Having bought a digital scale that I have come to NOT trust at all (a digital jewelry scale), I was curious what others use. I am considering getting a pact digital. Do you use and trust a balance beam scale or a digital scale more and what do you use the most???

I`ve a Pact digital and a couple RCBS beam type scales. (5-10 and a 10-10) I like the Pact for weighting bullets, cases, ect. Things of unknown weight. The digitals shine at this type of use.
For weighting powder charges or checking my measure to insure it`s dropping a proper charge I use a RCBS 10-10. Both types are claimed to be accurate to a tenth gr so I doubt you`l see any differance in accuracy.

I have a RCBS 505 beam-type scale that I bought about 20 years ago for about $35. It is sensitive enough that I can distinguish the effect of a single kernel of such stick-type powders as IMR 4831 or 4064. I trust it completely. I do not trust any digital scale.

I have A Pact and realy like it, I also have the powder dispenser. It is the real thing for those coarse extruded powders that don't dump well from a measure. From tome to time I pull out my old BB scale just to see if they agree, they always do. The digital is also handy when dumping fine powders with the powder measure.
I just set an empty case on the scale and zero it , then I dump the powder in and set it back on the scale to get the net powder weight. I do this about every ten or so rounds.
Lyle

I like my second Dillon. My first lasted seven years.

Other than labratory scales?

I completely trust my RCBS 5-0-5 and 10-10.

i prefer a balance beam with 3 poises for weighing powder. current scales like redding, rcbs or hornady are great. i have an old ch 725 scale, the beam is not dampened and i prefer that scale to a dampened beam, even though magnetic damping is great and doesn't affect accuracy. as always i suggest a set of check weights, rcbs and lyman has them. the digital scales are great for weighing cases and bullets as mentioned, i use a pact for that.

RCBS 5-0-5,enough accurate for me...

RCBS 505 for me as well. Unless l need real accuracy then l just ask the wife...

All the best, Dave.

I am currently using an RCBS beam-type scale, but if I ever decide to go digital, I will buy the Dillon. Why? It uses 4 posts connecting the tray to the actual weighing device, not just one. With one, I fear there could be inaccuracies from uneven loading (particularly with heavier weights, like lead or such).

Denver Instruments. Buy their refurbished scales. Fast and accurate.

Does everybody need one? No. Are they the best? Yes.

lawndart

Another one for the RCBS balance beam, see no reason to change.

My friend reckond I was too fussy, tried a few,
a lot would show up to 3/10 difference with the
same check weight, or trying to zero.
Settled on an RCBS 505, which also likes to wander a bit (no more than 1/10).
To trust them with no drafts, clean balance edges etc. is one thing. But do you trust yourself to always have the right settings?
Not me, so using check weights, i've made up
some soft copper wire weights that equal my most used loads. Bent or twisted into different
shapes and recorded by drawings, I can say,put
a 27.6gr wire in the pan and zero that. If the
zero is not very close to start with, it's time
to recheck everything. If the scale is bumped
at any time it's easy to pop the wire back on,
rather than count out bits of check wts. which
are easy to misplace.
John L.

I use an old RCBS beam scale, two Lyman Autoscales, and the new Lyman 1200. The old beam scale is just a checker used sparingly. Good shooting.

I use and trust an old Lyman-Ohaus I've had since 1968. I recently tested it with some scale check weights, and it is still accurate and sensitive to 1/10th of a grain, just like it was when new....

I have a couple of laboratory scales including a Denver Instruments Apex 153. The interesting thing is that the two lab scales I have are always dead on, and they have actually shown my pact digital that came with my Pact digital dispenser to be right on. So for the money my Pact has proven to be a good deal as it is consistently accurate, and was a lot cheaper than My DI or Sartorious lab scales.

re. digital scales: do you have a calibration weight? do you use it regularly? does it hold calibration through a loading session? does the scale go to .01 grams?

If you answer yes to all of the above, I think you'll find you can get very repeatable results. No to any is a killer. I would definitely agree to that.

BTW, calibration weights in the .01 range don't require quite the careful handling of those for analytical balances, but I'd still be careful about handling them directly and about storage. This is true for any powder balance, not just digital ones.

Finally, mapping .01 gm -> .1 gr (which many jewelry scales seem to do) leaves some .1 grain values unobtainable. This is not necessarily a problem as you can always pick a .1 or .2 gr less or more (less, probably being the preferred direction at the top end, of course ). But it can be disconcerting.

You can see the holes (each way) below. Note, for example, you can't measure 1.0 grains, only 0.9 or 1.1 grains. THIS ROUNDING EFFECT OCCURS INTERNALLY EVEN IF YOU ARE USING A GRAINS READOUT IF THE SENSITIVITY OF THE SCALE IS CALIBRATED IN .01 GRAMS.

Grams -> Grains Grains -> Grams
0.01 - 0.2 | 0.1 - 0.01
0.02 - 0.3 | 0.2 - 0.01
0.03 - 0.5 | 0.3 - 0.02
0.04 - 0.6 | 0.4 - 0.03
0.05 - 0.8 | 0.5 - 0.03
0.06 - 0.9 | 0.6 - 0.04
0.07 - 1.1 | 0.7 - 0.05
0.08 - 1.2 | 0.8 - 0.05
0.09 - 1.4 | 0.9 - 0.06
0.10 - 1.5 | 1 - 0.06
0.11 - 1.7 | 1.1 - 0.07
0.12 - 1.9 | 1.2 - 0.08
0.13 - 2.0 | 1.3 - 0.08
0.14 - 2.2 | 1.4 - 0.09
0.15 - 2.3 | 1.5 - 0.10
0.16 - 2.5 | 1.6 - 0.10
0.17 - 2.6 | 1.7 - 0.11
0.18 - 2.8 | 1.8 - 0.12
0.19 - 2.9 | 1.9 - 0.12
0.20 - 3.1 | 2 - 0.13

Of course, if I printed out another decimal place in each column, all would be clear, but the fact is the scale can't "see" another decimal place, so printing it out would misconstrue things with a false sense of reliability. That said, I have certainly never had any trouble with .01 gm scales, but I would keep all the caveats I posted at the beginning here in mind.

Balances have their problems as well. In particular, the balancing points are very subject to damage as the forces on the knife edge are incredibly high (simple math: as knife edge area -> 0, as it must in an extremely accurate balance, forces on the knife edge -> infinity). Be very careful about jostling beam scales when the arm is on the knife edge. And, if the scale allows, keep the arm disengaged from the knife edge unless in the act of weighing. This is _very_ important for scales that do .01 grain/.001 gram or better. And it's "pretty darned" important in scales that work at the .1 grain/.01 gram level such as I suspect the majority of powder scales reloaders buy do.
"Jostling" includes tapping the pan with your finger. Don't. If you MUST, a very slight breath shouldn't do too much harm at the .1 gr level. At higher accuracy levels I wouldn't suggest that either.

I guess you can have problems with any weighing device. I used a bonanza balance scale up until this year and am using A PACT BBK 11 scale now and really like it after I solved the wandering problem bu taking it off AC and using the 9 volt battery power. I tested it with several calibration weights and it is right on. it don't mean the old bonanza was not correct but my groups have improved since using the PACT.

I find the only scales I trust is the beam scales. My 505 is always dead on. I went thru this phase and wanted a digital, and bought every brand known from the cheap cabelas to pact to hornady. I didn't like it that they didn't update real time fast enough while trickling. I could beat any digital with a beam I found out. I still have a pact but only use for bullets, brass, broadheads.

So I didn't trust 505 so I got a calibration kit from RCBS. And sure enough it was accurate within .1gr. So I am back using it.

I never "trust" any scale. I always periodically check them using some standard weights I got in college. They weren't cheap being made of platinum, but they don't oxidize and change mass. One way you could create a reasonable check weight for yourself is to take something like a chunk of brass and weigh it on your favorite scale and then engrave that value on the item. Use it to check to see if your scale has changed over time. You could then also use this to see if other scales give you the same value for the weight of your standard item. The best way is to use a balance beam scale so that you are checking the actual mass, not weight of the item. This eliminates the pull of gravity from the value. If you move from sea level up to Denver the weight will change very slightly. When you get into extremes of measurement, the pull of the sun and moon can affect weight also. If it didn't then we wouldn't have ocean tides.

Many thanks to all! I decided to toss the jewelry scale (or keep to weight bullets). Even though it wanders around a bit, it only measures in .2 grain increments and I just don't trust it for powder.
The cheapo Lee beam scale I got with the reloading kit is a lot more accurate (using a good selection of o'haus test weights I have).
But due to everybody's advice, I went ahead and grabbed a "new condition" old style o'haus RCBS 505 scale with micrometer poise for $20 on ebay.
I figured I could not sneeze at that price, and a LOT of people seem happy with that.

Thanks again for your input!
Bob

My old Ohaus 10-10 came with a weight that increases the capacity to 1000 grains and also doubles as a check weight. This scale is some 35 years old or so, and seems as accurate as when it was new. I attribute this partly to the fact that it is built in a self-contained housing that allows you to take simply and quickly take it down when not in use.

I have an amazing old cheap Redding balance scale, years old, no dampner system at all,
the directions say use your thumb, near the pointer.
I put up with it for years, but of course one day I needed something better.
I'ts quite fast to weigh cases etc. as you don't
need to wait for the beam to stop. Same swing
up and down means right on. And a guess too
high or too low sorts cases into 3 groups.
When I check it with powder now and then it's
quite accurate, and if there is air movement
around it's obvious, whereas some dampened ones
can sit a bit low without you knowing what's going on.
For general shooting it would be as effective
as these Laboratory ones mentioned.
JL