I have a Lee Powder Scale (not the safety scale, but the other beam-style scale they make [or used to make anyway]). I have no trouble zeroing it with the little set screw on the base. My reloading bench is perfectly level. However, when I am weighing a charge, I have noticed: If I slowly trickle powder out of a dipper into the pan, it will gradually build up to the - 0 - mark to show a perfectly measure. Great! However, If I raise the pan up, say with my finger and then release it, it will balance out above the zero mark, sometimes up to about 3/8", showing that my charge is too heavy. Is this normal? Which readout is correct? Like most of my reloading stuff, I bought my powder scale from this older guy at the gun club. Really meticulous guy, takes really good care of his stuff--so I think abuse can be mostly ruled out as a variable. Is there something wrong with my scale, or do other scales act this way? Thanks for any input! /Jason
LOL tell me how you *really* feel about Lee scales. Okay, so point taken. I'd really like to get a decent digital scale that I can just leave out on my bench. What would you guys recommend? ps. I'd rather not spend an arm and a leg, if possible.
Having problems with a Lee product? who would've thought it? I personally use a Lyman 1000 XP, and have never had any problems, much better quality than Lee.
I like the RCBS digitals. If you can afford it get the larger one that goes with the powder measurer so if you upgrade you will already have the scale. I didn't do that so I will have to buy the whole set if I upgrade but I do love my digital scale and it is very easy to calibrate and use. It also provides consistant accurate powder measurements.
I started off with a Lyman 500 it was a good scale. I think any OHAUS built scale would be good. RCBS or Lyman.
You should be able to get one of those from eBay in the $30.00 range.
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For info purposes only, use it at your own risk. JFKimmons and G&G aren't liable for it's misuse.
Airweight38: does your lee scale have a dirty or damaged pivot point? Has the magnet inside the pillar shifted? Do you have plastic containers nearby with static electricity? I dislike lee scales but they should work, all scales can go funny on you, be vigilant, check powder multiples; ie, if your weighing 5 grain powder, combine 4 charges and you should have 20 grains. 1.Check sensitivity(does it respond to small additions).2. Does it swing freely above and below zero, then settle. 3.Check test weights if you can borrow or buy or compare with another scale. Good luck
Airweight38: does your lee scale have a dirty or damaged pivot point? Has the magnet inside the pillar shifted? Do you have plastic containers nearby with static electricity? I dislike lee scales but they should work, all scales can go funny on you, be vigilant, check powder multiples; ie, if your weighing 5 grain powder, combine 4 charges and you should have 20 grains. 1.Check sensitivity(does it respond to small additions).2. Does it swing freely above and below zero, then settle. 3.Check test weights if you can borrow or buy or compare with another scale. Good luck
Glicerin: Welcome to G and G I see you've been with us for a while and while you're short on posts you're long on knowledge. Jump in here more often.
+1 on glicerin's comments about the pivot point may be dirty.
I don't have a Lee scale; I use an RCBS scale. But, I found the same difficulty you have when I started using a trickler. In my case, the cause turned out to be dust that collects in the area where the knife-edge on the balance beam rests on the base. Now, I just use a Q-tip to carefully clean the knife edge AND the area it rests on, just before weighing charges. That eliminated the problem for me.
With respect to electroninc scales, I have found an even worse tendency to not register small powder additions from a trickler. So, don't buy one just to get past that problem. I do use one to compare weights of cases, bullets, etc. But, for precise powder charges, the need to bump the pan a few times to get it to settle on one charge number takes more time than using the beam balance.
I've got a beam balance & an electronic set but there used to be about 8% difference between them, so I got a "check" weight. Now neither agree with the check weight about 3-6 % out from either! Duh!.........Good reason for starting with minimum loads & working up to your particular firearm!!!
I've got a beam balance & an electronic set but there used to be about 8% difference between them, so I got a "check" weight. Now neither agree with the check weight about 3-6 % out from either! Duh!.........Good reason for starting with minimum loads & working up to your particular firearm!!!
Wunhunglo,
Fantastic advice! A new essential item.
Where did you get a reference mass small enough? The ones that come with most "laboratory" type balances (and that I have access to) are in the 100 to 500 gram range.
Hey guys, just a quick update. Forgive the lack of double-spacing and formatting, which makes my itemized posts hard to read. I'm replying from work and the pinkos here have web filtering software that hates the second amendment, so I have to go through a proxy which doesn't seem to retain my formatting. Anyway. 1) I did check my pivot points and they were clean. Cleaned them some more, with no luck. 2) I decided on a Lyman 1000XP digital scale. I've had very consistent results with it after learning a little trick about leaving it on for a few minutes before using it. And guess what the first thing I did was? Used its 20g calibration weight to check my Lee. Turns out that the "heavy" reading I was getting after removing and replacing the pan was the correct reading. The initial reading I got by slowly filling was well under actual weight. Nowhere have I seen how I can calibrate the stupid thing. But I wanted to get a digital anyway, due to the fact that I can leave it out (it has a dust cover) instead of having to put it away every time I was done, as recommended per the instructions on the beam scale. Thanks for all the great advice. I learn something new every time I log on! --Jason
Powder Scale Variances -- Am I doing this right? 
Okay, so point taken. I'd really like to get a decent digital scale that I can just leave out on my bench. What would you guys recommend? ps. I'd rather not spend an arm and a leg, if possible.
I personally use a Lyman 1000 XP, and have never had any problems, much better quality than Lee.
