Which Electronic Reloading Scale

[Uno Mas SASS #80082]

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We've got a good pard that loves to reload with his Dillon. That's fortunate, since we love to shoot his reloads.

 

We'd like to say thanks this Christmas with an electronic scale. Any favorites out there? Best values? Bullet proof? Ones to avoid at all costs? He's madly in love with Dillon, so I'm predispositioned to go that way.

 

Thanx!

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

I have had two Dillon electronic scales and one off brand.

Up here in the desert they seem to last about 2 years.

I went back to my Lee balance beam scale.

But understand, I use my scale every day.

And my shop is not climate controlled so the temperature highs and lows can be extreme.

 

I hope others will have recommendations on their preferred electronic scales.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

PACT

[Church Key, SASS # 33713]

Avoid the cheap battery powered only Midway scales. They go out of order in a few months. I've gone back to my RCBS beam.

[Bear Saint Paw]

Might I suggest you just get him a http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p...ift_Certificate

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

Yeah, if someone gave me an electronic scale, I'd wonder what the heck he had against me.

 

Good luck, GJ

[SOUTH-PACIFIC,SASS #59402]

dillon and have a merry christmass

[Rio Brazos Kid]

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We've got a good pard that loves to reload with his Dillon. That's fortunate, since we love to shoot his reloads.

 

We'd like to say thanks this Christmas with an electronic scale. Any favorites out there? Best values? Bullet proof? Ones to avoid at all costs? He's madly in love with Dillon, so I'm predispositioned to go that way.

 

Thanx!

 

Much has been written on digital scales. There are varied opinions on them of course. nHowever the general consensus is that cheaper Digitals are pretty flakey. They are pretty accurate as long as you recalibrate them every few minutes while in use. If you want high precision with a digital scale, get set to spend at least $200 to $300 for a comercial grade scale.

 

If you want absolute reliability without worrying about constant recalibrating, low batteries, 30 minute warm-up periods, then get a quality beam scale.

 

Good quality Beam scales are available from around $50 to about $75 for standard capacity ones, and up to around $150 for the scales with higher capacities.

 

Beam scales sold by most all reloading tool manufacturing companys are scales made by Ohaus, which is the largest scale maker in the World. These scales are very accurate. They can be obtained from RCBS, Hornady, Redding, Lyman, and yes Dillon. Ther are cheaper balance scales, made of plastic, like the one LEE produces and the cheap Lyman offering that are IMHO, pure junk. They will work, but don't count on fine accuracy.

 

I have owned at least 4 brands of Digital scales, none of which I would trust when extreme accuracy was needed. I have owned several beam scales over the years, all of which were quite accurate, except that useless plastic Lee scale I once had. Today I use an Ohaus Triple Beam scale, that is superbly accurate, but also quite expensive. But well worth it.

 

Do as you like, but be aware that most of the cheaper Digital scales, around $100 or a tad less, leave much to be desired, as far as I'm concerned. A Standard Beam Scale sold by most reloading equipment manufacturers, and made by Ohaus, will beat the fire out of any low priced digital that I have ever seen or used, and that includes 2 digitals from Dillon.

 

RBK

[JD Trampas, SASS # 55781]

I would advise the Dillon, here's why IMHO, was doing a reloading session awhile back, I have my scale on a separate platform, when done I was putting everything away and cleaning up, well, I unplugged the scale and started to lift it off the platform, well the cord got caught on the cornor of the platform, the scale was chest high and next thing I know, it fell to the concrete floor, boy was I cusssing up a storm for being so careless, the scale hit the floor and pieces went flying, picked up everything and put back together, plugged it in and lo and behold it worked, waited 10 minutes and started to weigh things, it worked, I was one happy camper to say the least. I called dillon and told them what happened, it passed the drop test, they told me to out and buy a lotto ticket

 

 

So I would buy a DILLON IMHO, it passed the drop test to concrete floor, which they are not supposed to do, I was lucky, I now have another Dillon scale for backup just in case it happens again, not saying all other scales are bad, just giving you MHO of my experience with the Dillon scale, it has nevered failed me in 6 years and it passed the drop test

 

 

 

All for now JD Trampas

[John Boy]

Uno, which ever digital scale you buy, make sure that the accuracy is 0.1grain and the maximum grams, not grains is 100 ... plus have a good warranty

Why? Because all digital scales calibrate what is to be weighed using a strain gauge. This is the heart of digitals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strain_gauge

 

The digitals that weigh maximum grams of 500 and have an accuracy of 0.01gr are expensive laboratory ones with high quality strain gauges and none of the reloading suppliers sell them because of their cost. Run of the mill 500gram scales have strain gauges in them that have an accuracy of 0.2gr or more

 

I have for many years been buying the plain vanilla 100g max scales off eBay that have a weight accuracy of 0.1gr like one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Scale-100g-x-0...=item5ad28b2258

 

The brand that I was partial to was NEVA but they are no longer on the market. I have 3 of them. They are very accurate, don't have all the bells and whistles of the ones sold by reloading supplies at the inflated cost and can be replaced inexpensively with their still existing 5 year warranty

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

As a retired research chemist I have a lot of experience with precision weighting. Of the inexpensive electronic scales I think the Dillon is the best. They used to be made by Ohaus (maybe still are) a quality house. Probably the BEST scale sold by a reloading house is the Acculab sold by Sinclair, but it costs $300.00. I use a Mettler precision lab scale for most of my precision loading. I crosscheck my Dillon electronic against it every few months and the Dillon has always been within .1gn. I only use the Dillon with the 120volt adapter. I NEVER use batteries.

 

Remember though, the most accurate shooters (bench rest) don't even weigh their charges when reloading. They use a precision powder measure they have calibrated against their scale and don't worry about +- .1 grain so I would get too concerned with a +- .1gn. either.

[twelve mile REB]

MY experience mirrors Happy Jacks looking at my bench I have three electronic scales the best as far as accurracy is the Dillion. I do check it each time I use it with scale weights just to be sure what I'm throwing. The scale has remained in calibration for the last year. I also check my beam scale against weights before using it, it's a lot slower and if you are not careful mistakes can be made.

12

[John Boy]

Jack, thanks for your post about the Acculab digital scale. I looked at their website and am totally impressed with the VIC-123 moldel. For a 120 gram scale that will weigh a maximum of 1851.880 grains ... it is a precision instrument to weigh with a 0.001 gram variance

OK, Sinclair gets $290 for the Acculab 123 model.

If one orders the scale directly from Acculab, the price is $235 for a savings of $55 That's a deal in my book.

Hey, that extra $55 savings will almost cover the cost of 2000 primers or 2 one lb jugs of nitro powder or 3 jugs of black powder

[Uno Mas SASS #80082]

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Thanks pards for the great info!