Best Portable Digital Scale <$100

well a scale "stabilizing" in one second might not be as good as you think...
In my work area, we have scales reading to 0,0001 and the slightest wind or drift of hot air will make it oscillate so they are under a glass bell
also, some organic compounds are very volatile so if you take too much time reading you'll lose product, thus the scale will show a decreasing weight
 
I got one of ebay for $55, free shipping. Reads to 0.02 grain accuracy and comes with a 10 gram calibrating weight.

Works perfect for me, only disadvantage is the pan is somewhat small for measuring 45+ grain charges. I have swapped the pan though, works fine.
 
jethunter said:
Why make Joe use an online calculator? One more step in the process and one more chance to make a mistake.
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This is a very good point! I was thinking that after I posted, too. Maybe Joe didn't do too well in math and has stubby fingers on the keyboard.

Given that it's usually only two readings that need to be converted per load (start and max) it wouldn't be that hard to just convert to grams and jot it in your reloading manual - then double check it with another calculator.

Or better yet just use a Swedish or other European reloading manual instead where they only use grams. Hope you can read Swedish, though. :D That might add another factor for error all together.
 
I had purchased a scale from e-bay for about 20 bucks that weighed +/- 2 grains, which I used to calibrate a powder measure, so my rounds were totally consistent, although I didn't know precisely what their weight was (only to the nearest 2 grains). Since I am getting into some small pistol stuff, there is a lot of X.X grain recipes, so you really need at least +/- 1 grain or better yet 0.1 grains (.007 grams). So I found a diamond scale on e-bay for $6 (plus $20 shipping, of course) which will weigh +/- 0.001g and has a 20 g capacity. This is theoretically "good enough" for anything to do with ammo. Once again, I am just using it to calibrate the powder throw on my reloader, but at least I will (should) know exactly what the weight is. I will let you know how it turns out.
 
aletheuo said:
So, right now, on ebay for 19.95 shipped from Hong Kong I can get a digital scale with 0.01 grams accuracy that actually reads to the 0.01 point (that's about +- 0.15 grains). Given the product will actually perform this sounds feasible.
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Being the cheap bas#$d that I am :D I bought TWO of the Hong Kong Specials from two different sources (I am slow learner too). I didn't get what I paid for in either case.

One of the scales had a fairly serious offset in as much as it would not show ANY reading until you had about 4 grains of powder on it. Almost like there was sticktion in the mechanism

The second one (see above - slow learner :redface:) was not linear - the error was manageable at small weights, but as the loads got larger, the error got larger at a much faster rate.

Needless to say, both are not in use, and I am back to using my beam. Slow, but exactly the same every time and I TRUST it. I watched a buddy blow the bottom out of a 22-250 case last week :eek: - really dont want to experience that myself.

My opinion - pay what you need to pay to give you comfort you are not hugging a hand gernade ....;)
 
Best Conversion Tool Bar None

Sorry for the slight sidestep from the posted theme, but I thought you guys would appreciate this.

I have been using this for years - its a tiny FREEWARE program called Convert

This is off the website

http://joshmadison.com/article/convert-for-windows

"Convert is a free and easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!"

I dropped a shortcut onto my taskbar - I must use it about once a week at work.
 
If you look on e-bay there are some scales that are .01 grain accurate. I bought one for around 25 bucks shipped and it works as good as my freinds rcbs balance scale. We have measured many charges on both and it was perfect. Just read the fine print in each auction to get the correct one.
 
i have the frankford arsenal scale also.it's o.k. but the batteries die pretty quick(2xwatch batteries)and when they get weak the scale gets "funny".
also,the damn think shuts itself off after a few minutes of inactivity so is a PITA to re-calibrate again.i'm gonna look for something i can plug in to an adapter...
 
don't cheap out ...buy something good ...cause if you wanna reload and be precise with your charges buy the good stuff......!!!! i have a balance beam scale I can sell you for a $100 ...I used it about 3-5 times RCBS 1010 scale
 
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