where do you keep your scale?

T

tpende

Guest
i have a Lyman digital scale that i bought about 6 months back. when i first got it it seemed to work great for me, but now i seem to have to calibrate it quite often while in the middle of weighing charges. could this be caused my having it on the same bench as my press and the vibrations effecting the accuracy?

do you guys keep your scale on a separate surface?
 
My Scale

is on my loading bench. The wife isn't allowed to do laundry while I'm reloading. Vibration from the clothes washer drive the scale nuts (even though it's a floor above me).;)
 
All scales, digital and beam are very susceptible to vibration, breezes, drafts, and any other change that might effect them. Keeping them out of varying temperatures, vibrations, breezes/drafts, uneven/non-level table tops and the like. My beam balance is on a shelf above my loading bench and has a small light under it. If the light is turned on it heats the shelf and causes the zero to wander on the balance. Took me a little time to figure that out. :eek:
 
tpende--

I have a small florescent light under a cabinet about 18" above my loading bench. It will absolutely drive me and my scales nuts if I don't turn it off. [NOT near as much gas required to drive me.]
Seriously! Steve
 
okay, yeah i was pretty sure, but not positive. ill have to build a solid level little table to go next to my bench. heck ill even put some nice 1/2" rubber under the legs.

it wasnt goin crazy, but i guess if its off by a tenth of a grain it might as well be off by 10

are beams more accurate than digital?
 
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Scale/balance accuracy

is strongly affected by either vibration or air movement (convection, breezes from nature and/or fans, etc.)

About a hundred years ago when I took quantitative chemistry our balances were housed in an inside room on very sturdy tables and with enclosures that, for the most part, eliminated air movement.

Those balances were accurate to plus/minus 0.0001 gram. That translates to just a bit over 1.5 grains.

Even a medium warm crucible and it's contents was enough to cause small convection currents that made accurate mass determination impossible -- and that's in an inclosed environment, free from air movement from fans or people walking by.

I hope this helps to illustrate just how important the environment is to one's determing the accurate mass/weight of a sample.

Glen
 
You might consider - - - -

tpende said:
okay, yeah i was pretty sure, but not positive. ill have to build a solid level little table to go next to my bench. heck ill even put some nice 1/2" rubber under the legs.

it wasnt goin crazy, but i guess if its off by a tenth of a grain it might as well be off by 10

are beams more accurate than digital?
Click to expand...

I had all of the problems that have been discussed here until I purchased a Battery back-up with a power conditioner in it to plug my Chargmaster in to. The unit has performed great since.

I have a couple lo end balance beam scales and find that they give false readings. The one that have magnetic dampener on it will give false readings as does an old Redding I have had for a long time.

I have two Electronic scales, one is my Bench scale, the Chargmaster and the other a smaller one I keep in my tool box. Every time I have compared the weight of the charges I have produced both read the same. This is a heck of a lot more accurate than I have ever been able to throw with any powder measure.

It is certainly way faster to not use a scale and some people are able to do perfectly well just using thrown charges but my piece of mind won't allow me to do that, not when I see that I throw charges that are .3 and .4 off from the charge I am trying to throw.
 
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"Those balances were accurate to plus/minus 0.0001 gram. That translates to just a bit over 1.5 grains"


Actually 0.0001 gram(Gm)=0.1 milligram(mg)=0.000154321 GRAINS(gr)

I think your decimal point got lost-or mine.
 
Oops!

langenc said:
"Those balances were accurate to plus/minus 0.0001 gram. That translates to just a bit over 1.5 grains"


Actually 0.0001 gram(Gm)=0.1 milligram(mg)=0.000154321 GRAINS(gr)

I think your decimal point got lost-or mine.
Click to expand...

My fingers musta been thinking thousants like in measuring something. :eek:
 
Vibrations

AJ300MAG said:
is on my loading bench. The wife isn't allowed to do laundry while I'm reloading. Vibration from the clothes washer drive the scale nuts (even though it's a floor above me).;)
Click to expand...

I have a 7 speaker stereo system with a subwoofer in the basement where I reload. I can't even have the system on at low volume because the vibrations will affect my digital scale. A little air current from me moving about too quick will affect the scale.
Chino69
 
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