I have moved into the 20th Century...finally

[armoredman]

Today I went to the post office to get our mail, and lo and behold, a box with familiar blue writing on it…Berry’s Manufacturing. Always a good thing! Let’s get home to Czech it out!
Popped open the box to find this nice black case inside.



Nice! And inside?



Neat! The new Berry’s scale, my first ever electronic scale. Sorry, old balance beam…you're history!
Let’s get this puppy set up! Read the directions first. Now here’s what I like to see. Two pages. Not 30 with 29 pages of disclaimers and warnings, plus having to wade past the Swahili and French versions to get to English! Very easy to read and use instruction, too. But let me show why they are almost superfluous!



Turn it on, and it shows this,



Hit CAL, (calibrate, not California – if I’d been magically transported to LA I would have been MAD!), and put on the big 100gram weight. Note the reading - it's inscribed on the top of the weight so you can't forget.



Now it’s zeroed, and put the pan on, hit TARE, and voila!



Yes, Virginia, it IS that easy!
Let’s get rockin’ – I seem to have some 7.62x39mm brass I JUST finished prepping. Since these are going to be used in the vz-58, we’ll be using some generic brand SP bullets, instead of the nice accurate Berry’s 125 grain plated. Saving those for the CZ 527M.



Ok, here we go,



First ever throw of powder on this baby,



Not too bad, a few adjustments, and happy days, right on target!



Start charging cases! In “case” my technique looks odd, that’s the way I was taught to do it with the drop tube…



Every ten charges thrown, I recheck throw weight. The tare weight never moved, and the readings were quick and accurate. I am told it will hold an accurate reading up to a 15 degree angle, didn't get to try that yet. I can say this is something I am going to use often, incredibly easy to use, even a knuckle dragging caveman can do it!
Ya know, like me! 8) ;D

BTW for those who noticed the 8 pound jug of Accurate Arms #7 behind where the 1 pound jug AA# 1680 jug is, yes, I have two different powders on the table. I never use the 8 pound jugs to fill anything but 1 pound jugs, easier, so I would never fill the powder measure from there, non issue. That wooden cabinet is the powder magazine - and it's full.

[safetychain]

That scale really looks great. A nice addition to the loading bench. First, a little correction: We're now in the 21st century. I don't think you were meaning that the electronic scale was taking you back in history. And second, friendly warning: Be really careful about air drafts. Mine was blowing my mine because it would be so so fantastically and repetitively accurate and then seem to go bonkers and be off several tenths of a grain. I'd check calibration and its dead on and then measure the powder again and it would be fine. It took several days before I noticed that the bad readings were coinciding with the A/C cycling on. The ceiling vent was on the other side of the room 12 feet away. Had to turn the vent off to eliminate its effect. I was also having a similar but slighter effect from day to night which disappeared when I moved the bench from in front of a window. The sun shining in on the bench would get the air rising and throw the readings off a couple of tenths of a grain at times. Clouds come in and have to calibrate again. Its hard to imagine that such a relatively lo cost piece of equipment could be so sensitive/accurate.

[230RN]

Drug paraphernalia ! Drug Paraphernalia ! Somebody call 911!

Good pix.

Good show on that... what are you planning for the 21st Century?

Terry, 230RN

[armoredman]

I got used to 20th Century, being a bit older than some youngsters, my bad. On the other hand it is unintentionally funny.
I turn off the overhead fan and let it stop before I load - it would register a .2-.4 grain weight of air movement from the fan. Also the AC ducts are moved to avoid the bench. No sunshine to worry about, window is blocked by a white plastic shower curtain, of all things - I don't need my neighbors looking in on my reloading room for stuff to steal.

And for the 21st Century... maybe a laptop? Seriously, with my 1981 single stage press, maybe the last century wasn't so bad, call it nostalgia...

[230RN]

Oh, hey, look out for magnets. Anecdotal, but my son thinks he bunged up one of those e-scales by having a magnet nearby.

Drafts. Nostalgia. I remember in high school the chem lab mechanical balances had hoods on them you had to close to eliminate that variable (1949 or so.)

Also, the instructions on my two e-scales say to allow them to equilibrate to the room temperature, so blocking sunlight is a good idea.

(I'm kind of a mensuration nut.)

Terry, 230RN

[armoredman]

Thanks, no known magnets in this room away from the electromagnets in the computer equipment. I remember hoods, but usually flash hoods we had to use for some of our more "volatile" experiments...back when you could still do that, and that was about 30 years after yours...
It's really easy to use, and takes up a lot less room. Also, if you slam the table, the reading will bounce, but settle back down very fast.

[Treo]

I have moved into the 20th Century...finally

Wonderful, except the 20th century ended a decade ago!!!!!


Nice set up

[Old Grump]

I have a perfectly good digital scale myself but rarely use it because old dinosaurs do what old dinosaurs always do. I am still using the old beam and balance scale I got way back about 75 or 76. I admit the digital is handier and faster but .......................... well, I am a dinosaur.

[Freiheit]

If you don't mind my asking, how much was that scale? I want one but the digitals either seem overpriced or underpriced. One is more than I need and the other is inaccurate junk.

[ants]

I use both: electronic digital and the beam balance.

Neither is 'better' than the other. Both are excellent tools.

I use the balance to check loads while I'm loading. It is one of my strategies to keep it simple and avoid human error. Set to my charge weight so the 'poise' indicates zero, I can pour a powder charge on the pan during a loading session and see if the poise goes to zero. I don't have to remember the exact charge weight, it either points to zero or I've got a problem. If you only load one caliber with one bullet, maybe it isn't a big deal to remember your charge weight (is it 23.4 grains or 24.3 grains?). If you load 37 calibers and keep 200 different bullets and 30 different powders in stock like me, and every load is different from the last one, it is best to Keep It Simple. Any time you can make it simple and eliminate any possibility of human error, you are better off.

I use the digital to set up the powder measure, or to weigh things when I don't have the existing weight (like weighing 100 pieces of brass to match them into weight groups). It takes forever to do that on a balance scale.

And I use the two scales to check each other. Both scales have their own check weights, which are also cross checked.

To me, it isn't one or the other. Both are handy tools. I use both every day.



By the way, I know you didn't ask, but setting a scale to Zero with no weight on the pan doesn't calibrate it. That only tells you it is accurate with no weight on the pan. When scales have a problem, it often only occurs at charge weight, not at zero. That's where a check weight is indispensible. The value of setting it to Zero with no weight on the pan is that it makes up for sitting on a slope. The bench top isn't always dead flat level. Move the scale around and it changes setting depending upon the flatness and level of the surface. Setting to zero adjusts for that.

[ants]

Looks great, armored man !!

I've seen it at Berry's http://www.gunrightsmedia.com/showth...=1#post5381505.
I might have to get one as a backup. It looks good.

Battery and AC power?

[Selena]

I'm glad to see you have finally stepped up from spears and stone axes and joined the 20th century. Now if we could just get you into the 21st.

[KodiakBeer]

Weird, because I've just been transported into the 18th century.

Ordered one of these today:



It's only 36 caliber, but should I get attacked by hordes of zombie rats I'll be ready!

[armoredman]

OK, so I missed a digit...must have been because I was using the old scale to hold up this concrete and Wooly Mammoth bone keyboard...
Kodiak, that is just like the one I want, the Naval Cannon, but the one I found attaches to your keychain and fires BBs.
Wonder if that small of a BP load would register on this new scale?
Yes, Freihiet, $129.99 from Berry's free shipping orders over $50. http://www.berrysmfg.com/product-i14...tal_Scale.aspx

[billyjmc]

Hey folks, give the man a break. He was right the first time: the electronic scale is 20th century technology. Just because this specimen was manufactured in the 21st doesn't make it any better than what could be had 15 years ago.

[noylj]

Since I got my first digital balance back in the late '70s, I am afraid the OP is only into the 20th century as far as balances go.
Even a digital powder dispenser only gets you to the 1990s, I'm afraid.
Q: What really NEW things has the new 21st century brought reloaders?

[230RN]

Catching up with the thread....

"I'm glad to see you have finally stepped up from spears and stone axes and joined the 20th century. Now if we could just get you into the 21st."

I already mentioned that, Selena.

Good advice, ants (Post 10)

armoredman said:

It's really easy to use, and takes up a lot less room. Also, if you slam the table, the reading will bounce, but settle back down very fast.

Actually, something I learned a long time ago is to lightly tap the table when taking a reading to eliminate hysteresis in the sensor --which all of them have to one extent or another. (The quartz beam balance has very little hysteresis.)

Remember when engineers used to tap their gauges to get the gauge to settle down to a true reading? Same principle. (I do the same thing with analog VOMs (Volt-Ohm Meters) when taking a reading.)

One of the funniest things I ever saw was when Scotty, the engineer of the starship Enterprise, tapped the digital readout he was looking at to ensure the reading was accurate.

I don't worry too much about overcharges here, though, since the gravity here in Colorado is a little higher than other places in the US. Thus, a given charge weight here is slightly less powder.
^


Like I say, I'm a bit of a mensuration nut.


Terry, 230RN

[armoredman]

Okay.....*backs away slowly*

billy, thanks for the slam, I think it's pretty good equipment myself, just used it again for some 9mm stuff. I think it may be better made than what was here 15 years ago, just exactly what did you have in mind thsi is so much better to replace it?
noylj, I have a nice solid Uniflow powder measure, works great, no problems, no need to replace it.

[billyjmc]

Oh, I was just pre-emptively striking against any pedantic replies along the lines of "The microcontroller inside the unit was actually designed in 2003, and therefore is 21st century technology," or some such nonsense. And I only did that because I am a bit pedantic myself.

Getting 0.1 grain precision at <$150 for a mostly-made-in-the-USA product is good stuff. I wasn't knocking your selection at all, just noting the age of the general technology itself.

[armoredman]

Ah, OK, I understand, as most of the guns we reload for are tech from MANY years ago,(sometimes well over 100 years ago), rearranged and rebranded sometimes. However it is not needed to "pre-emptively strike" me, just ask questions and make verifiable statements, no harm no foul.

[230RN]

men·su·ra·tion (mns-rshn, -sh-)
n.
1. The act, process, or art of measuring.
2. Measurement of geometric quantities.

I love using that word.

[armoredman]

Keep a ruler close, do ya?

[ants]

Yes, but he probably only uses the ruler as a weapon.

The caliper is most likely 230RN's choice of mensurating tool.

[armoredman]

Oh, that's not nice...funny, but not nice...