Lee Safety Powder Beam Scale zeroing

[Boomer]

When these scales first appeared I expected they would be more accurate than anything any other balance beam scales, due to the beam having a maximum weight of 100 grs rather than 500. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. The scale was difficult to zero, and once zeroed was not repeatable. A powder scale that is not repeatable is dangerous. The only way you can determine if a scale is repeatable is to use a check weight set, determine if each weight weighs accurately every-time, and if repeatability is observed right across the scale's weight range. IMHO, Lee should have redesigned this thing or scrapped it all together and put their name on an Ohaus products like some other makers have.

 

[Travel240z]

May be a silly question, but you do have it on a good flat level surface right.
I never had any problems with mine, beware of the cheap electronic scales - I found you get what you paid for...

Yes, the surface is good. I even moved it to another location just to confirm.

If I give the pointer end of the scale a slight push it will not return to where it was. The pointer can be as much as a centimeter away from were it started. I have checked that the knife edge is centered and the plastic is not binding and that the magnetic dampner is not binding. If I tap the base that it is sitting on causing some vibration it will come back, sometimes all the way sometimes not. I found the variation using the tap method to be only .4 grains which is still too much. Who the heck would sit there tapping a scale and weighing their powder 10 times to get an average, i just pictured how crazy that would be........LOL.

There is no way that I will use this specific scale to measure powder. If I could have proved this scale to be repeatable I would have used it.

 

[mikeystew]

i'd contact lee. Mine works great and im thinking that yours has a production defect around the balance point.

 

[jdman]

I found the small slider on the side was WAYYY too easy to bump, and botch up the zero.

 

[mikeystew]

I found the small slider on the side was WAYYY too easy to bump, and botch up the zero.

i found that too until i discovered how to lock it in place with the push lock.

 

[2kül]

Problems with my Lee scale are caused by these things:

1- Razor edge dull. It looked battered when new.

2- V notch not cleanly cut, so that the sharp edge finds a different notch to sit in.

3- I didn't experiment with the pan hanging point, but it's worth doing something about that too.

A project that I might get around to is to cut off the soft aluminum V notch and replace it with the hard (agate?) parts from an old RCBS scale.
This should give us the best of both scales.