Re: good non electric scale?
I don't trust electronic scales, the couple I've tried had too much variation charge to charge, and were too susceptible to ANY amount of vibration present. I was also skeptical about temperature/humidity variations. One just took too damned long to reach a weight reading, and I was never really sure it was right. Seemed I had the balance beam scale right there too and was constantly double checking the electronic scale. PITA, is the nicest thing I can say about them, IMHE, FWIW. One thing that personally agravated me about electronic vs. balance beam is the mental fatigue with the electronic. Watching/counting the numbers go up on the electronic scale seemed more fatiguing than simply watching a pointer rise. Might sound silly but do a couple hundred, or more, in a session and see what I mean.
I will admit it was wicked easy to get rid of them when I sold 'em.....
A good balance beam is either right, or it's wrong, and it's easy as shit to see if it's right or it's wrong. The trick I use is to make up a check weight to check the "zero" as I go. The check weight is made out of whatever, usually a metal washer, and weighs exactly the same as my powder charge. I stamp them with a letter/number set to mark for chambering, powder weight, and powder type, so I don't acidentally use the wrong one. I start with a washer that's a tad heavier than my powder charge then remove metal by drilling little holes in it, and eventually dremeling off tiny bits of mass so it comes out the exact same weight.
'Tis a simple matter of placing it on the pan every 10 rounds or so to make sure the beam is still "zero'd". This is a ton easier than moving the scale weights back to zero everytime to check it. The check weight is a constant that will never change. To check "zero" it is just as good regarding accuracy as actually setting the scale back to zero, just faster....and the less you fiddle with your scale while you use it the better too.
I used a 505 for decades, and now have a 10-10....both very good scales. One tip per magnetic dampened scales. When not is use take it apart and store the beam seperated from the magnet. It will read truer the next time you use it.
