doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com My Dillon digital scale died. Help!

BTW Brent, I was looking at an old thread from 2007 and saw you were using the same picture in your posts.

I will call the company you suggested on Monday. Thanks.

Damn near every digital scale made that isn’t for very high end laboratory work is going to be made in China these days. I have a couple of laboratory grade ohaus digitals that are also made in China. Regardless of where they are being made, I have found that most are very accurate, even the cheap food type scales you can buy on Amazon. Almost more important that the scales themselves is a good set of calibration weights. If you don’t have highly accurate calibration weights, who knows what your scale is throwing. Some think that simply hitting the tare button on the scale is enough to calibrate.
Correct room temp, most manufacturers insist that you let the scale “warm up” (usually turn it on and let it sit the 5 to 10 min before calibration and use), keeping it away from light sources that emit magnetic interference, when in use keeping it away from vents, fans and other drafty areas is also important.
Many people just turn on a scale and start using it. Theres a right way and wrong way to using one.

My basement has no HVAC system but I run a dehumidifier at 50% all year. The temperature fluctuates seasonally but not daily. The only wind is my breathing and I hold my breath when taking measurements since I found it affects the readout. The lights in the room used when reloading are overhead LED spotlights. The Dillon came with calibration weights so I am good there. The Dillon seemed accurate without a warm up but I can see the newer ones need it.

Some of the reviewers seem to be knowledgeable and go into it quite deeply. Maybe I am expecting too much. When you adjust for inflation, the $45 Dillon would cost several times as much although a few of the cheaper ones seem to have similar reviews to the more expensive ones. Maybe they are all using the same or similar mechanisms. Even the Hornady m2 at around $170 seems to have a problem with number creep.

Static also has effect on measurement. Number creep can sometimes be attributed to a static charge being present.

You guys are still not saying what you use these scales for. Are you using them to check to weight of powder when you reload?

I have several electric scales. All made in China. All get checked against a known weight, that I checked on a balance beam scale. I’m old school and will still break out my balance beam for fine work, but I do like the speed of an electric scale. For new loads I setup with the balance beam. Once I’m dialed in I then check it with an electric scale. If they agree I use the electric scale to spot check. When you find an electric scale you like but a second one as a spare. They are very cheap these days but not likely to last a decade each.

I have found all the cheap electric scales are within .1 grains of each other. For me, that is acceptable. When setting up for a new load I try for +/-.1 grains. Under if possible. More interested in under these days. In my youth I pushed the limits, not so much these days. I want consistency if possible.

I load in large batches these days. When I load I try to do it in one session or two at the most. Just finished loading 4,000 20 gauge shells with 3/4, 7/8 and a few 1 ounce loads. Next will be 5,000 28 shells with 3/4, 13/16 & 1 ounce for everything from Skeet to late season Dove to Sporting Clays. When I want to shoot it is so much easier to just grabs boxes loaded with what I need, right off the shelf. I print out a label that notes shot size, shot charge, powder type and weight, wad, primer, fps and date loaded. Sounds like a lot of unless you let your printer do 90% of the work. Loading 10-15 or more boxes of the same load makes keeping things straight easier but also more important I only need to load a few times a year instead of every week like I once did. I am so glad I have a couple Spolars and a set of 9000hn MECs as backups.

Jimmy, my first post's last sentence is "I cannot reload until I get a new one." It also says "fluctuating and changing numbers while a load sits on the scale for a while and not registering small changes as you add powders."
I think you can go back and read it and draw your own conclusions.

Milt, when I really got into reloading I bought a Cabela's digital scale which worked great but I found out that it did "drift" after a time. I would do an average of 10 individual drops and started noticing drifting. I then would set of my beam scale and re-check as I was going. I would weigh the powder in a dipper and then zero it and after a bunch of drops I would see the scale was not at zero with the empty dipper on it. Can't explain the reasoning.
When I set up again to reload a different gauge or different powder I always re-check with the digital scale and the beam scale to see what the specified bushing is dropping and then just start reloading how ever many hulls I want. I did find out the the red powder baffle really helped in getting more consistent drops. I use a Mec Grabber in 12 gauge and Mec 600 jrs. in .410, 20, 28, and 10 gauge although not much now in 20 and 28 gauge.
To tell the truth not much reloading in any gauge now and not shooting much anymore. Was going to start again this year until this heat hit.


In reading the one post from Dustin, I do use the weights to first make sure it is calibrated, but as I said it still drifts after a while, not much, but the beam scale is right on.

Fwiw, I have used quite a few digital scales. I have had very little to no amount of drifting. Calibrations are remarkably consistent. However, I have used so many because the strain gauges in them seem to fail eventually. I am currently using an OHaus Scout with relatively low precision but the best durability yet.

I also use a beam balance and compare across scales. A $35 used OHaus beam balance is really hard to beat.

I use the RCBS with the brass bowl to check my powder. I have been using it for 25 years. I always have the problem of losing a few flakes of powder when I transfer it from my MEC to the scales and back to the reloader. Sometimes the flakes will come out and stick to the side of the plastic hull.I never worry about it that much, although I do try to be careful. Static electricity, humidity and loss of powder is a common thing. I usually check the weight of my powder every 2-3 boxes of shells. I don't think I am going to notice if a shell has a few flakes of powder missing that has been spilled. Or if the weight of the powder in a box of shells is a little off because of the humidity in my reloading room, when I reload at different times. I'm just not that critical. 👍