Well that's one reason to upgrade. What now?

Trevillian

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broke my scale today..... Reached for a paper towel, hooked the arm of my Lee scale. A dangit later. The arm lies in pieces:confused:

So which scale to upgrade to? I liked the Lee but have wanted to upgrade from the start. No I don't wanna spend $200 on a wiz bang accurate to .0001 type. I'm a general reloader, of course I like accuracy and consistency but again I was satisfied with my Lee beam.

I'm leaning towards digital but have reservations about consistent accuracy between sessions.

What say ye? Beam? Electronic? What do you use and why? Under $100 closer towards $50 would be ideal but let's hear your thoughts.
 
I use my Dillon beam scale that Dad got in the 90's. Accurate to the degree I need it to be; I use a Lee Powder Master & check loads periodically.

So far, I've never had to replace the battery! ;)
 
i got the hornady electronic powder dispenser.

It was on sale for $145 at natchez, so I bought it. Works great. I have a frankford $25 digital scale that works really well and 2 beam scales.. all of them are basically the same when weighing.
 
I've had good luck with the cheap Gemini 20 digital scale that I got off of Amazon for ~$25. It has its limitations (as does any scale) but I know what they are (mainly it does not work well for trickling). Plus, it has 0.02gn resolution, it can detect differences that I can't detect with any other scale that I have. It is my go-to whenever I want to spot check my drops in the progressive press.

https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Weigh-GEM20-Precision-Milligram/dp/B00ESHDGOI

I have the Frankfort electronic scale, and I have been less than impressed with it. I have a Hornady beam scale which is a nice scale, but it mainly sits on the shelf now. It is great for manually trickling loads, which I never do anymore since I got my RCBS Chargemaster.

Regardless of what type of scale you get, also get a good set of check weights. And a digital scale is good for quick sanity checks if using a beam scale. (I'm an engineering type - I love verification and correlation).
 
I've had good luck with the cheap Gemini 20 digital scale that I got off of Amazon for ~$25. It has its limitations (as does any scale) but I know what they are (mainly it does not work well for trickling). Plus, it has 0.02gn resolution, it can detect differences that I can't detect with any other scale that I have.

A-men. I have the GemPro 250 and it is not good for trickling either. I have found that I have to be careful and trickle a few grains, then lift the pan and replace it to get accurate measurement and "sneak up" on the desired load slowly. While the resolution may be 0.02 gn, it requires more weight than that to overcome the friction or "noise" in the system, so manual reset of the pan is needed.

Typically, I only worry about that level of accuracy doing load work ups however. It is too time consuming for regular reloading and I doubt that level of accuracy makes a big difference once accuracy nods are located.
 
A-men. I have the GemPro 250 and it is not good for trickling either. I have found that I have to be careful and trickle a few grains, then lift the pan and replace it to get accurate measurement and "sneak up" on the desired load slowly. While the resolution may be 0.02 gn, it requires more weight than that to overcome the friction or "noise" in the system, so manual reset of the pan is needed.

Typically, I only worry about that level of accuracy doing load work ups however. It is too time consuming for regular reloading and I doubt that level of accuracy makes a big difference once accuracy nods are located.
Agree with everything you said there!

I think most digital scales use a "settling" algorithm that, once it settles, it takes a significant change before it will register. Resetting the pan is essentially forcing the scale to resettle. I do something similar to what you mention when I am dropping powder on the scale.

I believe that the auto-measures, like the RCBS Chargemaster, have firmware that allows for instantaneous measurements when they are dropping powder.
 
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I think most digital scales use a "settling" algorithm that,

That's probably exactly the issue. Wasn't sure of the cause, but trickle a couple of sticks of powder on the scale and nothing changes, then remove and reset the pan and BAM, you are on you weight, something isn't measuring.

I have the Chargemaster scale and was going to add the auto trickle later, but the scale's load cell is only rated to 100 grams and the calibration call for use of a 100 gram calibration weight. Well, about half the time, I get a load cell error when calibrating. It still appears to calibrate properly, but I hate expensive stuff that doesn't work right, so Gemini was the solution.
 
RCBS 2000 shown above, currently $89 at Midway. Sometimes on sale for $50. Battery or wall wart power supply. I had and old Pact digital. It was crap but we thought it was the heat 20+ years ago. I have an RCBS Chargemaster 1500 that I have gotten excellent service out of. Less than $300 from Natchez. My next scale will be A&D FX120i.
 
My next scale will be A&D FX120i

Just saw that system on 6.5 Guys, with the auto trickler, auto throw option system on it. Expensive, but drops a charge and trickles in 10 seconds. It is going to take me a while to convince myself to go to that expense, but I am very persuasive when I want to be.

And it is considerably less expensive than the Prometheus Powder Scale.

See, the persuasion/justification begins.
 
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i have both but always plan on having a beam scale just in case the battery goes out when i need it
That's the thing about cheap battery powered scales: They don't just "go out" they drift. As the batteries get weaker the scale readout will vary from true with no indication that something's wrong. Buy one that comes with a check weight.
 
I'm currently using the compact MCM digital. It's fine for most purposes, but a good balance scale is the stuff. No electronics to take a crap when you really need it.
 
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