If I had an issue with a beam it would be the tiny loads of 9mm on down. There the small built in errors can be serious.
 
Logically I don't get it as the digitals are far more accurate....
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I tried to qualify this a few years ago and I could not.

I found that digital scales are no more accurate than beam scales.

They may have a higher resolution, but that does not make them far more accurate.

As an aside and in the same reference, the same holds true of digital measuring instruments (i.e. a digital caliper) versus analog instruments.
 
Logically I don't get it as the digitals are far more accurate and versatile (...)
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I'd have to modify that statement to read: "...digital scales are sometimes as accurate, and occasionally more versatile..."

Expensive electronic scales are generally pretty good. (And I'm fairly certain that the OP is firmly in the realm of 'expensive'.)
But the cheaper stuff... not so much.

As we have discussed in the past, I found several popular FA and Cabela's brand digital scales to be dangerous if used with trickled charges.

The circuitry of some of these scales seems to be dependent upon the displayed value and hitting a certain threshold before it will increment to the next unit.

So, if one trickles less than the threshold into the pan, the scale may not increment ... possibly several times in a row, resulting a displayed value that is lower than the actual weight of the charge.

It's a bit like some of the old coin-operated pool tables and cigarette machines that required three to six quarters to drop the balls/cigarettes. If you only put two quarters in and pushed in the coin slide, it would take your money, but no balls/cigarettes would drop. The process could be repeated for $100 worth of quarters, with no change in the result. No threshold, no increment.

With one particular Cabela's scale that I have (which, in the past, could be found under many other 'store' brands), I was able to trickle 37 grains of powder into the pan with the display only reading 17 grains. :eek:
It was an extreme test and is an extreme example; but shows what goes on with some of these scales and how far off they can be.

The zero also tends to drift on the mid-range and budget electronic scales.

And, even some of the 'latest and greatest' have problems. For example: Hornady's latest scale, when initially released was described as "designed for trickling". That has since been changed to "trickle compatible" ... because many buyers, such as myself, found that it gets very unreliable when more than about 0.5 gr was trickled.
The zero also wanders.
And if it isn't re-zeroed every 15-20 minutes, it starts having seizures. (Zero jumping +/- 3-6 gr, or displayed weight sweeping up and down like a sine wave.)


For weighing hand-thrown charges or doing any kind of trickling, I use a beam scale (RCBS 5-0-5).
For verifying powder measure thrown charges, I may use the beam or an electronic scale. (And re-zero regularly.)
For sorting brass and bullets, or weight-matching jackets to cores for bullet swaging, nothing beats the speed of an electronic scale (or six).
 
Old School

Having a culinary background, I've had too many digital thermometers ruin too many meals. Analog thermometers have never - ever - failed me.

In other past professions, I have used lots of different scales. The balance units were always more trustworthy.

I'm not against digital scales. And I'm sure good ones work well and can't be beat for convenience.

But for me, I'll take the balance beam scale. And I rather like the ritual of setting them up, zeroing, testing with check weights, etc. When they're all set up and ready to go - I have absolute confidence in them. I value that.

Just my thing.
 
Put some check weights on a digital scale, and be done with it.

I have heard some claim leaving them plugged in helps. I am not sure. Mine has been plugged in for years, but not on.

Some claim flourescent lights are a problem. I got 4 4 footers, with magnetic ballasts right above, it is on the same circuit.


One odd thing, after zeroed, without pan it will read 135 plus or minus a 1/10. But whenever I put the pan back on, always zero, no plus or minus.

It would be hard to go back to balance beam, they just suck so much time up.
 
Logically I don't get it as the digitals are far more accurate and versatile (...)
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I have Redding, Herter, Pacific, RCBS, Lyman, I have three beam industrial type Ohaus. I have check weights by Ohaus, and I have electronic scales. I have parts for building scales, lots of parts.

One day I decided to effect a clothes dryer had on my scales, nadda piñata, and then I turned the dryer off, same thing.

F. Guffey

Forgot/forgive, I had the scale sitting on the dryer.
 
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