Thread: Digital Scales - What's a good higher end option?

Looking to take the next step into higher end digital scales. I have a Hornady G2 which is entry level, but want to go a step further. What are you using?

I enquired with a scale supplier and the lowest end scale they supplied that measured in grains was $900...
Looking for digital over balance since they read out faster than a balance beam, so speed up the process considerably.

In my soils testing laboratory the balances are one of the more expensive bits of gear. To get the precision and accuracy you won't get much change out of $1k unfortunately.
Ideally the balance needs to be on a solid isolated mount, free from any drafts and have a clean power supply.

For reloading I use an elderly pacific balance beam and a moderate size bucket of patience. Sorry, no help to you at all....

In all of our chemistry labs at school we use 20 dollar digital scales, same for my reloading as they also have grains mode. No problems at all as they have little masses to check them .

A&D fx120-i, the ducks nuts, the cats pajamas. Brought my SD and ES waaaay down. Fast, accurate, and can be controlled by an app on your phone. Measures to 0.02 gr or one kernal of stick powder

Don't forget to mention that you have a $2300 set up there depending upon where you purchased.
@canross what is your stretched budget?

Originally Posted by keengunNic

Attachment 159553

A&D fx120-i, the ducks nuts, the cats pajamas. Brought my SD and ES waaaay down. Fast, accurate, and can be controlled by an app on your phone. Measures to 0.02 gr or one kernal of stick powder

That really deserves a 'Reloading Gear porn' thread...

I'm also curious what is considered the best of the non-dispenser digital scales?

Here's a starter, the difference between strain gauge balances (Hornady, Lyman Chargemaster etc) and magnetic force restoration balances (AnD, Sartorius).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89BOlViQXto

Originally Posted by Joe_90

In my soils testing laboratory the balances are one of the more expensive bits of gear. To get the precision and accuracy you won't get much change out of $1k unfortunately.
Ideally the balance needs to be on a solid isolated mount, free from any drafts and have a clean power supply.

For reloading I use an elderly pacific balance beam and a moderate size bucket of patience. Sorry, no help to you at all....

That's definitely the issue I'm up against. Part of the decision to move up in scales is the fact that I made the mistake of seeing if our work lab scales had a grain function then thinking about my home scale, so I've gotten used to a higher degree of precision/accuracy than is normally called for in reloading. Turned to the current digital as a way of speeding up with the balance beam acting as the safety check on the scale. I can usually get the second load done on the digital scale in about the same time as it takes the beam to settle, which has me working about as fast as I can without an automated self-feeding scale.

Originally Posted by garyp

In all of our chemistry labs at school we use 20 dollar digital scales, same for my reloading as they also have grains mode. No problems at all as they have little masses to check them .

I'm looking to push it a bit further than the low end digitals can - I might be wasting a lot of effort but it would be good to know what my options are and if it's worth it.

Originally Posted by keengunNic

Attachment 159553

A&D fx120-i, the ducks nuts, the cats pajamas. Brought my SD and ES waaaay down. Fast, accurate, and can be controlled by an app on your phone. Measures to 0.02 gr or one kernal of stick powder

I can believe that - you've got a rolls royce there!!! Also a bit out of my budget

Originally Posted by zimmer

Don't forget to mention that you have a $2300 set up there depending upon where you purchased.
@canross what is your stretched budget?

I'm stretched to justify a $900 scale from our lab supplier - I'd been hoping there might be something decent with $400 being a cap. I know there's a tiny bit of markup with them being a lab supplier, plus the markup that all items seem to experience from just existing in NZ over the customs and import costs so figuring out if there's a good scale that people recommend that I can source overseas.

Given that an accurate and precise scale measuring in grains isn't likely for $400, I'll probably hunt down a decent balance beam scale and accept the loss of time rather than drop more money on a higher end digital scale that I can't really justify.

Originally Posted by Steelisreal

That really deserves a 'Reloading Gear porn' thread...

I'm also curious what is considered the best of the non-dispenser digital scales?

Me too.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Here's a starter, the difference between strain gauge balances (Hornady, Lyman Chargemaster etc) and magnetic force restoration balances (AnD, Sartorius).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89BOlViQXto

This is definitely the issue here - just because a scale reads to one or two decimal places doesn't mean it's true or even consistently wrong No sense in obsessively measuring loads with a scale that's swinging wildly in actual weights without telling you.
@zimmer - I take it this' your job or related to your job?

Originally Posted by Steelisreal

That really deserves a 'Reloading Gear porn' thread...

I'm also curious what is considered the best of the non-dispenser digital scales?

Best non dispenser digital is the fx120i without the v3 autotrickler

l just use a cheap honady set of scales but do a calibration each time and also check against my old balance beam.
my main issue is that they still have a bit of a lag time settling and will roll up another 1-2/10 gr after a few seconds.

had an interesting experience recently with the battery's getting flat.
Calibrated OK but when i weighed my powder pan it was about 10gr heavier than memory thought it should be. weighted out 3 lots into cases and the level in the case looked low. So pored a load onto the balance beam and it was 3gr light.
got new batterys and all was good again.
z

Originally Posted by ZQLewis

l just use a cheap honady set of scales but do a calibration each time and also check against my old balance beam.
my main issue is that they still have a bit of a lag time settling and will roll up another 1-2/10 gr after a few seconds.

had an interesting experience recently with the battery's getting flat.
Calibrated OK but when i weighed my powder pan it was about 10gr heavier than memory thought it should be. weighted out 3 lots into cases and the level in the case looked low. So pored a load onto the balance beam and it was 3gr light.
got new batterys and all was good again.
z

ANNNNNNDD... there it is.

Electronic scales all rely on stable, consistent and smooth electricity supply. Also no interference from nearby fluorescent tubes, transformers etc.

I can guarantee lab quality gravity in my reloading room. Lab quality electricity, not so much. Still using old school balance beam scales.

It's not the power supply that causes drifting- it's simply that they're strain gauge-based. As has been said, you need to go with a mag restoration force system to keep things stable. I -never- have drift on my AnD 120i.

If you can't afford one or its Satorius equivalent, stick with a quality balance beam

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

ANNNNNNDD... there it is.

Electronic scales all rely on stable, consistent and smooth electricity supply. Also no interference from nearby fluorescent tubes, transformers etc.

I can guarantee lab quality gravity in my reloading room. Lab quality electricity, not so much. Still using old school balance beam scales.

Those wandering black holes really mess with the repeatability results

I have used pretty much every cheap or middle of the road dispenser and scale system there is.
Have personally owned Lyman, Pact, Rcbs and now frankford. So far for me, the Frankford has been the best in accuracy, consistency and ease of use.
They all have their quirks and ways around them. The goal is to be loading accurate ammo with usable ES and SD.
You can do that with all of the above. A powder charge that may vary .1-.2 will hardly show up on paper unless shooting beyond 1000 yrds if you're in the node.
If you ever do ladder tests you can have up to .3 or .4 grain nodes where the load will shoot under 10fps ES. 1 kernel of powder accuracy doesn't mean shit in real world results imo.
You can have the most accurate scales available but if your prep and shooting ability is not that sharp, the scales are the least of your worry.
If you are meticulous and mainly hunting you will be fine with any of the cheaper options out there.

I have tried to find a video where they compared a lot of the most popular sets available against the more expensive gear. 1 machine being worth around 5000 USD.
They had reputable shooters shooting the loads inside 1000 yrds and there really wasn't anything in it. The cheaper gear produced ammo that was just as if not more accurate in some cases.



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Originally Posted by keengunNic

Best non dispenser digital is the fx120i without the v3 autotrickler

The A&D FX-300i and FX-500i have exactly the same accuracy as the FX-120i just cost more and have the capacity to weigh more.

The Sartorius lab scales are even more precise than the A&D scales, cost a lot more and their 1/100th of a grain accuracy isn't necessary.