Digital Scale Recommendations

powdergun

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I have been using my trust Lyman balance for three decades and it is still as good as new. However, my eyes aren't. Can you folks recommend an accurate digital scale with an easy to read display for these old eyeballs.

Criteria:
1) Accurate really able to weigh to .1 grain
2) Does not need to be recalibrated all the time
3) Zero button so I do not have to subtract the weight of the powder pan
4) Plugs in to the wall or at least does not need expensive batteries all the time
5) Reasonably priced

Thanks
 
How much "quality" do you need out of it?

I was *very* skeptical about the cheapish Winstead Peters ACC-2000 (Berry's product) scale that I bought years ago, but it turned out to work perfectly well for me.

I can't seem to find it online, but I'm sure there are similar products currently available. For me it was one of those "one and a half steps up from intolerably cheap" items, I was pleasantly surprised.
 
I have 2 cheapy, made in China and they seem good...I always double check with a balance scale if I am near max. So, powder thrower is working good, drop it on the cheapy digital and double check with the balance scale. I f it is well below max, powder throw and double check every 10 or 20 with cheapy scale.
 
Well my eye sight is not that good to start with so I found a good solution to my problem with my poor eye sight and parallax error, I use the camera on my cheap Samsung Tab Lite as I still prefer to use my trusty Redding beam scale over any cheap electronic scale.
Yes this scale is dead nuts accurate. I'm waiting for my AutoTrickler V4 but for now I'm sticking to my beam scale.

Redding scale.jpg
 

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Well my eye sight is not that good to start with so I found a good solution to my problem with my poor eye sight and parallax error, I use the camera on my cheap Samsung Tab Lite as I still prefer to use my trusty Redding beam scale over any cheap electronic scale.
Yes this scale is dead nuts accurate. I'm waiting for my AutoTrickler V4 but for now I'm sticking to my beam scale.

View attachment 568003

Nice!
I use a web camera off my laptop and a 21” monitor. Works awesome.
 
I have my scale elevated so while sitting I look straight at the scale, same elevation as eye sight, so I don't need to stoop down to see it.
Bought cheap amazon scale, quickly throw with Lyman cup, trickle up, and quick check on beam scale.

Seems nice and quick, for me any how especially while working up new loads.

I know there is faster, but this works for me, for now. I'm still acquiring components, so all my money goes there, and later I can upgrade the scale, throw.
 
I am like the rest
Bought the best digital I could afford and eventually went back to my old beam scales with magnification for my old eyes. My 505, 510 and 1010 will die with me
Sold the digital
Cheers
 
I have been using my trust Lyman balance for three decades and it is still as good as new. However, my eyes aren't. Can you folks recommend an accurate digital scale with an easy to read display for these old eyeballs.

Criteria:
1) Accurate really able to weigh to .1 grain
2) Does not need to be recalibrated all the time
3) Zero button so I do not have to subtract the weight of the powder pan
4) Plugs in to the wall or at least does not need expensive batteries all the time
5) Reasonably priced

Thanks

I’ve had a Hornady electronic bench scale for several years and it has been a very good scale. It has been as accurate as my RCBS 505, Ohaus 1010, Hornady Pacific and a Redding #2 and stays plugged in and on all the time.
No matter what scale electronic or mechanical a set of good check weights is a must.
 
I am like the rest
Bought the best digital I could afford and eventually went back to my old beam scales with magnification for my old eyes. My 505, 510 and 1010 will die with me
Sold the digital
Cheers

Agreed! a good beam scale will never let you down, In pursuit of getting accuracy I took a plunge down this rabbit hole with digital scales and powder dispensers, so far the most accurate scale I've gotten was with the new RCBS Charge Master Supreme that can hold accuracy between 1 to 3 kernel weight variance with N555 tested on my beam scale.

Here is a few things that I found that can effect scale accuracy
1: unclean AC power can cause digital scale to drift and I've seen this happen with one of my scales, until I started using a line conditioner and it made a big difference with the drifting problem. I'm using my old $800 Panamax that was used in one of my home theater setups. Little overkill but it's being used instead of sitting in a box.
2:Un-level surfaces can effect readings.
3:Air movement in the room from AC/Heating systems
3:Changes in room temperature.
4: Surface stabilization and isolation, more so with highend analytical balance scales.
5: This could just be an old wife's tale but some have mentioned that fluorescent lights if to close to the scale can cause problems, Not sure It's true or not! however all my lighting is LED in my reloading room.

I should have my A&D FX120i soon so I can run more tests with loads. Here's some photo's of my setup.
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Loading room.jpg

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Well my eye sight is not that good to start with so I found a good solution to my problem with my poor eye sight and parallax error, I use the camera on my cheap Samsung Tab Lite as I still prefer to use my trusty Redding beam scale over any cheap electronic scale.
Yes this scale is dead nuts accurate. I'm waiting for my AutoTrickler V4 but for now I'm sticking to my beam scale.

View attachment 568003

No matter how closely you look at the wrong number, the number is still wrong.

These beam scales are not anywhere near as accurate as some people seem to think. No matter how much you blow it up.
 
I have been using my trust Lyman balance for three decades and it is still as good as new. However, my eyes aren't. Can you folks recommend an accurate digital scale with an easy to read display for these old eyeballs.

Criteria:
1) Accurate really able to weigh to .1 grain
2) Does not need to be recalibrated all the time
3) Zero button so I do not have to subtract the weight of the powder pan
4) Plugs in to the wall or at least does not need expensive batteries all the time
5) Reasonably priced

Thanks

I have to start with a question... You asked Accurate really able to weigh to .1 grain... is that plus or minus 0.1 grain... or plus or minus 0.05 grain for a total variation of 0.1 grain?

Scales generally have two values you want to pay attention to... readability meaning the number displayed... and linearity meaning the actual weight deviation from the number displayed.

A general rule of thumb is that linearity is plus or minus twice the accuracy level of the displayed value.

If you have a decent digital scale that displays 0.1 grains, then in reality it is accurate to plus or minus 0.2 grains for a total weight variation (linearity) of 0.4 grains. Beam scales pictured above are comparable to this. (if you bother to actually test them)

Milligram Balance: If you have a decent digital scale that displays 0.02 grains, then in reality it is accurate to plus or minus 0.04 grains for a total weight variation (linearity) of 0.08 grains. (about 4 kernels of Varget) This is probably what you want, but it may not be what you call reasonably priced. Think FX120. This scale is not accurate enough to weight sort primers.

Analytical Balance: If you have a decent digital scale that displays 0.002 grains, then in reality it is accurate to plus or minus 0.004 grains for a total weight variation (linearity) of 0.008 grains. (less than half a kernel of Varget) These can be quite expensive and are the last word in precision... If you want perfect loads and the ability to weight sort primers, this is what you need.

Cheap scales are almost certainly worse and more expensive scales can be better. There is no free lunch and you will get what you pay for.

A $30 scale that displays to 0.02 grains will not have the linearity of plus or minus 0.04 grains. These scales are not to be relied upon. Don't think you can get off this cheap.
 
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The OP had good luck with his previous beam scale, met his needs except for visual. Blow one up a bunch to see it and life will be fine.
 
Get yourself a small set of Ohaus scale test weights and check the damned thing on a regular basis.
Consistency is better than one shot accuracy....with tolerances of course.
 
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