Balance beam vs digital scale ... any impact from humidity / temperature?

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Tikka223

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I am using an RCBS 5-0-5 and a Gempro 250.

Last time I reloaded, say 6 or 7 weeks ago, the humidity in my basement was around 30% and the temperature was around 19'C. The humidity is now 70% and the temperature is around 21'C. For some reason, the digital scale is consistently weighing the brass pan .06.08gr heavier today than it was 6 weeks ago. Am I missing something or can the heavier air be affecting the scale? Should I trust my 5-0-5 or my Gempro? At the end of the day, I want 42.9gr of H4350.
 
I'll trust the balance beam over the electronic every time personally mass is constant and I have never had my balance beam be affected my the environment other than draft. Can't say the same of my digital that collects dust on the shelf now.
 
aric84 said:
I'll trust the balance beam over the electronic every time personally mass is constant and I have never had my balance beam be affected my the environment other than draft. Can't say the same of my digital that collects dust on the shelf now.
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What he said.
 
Mass may be constant, but its weight (which the scale measures) can vary due to the buoyancy effect of air, changes in scale calibration, etc. I would go with the beam balance over the digital scale. FWIW - You are talking about an error that is likely less than 1/10 of 1 %, nothing to get OCD about.
 
cosmic said:
Mass may be constant, but its weight (which the scale measures) can vary due to the buoyancy effect of air, changes in scale calibration, etc. I would go with the beam balance over the digital scale. FWIW - You are talking about an error that is likely less than 1/10 of 1 %, nothing to get OCD about.
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OCD, ha ha ha, every time I go to weigh a charge I check the scale for zero and trickle until the lines are dead on, never have I thrown a powder charge even close to what I weigh out. For rifle loads I know this is not weird, a lot of guys wanting to shoot the absolute best in their gun weigh every single charge and I enjoy doing it on a beam scale that I trust.
 
With the Gem Pro 250 calibrate against test weight of 20 grams and zero scale. Note the weight of the pan and every charge weighed the scale should return to the pan weight , if not recalibrate again.

During a load session i may have to do this a few times or sometimes not at all.

The '250 is slow to respond to trickling powder and course powder like H-4350 are easier to use as a kernel weighs 0.02 grains as opposed to ball or flake powders.

Practice and technique speeds the process and accuracy of this scale........all in an effort to get single digit ES's.
 
aric84 said:
I'll trust the balance beam over the electronic every time personally mass is constant and I have never had my balance beam be affected my the environment other than draft. Can't say the same of my digital that collects dust on the shelf now.
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Do you not adjust for gravitational anomolies? I find that I have to recalibrate my RCBS M500 depending on where Jupiter is in relation to Earth. Can made a difference of up to 1 kernal of Titegroup.
 
Fox said:
OCD, ha ha ha, every time I go to weigh a charge I check the scale for zero and trickle until the lines are dead on, never have I thrown a powder charge even close to what I weigh out. For rifle loads I know this is not weird, a lot of guys wanting to shoot the absolute best in their gun weigh every single charge and I enjoy doing it on a beam scale that I trust.
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Lots of guys can't believe some of the tight groups I shoot in several of my old milsurps.

Don't tell anyone but the secret is I'm super OCD and sort bullets by weight and weigh every charge on my RCBS 10-10 right to the line.

It takes a bit of time but the results are so worth it.

As for balance beam vs digital scale. I have both but I only use my balance beam as I trust it 100% aND find its more consistent over a wider range of conditions. .

My buddy uses a gempro 250 and I've tried it out several times. Nice scale but for me the balance beam is the gold standard for consistency.
 
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I have owned RCBS 5-0-5, Dillon electronic, RCBS chargemaster, and now FX120 with auto trickler.

If I we're to do it again, it's either beam scale or high end electronic, high end electronic rocks.
And for the temperature humidity question, my reload room has a dehumidifier, and is constantly kept at 20 celcius 45% humidity, as much as possible.

Edit, still got the beam scale, I had set it next to electronic, and fx120 is very very consistent.
 
BS is always accurate. ES is fast. High-end ES is accurate and fast.

So you have cheap, fast and accurate. Choose 2.

FYI: a gempro 250 is a low-end ES. An FX120 is the lower end of high-end. There's a huge difference between the two, quality-wise.
 
So how consistent can I expect my 5-0-5 to be? Are there any higher end / more precise balance beams out there?

Personally, I prefer mechanical over electrical but then I start to wonder about tolerances and precision.
 
Tikka223 said:
So how consistent can I expect my 5-0-5 to be? Are there any higher end / more precise balance beams out there?

Personally, I prefer mechanical over electrical but then I start to wonder about tolerances and precision.
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I think they are advertised as accurate to 1/10th grain.
 
Digital for me, quick and accurate, I have heard of lots of human interpretation errors reading the scale on a balance beam,
 
Tikka223 said:
So how consistent can I expect my 5-0-5 to be? Are there any higher end / more precise balance beams out there?

Personally, I prefer mechanical over electrical but then I start to wonder about tolerances and precision.
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You can expect any well functionning BS to be 100% consistent and not very accurate. Actually, the balance itself could be 100% accurate, but your human interpretation of it would be the problem. And it would take forever to measure a weight. So they give it some inaccuracy (which is usually less than your own), in other words, instead of balancing at exactly, say, 3.8grains, it'll balance at 3.8grn +/- 0.1grn.

Look at it from this point of view: If the smallest increment is 0.1grn, it'll be very hard for your to discrimate more than 0.1grn. Probably impossible to see less than 0.05grn. And if some inaccuracy wasn't allowed, it would be impossible to balance it at all.

Your 505 is pretty much as good as it gets for a beam scale. If you want more accurate, you'll need to switch to an high-end electronic scale. Price start at about 800$ for a basic FX120 and pretty much never ends.
 
Good quality digital is best of all, but expect to pay close to a $1K or more. The lower end electronic scales can be useful but they are prone to drifting and aren't reliably more accurate than a beam scale.
So basically you have 2 choices:

- live with 0.1gr accuracy
or
- spend about $800 to $1000 on a good quality electronic scale.

Your money, your choice.
 
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Lead hammer said:
I use my laptop with a web cam aimed at my 5-0-5 pointer. Works great.
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Picked up a cheap back-up camera and a display for it from Amazon for about $40.00 total; add a 12v battery, some wires and a bit of time to mount it so it's totally stationary and consistent from session to session, and (I think...) the human element is pretty much removed from the process (aside from my fumble-fingers bumping the trickler at the wrong time...).
 
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