Pet Peeve: Check your scale calibration

[Alan Adamson]

I've noticed that lots of people ask for starting loads, and lots of people (including myself) respond with good info. But I see such dramatic differences in basic loads from time to time that it caused me to make this post.

*if* you are going to provide info, make sure you are using a well calibrated scale. If you don't have a scale that can be calibrated (with a provided calibration weight and programmatic feature), then I'd strongly suggest that you get one, calibrate your scale and then re-check your loads.

Sharing info that can be as much as .2 grains off can really ruin someones day.

With that said, if you are using some of the well intentioned, provided info.... PLEASE oh PLEASE start .2 grains lower and work up.... You never know how well your, hopefully calibrated scale, compares to someone else's (hopefully calibrated scale).

YMMV,

Alan

[fastarget]

Wise statement,

I started going .2 under when I noticed that my rcbs 1500 at times responds slower to the weight, it would read 3.9, but after 3-4 seconds go to 3.8 for example( it made a difference if the garage was cold or warm even). I calibrate every time I turn it on.

A fellow shooter even brought his dillon scale over, we calibrated both, and the same powder amount was .1 off between the two scales.

So use figures as approximations, and develop a load with "your" calibrated scale.

[larry cazes]

Repeated calibration will do little to solve these problems unless the scales used have sufficient basic accuracy and Repeatability. Does yours?

Edited November 5, 2010 by larry cazes

[Powder Finger]

Repeated calibration will do little to solve these problems unless the scales used have sufficient basic accuracy and Repeatability. Does yours?

agree for sure. I've got a pretty accurate kindof expensive Denver inst scale and I don't want anyone taking my numbers as good 2 go.

Too.....many variables.

[jtaylor996]

I agree with this. I've only been loading maybe a month or two now, but one of my first purchases, before I loaded my first round, was a set of calibration weights.

I'm using titegroup on a LnL press, and at first I was measuring every charge until I got what I wanted every single throw (within .1gr), using an RCBS 505 scale. However, now I just average things out over 10 throws. It makes calibrating much easier, as most cal weights are larger than what one would put in a single case of 9mm. Calibrating to 4gr is a pain, but 40gr is a whole lot easier, and you can fine tune it better so your cal weight is exactly what 10x charges is (since you can't cal to 4.1gr with any weight set I've seen).

[yoshidaex]

Instead of the suggestion to start two tenths lower, I usually go 10% less and work my way up.

[fastarget]

Repeated calibration will do little to solve these problems unless the scales used have sufficient basic accuracy and Repeatability. Does yours?

I do believe so, I even had the crucible weighed, so this is another way to check if the scale is correct. After I calibrate I put the crucible on the platform and it should be perfect each time.

Anyone else notice differences in the way the scales behave with room temperature?

[NoSteel]

I have a few basic small washers that I have ground to make a certain weight based on my current loads. These are checked on 3 (1 Balance, 2 electronic) scales before I start using them. Currently 1 each for 4.3gr, 4.5gr, 4.9gr and 5.2gr. They go on the scale every 100 rnds when I'm loading. At this point this has been as accurate as I've needed to get and seem to work as a good compliment to my scales huge cal weights.

[fastarget]

neat way to check it out, very nice.

[gng4life]

Good point Adam...I always use my balance beam and electronic to verify each other and I calibrate them often. Never can be too careful when doing this hobby...

[Alan Adamson]

Good point Adam...I always use my balance beam and electronic to verify each other and I calibrate them often. Never can be too careful when doing this hobby...

One other point... for those with electronic scales, turn em on and *leave* em on, you'll find they will settle and stay, if you turn it on and off, let it stabilize *at least* 5 minutes before you put the first weight on it to measure, and even then it may creep a bit as you proceed.

Alan

[fastarget]

Good point Adam...I always use my balance beam and electronic to verify each other and I calibrate them often. Never can be too careful when doing this hobby...

One other point... for those with electronic scales, turn em on and *leave* em on, you'll find they will settle and stay, if you turn it on and off, let it stabilize *at least* 5 minutes before you put the first weight on it to measure, and even then it may creep a bit as you proceed.

Alan

Good, so let the electronics warm up which I do, I keep the scale on the whole loading session.

for people with an RCBS, I take the pan off when I turn it off, do you also that the black plastic platform the pan sits on when you are not using your scale?

[RH45]

The accuracy of the scale aside, there are so many other variables like case capacity differences between brands, and my pet peeve--differences in lot numbers of powders.

[Alan Adamson]

Good, so let the electronics warm up which I do, I keep the scale on the whole loading session.

for people with an RCBS, I take the pan off when I turn it off, do you also that the black plastic platform the pan sits on when you are not using your scale?

I leave everything on my scale and it powered up *all the time*... The load cells in these little scales is such that they will find the sweet spot (zero - tare) consistently if you you leave them all setup up all the time, and powered on... If you have one that continues to *creap* after it's been for 2 hours, with all the plates, cups, etc still on it and zero'd, I'd suggest you might want to find another scale.

Edited November 6, 2010 by Alan Adamson