Digital scale drift...what digi scale are you using?

samsplacci71

samsplacci71

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I have been reloading for about 5 years. My current cheapo MTM digi-scale is drifting more and more between powder measures...I am ready to buy suitable replacement. I would prefer using commonly available battery operated portable digital scales under 100$. If you are using something like this, what are you using and what has been your experience?

thx, Marc
 
I've been reloading for almost 40 years I tried a RCBS 750 a few frustrating try's later I went back to my beam scale. You can set a beam scale on your desired weight and its done, no calibrating no warm up and you don't need to notice when the thing doesn't go back to zero or remember what weight your loading when doing successive loads for a field test.

RCBS 750 for sale only used once and cursed at several times, you really can't teach an old dog new tricks.
 
I have been using one of these because I already had it.

http://www.needledoctor.com/LKG-Stylus-Force-Gauge

You can find them cheaper on eBay and Amazon.

So far it's been highly accurate and repeatable. Like if I know I'm exactly 1 grain away from my target and I see three or two grains fall in, it's exactly the number over I expect to come up. Then I remove that one or two grains and voila, bang on. The only knock on it is it's so sensitive that wind flow through the room effects it and it's not super fast at reading. It's quick enough for me though.
 
I've been using a Hornady LNL digital scale. It's got the odd bad day when it would drift every so often during a reload session, possibly from the furnace motor kicking in during colder days. One issue I noticed with it is that it can be +/-0.1grn depending on which side most of the powder is in the pan. I should get that looked at.

I've been tempted to pickup a GemPro as well. Maybe this summer.
 
I have had 3 GemPro 250s. All ended up going back for warranty replacement. I can attest that they were fast to deal with but wasn't worth the headaches. I replaced my GemPro with an Older tuned RCBS 10-10 beam scale. Should have done that years ago. I have it set up with a magnified digital readout and throw charges to the kernel. No warm up, EM fields, vibration etc concerns.

Unless you have access to a 1K+ lab grade scale (I did for a couple years and it was awesome!), I will run a tuned beam scale.
 
The problem with battery powered scales is varying battery voltage and scale drift, and the A/C unit below is $89.99 and has a constant voltage.


Hornady Lock-N-Load Bench Scale Electronic Powder Scale

http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/340674/hornady-lock-n-load-bench-scale-electronic-powder-scale?cm_mmc=pf_ci_google-_-Reloading+-+Metallic+Reloading+Equipment+%28Not+Presses%29-_-Hornady-_-340674&gclid=CPfY46TMvswCFVNZhgodto0N3g

I bought the RCBS Chargemaster for its accuracy and "speed" and it makes loading much faster.
 
PSA:

1) Turn your scale on, and let it sit for 15 minutes
2) tap the platter with your finger several times. Not enough to make it 'error', just enough to make sure everything is moving freely
3) calibrate it

Doing number 2 (tee hee) has virtually eliminated my digital scale drifting.

Now I leave my scale on (plugged into the wall) pretty much all the time. I repeat 2 and 3 every time I sit down for a loading session.
 
arcticcathonda said:
I have had 3 GemPro 250s. All ended up going back for warranty replacement. I can attest that they were fast to deal with but wasn't worth the headaches. I replaced my GemPro with an Older tuned RCBS 10-10 beam scale. Should have done that years ago. I have it set up with a magnified digital readout and throw charges to the kernel. No warm up, EM fields, vibration etc concerns.

Unless you have access to a 1K+ lab grade scale (I did for a couple years and it was awesome!), I will run a tuned beam scale.
Click to expand...

When you say a tuned 1010 who did it?
 
I have used an iBalance 201 that I got from Canadian Weigh for about two years now. Have never had a problem with it, and it is reasonably priced from a Canadian supplier. They are 159 and change on their website currently.
 
*MALICE* said:
PSA:

1) Turn your scale on, and let it sit for 15 minutes
2) tap the platter with your finger several times. Not enough to make it 'error', just enough to make sure everything is moving freely
3) calibrate it

Doing number 2 (tee hee) has virtually eliminated my digital scale drifting.

Now I leave my scale on (plugged into the wall) pretty much all the time. I repeat 2 and 3 every time I sit down for a loading session.
Click to expand...

+1
I follow pretty much the exact same process!!!
 
Qball-16 said:
+1
I follow pretty much the exact same process!!!
Click to expand...

Me too! I use my Hornady LnL scale to do spot checks on my powder charge on my 550b when reloading pistol rounds, and an old RCBS 5-1-5 (iirc) for periodically checking the digital scale and for all my rifle reloading which is done on a Rockchucker. In my experience the digital LnL scale works quite well, but does drift a little if there is changes in the ambient temperature while you are working. Just have to remember to reset every so often and all is well.
 
I've been buying the cheapies off Ebay. I got a couple which drifted badly and now have two that are really good and have little to no drift during a session.

Here's one I've used with good success for checking handgun powder loads as dropped by the measure. It doesn't work for my rifle loading because it seems to not recognize the trickle charging unless I use a finger to "bump" the powder dish. But for checking the weight of powder dropped from a measure it's just fine. Nice big numbers and ir remembers the units mode that was used last. So no cycling through to get to "grains" each time. It's become my general checking scale for most reloading use. It's also excellent for weighing bullets if that's your thing. It settles quite quickly.

h ttp://www.ebay.com/itm/500g-x-0-01g-Digital-Jewelry-Precision-Scale-w-Piece-Counting-ACCT-500-01-g-/231639976030?hash=item35eed1885e:g:YIQAAOSwHnFVvXvh

For my rifle loading I went with a 0-30 gm scale and lucked out with a model on my first try that stays "active" so trickle charging to bring to weight is excellent. It is also quite stable for zero over a 10 minute period on average. If I notice anything sooner it's typically a grain of powder that got spilled onto the small dish which I use as a rest for the bigger powder dish. And with a resolution of just plus or minus .01 grain (that's right .01grain, not gram) I can really zero in on an accurate weight load for my accuracy rifle loading. In practice it's so fussy that I am happy when it's within .03gn of what I want.

This is the one I'm using;

ht tp://www.ebay.com/itm/Precision-1mg-Digital-Scale-0-001g-x-30g-Reloading-Powder-Grain-Lab-Jewelry-Gem-/131767440462?hash=item1eadf3944e:g:eek:x8AAOSwQjNW~Lmi

Why am I suggesting these cheapies among all the offering given so far that range up to well over $200? Only because I and you can buy a lot of duds and finally find a good cheap one that works as well as the expensive ones for a heap less money.

If I were running a lab and needed an accurately calibrated scale it might be another thing. But if I can measure CONSISTENT loads that are within a small error from calibrated I'm just fine with that. And besides. trusting them to a true weight standard is just a calibrated test weight away.
 
Can someone explain drift? Does the scale move off of zero? I'm using a Lyman micro touch I bought at Cabela's and it's always at zero when I return to the bench. I'll measure a bunch of drops on my SDB to make sure my charge is where I want it before getting rolling and they always are pretty consistent, I usually re-zero at the start of each session but it never moves off zero when empty.
 
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