Posted By: Sigmund
Been obsessed with scales lately - 09/17/17 10:43 PM
I've had a Lyman 1200 DPS power scale/dispenser since i started reloading. At the time i was primarily reloading handgun ammunition, and it worked well enough for that. However, over the last year and a half I've been spending more time trying to work up accurate rifle ammunition for longer range shooting. I've managed to isolate and fix a couple of other problems in my reloading setup, and the next suspect is the scale.
In order to diagnose what was going on, i decided to conduct an experiment. I had the Lyman 1200 DPS and an old RCBS balance beam, and a friend of mine had a RCBS charge master lite that he let me borrow for the experiment.
the experiment:
1 - dispence a charge of propellant with the Lyman, record final weight
2 - weigh dispensed charge on RCBS charge master, record weight
3 - weigh dispensed charge on the balance beam, record weight
4 - repeat for 20 charges.
5 - repeat steps 1-4 using RCBS to dispense propellant (step 1), and using Lyman as first weight check (step 2)
6 - repeat for 5 different propellants i typically use.
In total, 200 charges were dispensed, weighed, and re-weighed, and compiled into a spreadsheet. A lot of time went into it, so i thought i would share my findings. The weight recorded by the balance beam was used as the "gold standard" scale for all measurements.
Summary is below:
Results indicate that the RCBS performed a fair bit better than the Lyman. While some of the min-max variations were close, the RCBS consistently had a lower standard deviation in charge weight.
So my question is, has anyone here used an electronic balance like the Ohaus STX123, and will it offer the same level of accuracy/consistency as a mechanical balance? My understanding is that this is not a typical strain gauge type of scale, so it may not be prone to the same issues?
In order to diagnose what was going on, i decided to conduct an experiment. I had the Lyman 1200 DPS and an old RCBS balance beam, and a friend of mine had a RCBS charge master lite that he let me borrow for the experiment.
the experiment:
1 - dispence a charge of propellant with the Lyman, record final weight
2 - weigh dispensed charge on RCBS charge master, record weight
3 - weigh dispensed charge on the balance beam, record weight
4 - repeat for 20 charges.
5 - repeat steps 1-4 using RCBS to dispense propellant (step 1), and using Lyman as first weight check (step 2)
6 - repeat for 5 different propellants i typically use.
In total, 200 charges were dispensed, weighed, and re-weighed, and compiled into a spreadsheet. A lot of time went into it, so i thought i would share my findings. The weight recorded by the balance beam was used as the "gold standard" scale for all measurements.
Summary is below:
Results indicate that the RCBS performed a fair bit better than the Lyman. While some of the min-max variations were close, the RCBS consistently had a lower standard deviation in charge weight.
So my question is, has anyone here used an electronic balance like the Ohaus STX123, and will it offer the same level of accuracy/consistency as a mechanical balance? My understanding is that this is not a typical strain gauge type of scale, so it may not be prone to the same issues?