Reloading Scales

[Bart B.]

While not often understood as to why, as long as any scale is repeatable in weight shown for the same item its weighing, it doesn't matter if it's .4937 grain off from perfect and exact with a lab quality check weight. Nobody shoots those check weights. Powders are not that repeatable for the pressure and bullet velocity across all lots it produces for a given component suite. Nor are all lots of primers igniting that powder. Close and safe is good enough.

 

[Skeet 25]

Just purchased lyman , check wt set on ebay for 42.00 and some pennies delivered.

 

[Skeet 25]

I just received verification of another purchase, ohaus scale- Lyman Ideal 55 pm black- powder trickler- and vintage bullet puller in original box- loading blocks and storage boxes, all for 120.00 delivered on Saturated. Can't wait to try them.

 

[kingmt]

You could could always use coins. IIRC they are standard weights.

 

[glc24]

I use both beam (Dillon) and electronic (Frankford Arsenal) scales. Mainly to keep each in check.

 

[Bart B.]

You could could always use coins. IIRC they are standard weights.

Here is the U.S. Mint web page on coin specifications, but without tolerance. Cent through dollar coin weight in grams.
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=coin_specifications
.
Cent (since 1983) - 2.500 g
.
Nickel (since 1866) - 5.000 g
.
Dime (since 1965) - 2.268 g
.
Quarter (since 1965) - 5.670 g
.
Half Dollar (since 1971) - 11.340 g
.
Golden Dollar Coin (since 2000) - 8.1 g
.
Silver American Eagle Collectors Dollar - 31.103 g (1.00 troy oz)
http://www.usmint.gov/do

Old worn ones will weigh less.

 

[1066]

Just to add to what Bart said (repeatability is king) here's couple of odd "scales" in my collection.
These are not calibrated in any way, you could probably call them weight comparators. You zero them up at a known weight then every charge is the same. Both these balances come with their own grain checkweights.

 

[splattergun]

I recently bought an old Bonanza balance beam at an estate sale (along with 2 lb of FFG and Handloaders Digest 1995). It's a real nice scale, except for one significant flaw; it doesn't have any kind of damper. It will swing up and down several minutes before it settles. Even if I use my finger as a stop, it keeps bouncing. I'd rather use my Lee beam scale. At least it has magnetic dampening, so it is much faster. THey both read weights within .1 grain of each other, according to my little Franklin arsenal digital scale calibrated with a 50 gram check weight.

 

[Master Blaster]

I have been using and RCBS electronic scale for three years now. I still have my old Dillon balance beam on the bench but I am going to box it up and put it in storage as it is just gathering dust. I have a good check weight set and have found the RBCS scale to be dead on every time. It also has calibration weights.

I am old fashioned and trusted the Dillion balance beam more but I checked it the other day with the check weights and it was off by about 1 grain! I had to clean it and fiddle with it to get it working again, apparently dust was in the knife edge pivot, and on the parts and that was throwing it off even though it was zeroed!
Boxing it up will free up some space on my reloading bench.

The Balance beam scale is more convenient to use with my powder trickler if I am loading precision match grade rifle loads, but lately I haven't been trickling charges once I set the powder measure.

 

[Rule3]

I have been using and RCBS electronic scale for three years now. I still have my old Dillon balance beam on the bench but I am going to box it up and put it in storage as it is just gathering dust. I have a good check weight set and have found the RBCS scale to be dead on every time. It also has calibration weights.

I am old fashioned and trusted the Dillion balance beam more but I checked it the other day with the check weights and it was off by about 1 grain! I had to clean it and fiddle with it to get it working again, apparently dust was in the knife edge pivot, and on the parts and that was throwing it off even though it was zeroed!
Boxing it up will free up some space on my reloading bench.

The Balance beam scale is more convenient to use with my powder trickler if I am loading precision match grade rifle loads, but lately I haven't been trickling charges once I set the powder measure.

The Dillion Eliminator is just a re named,colored Ohaus,505, as are RCBS. I have been using one for years it is very accurate. Not sure if the new ones are made the same as the older ones.

 

[Walkalong]

I use a Redding R2 and a Gem Pro 250. I record which one I used in the log. Example. "26.6 on 10X by R2" (That's 4.3 Grs of 700X.) I also record "Max" if I do not allow anything over the powder weight listed. If I just list a setting and a weight, it is an average. I only list a max if I am at or near the top of data. When I do that no throw can be over the listed charge weight.

 

[lauderdale]

rcbs charge master 1500/and verify on dillion beam scale . Then every 15 or so check again. To much air/ temp. swing for my gem pro 250.

 

[drband]

I just bought a NOS Bonanza Model C balance on eBay to be delivered tomorrow. It looks like it will be very easy to read/use. I don't think it is damped so I'll experiment with it a bit to see how best to use it. I just get tired of how hard to read the Lee Safety Scale is for me.
Pics when I receive it.

 

[drband]

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?media/img_2169.899/

 

[mgmorden]

I've got two beam scales - a Lee and an old Redding scale, but truthfully my electronic scale is generally spot-on and a lot faster to use. Once upon a time I could say that I used the beam scales to "double-check" against the electronic, but realistically that process got so boring (they always came out the same) that I just starting using exclusively the electronic. Generally most of the loads I work with are handgun loads in the 3.0 to 5.0 gr range and its not caused any issues.