Zeroing my scale

hamerhead

New member
I just inherited all my grandfather's reloading equipment, and I'm having trouble with the scale that came with his stuff. The scale itself looks to be in good shape, but I can't get it to zero with everything set right. Looks to be about 2 tenths off, and the screw base won't work when everything is set to zero. Any help fellas?

Hamer
 
Can we get a brand and model? Possibly a picture? A thorough cleaning would do it some good I'm sure. Use a Q-tip and alcohol on all places, especially the notches the beam pivots in.

I just picked up a used RCBS 5-0-5 that was in much need of that cleaning. May want to give it a try.
 
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Here's a picture of it. Looks like a good one. I'll try the cleaning on it. What would you call this model of RCBS scale?

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Is your bench level?

Picture looks like you are reading about .5 gr. heavy. A shim under the foot @ pointer end of scale should worrk in order to bring it up enough so that pointer reads a few tenths low; then you can use the adjusting screw to fine tune.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: hamerheadI just inherited all my grandfather's reloading equipment, and I'm having trouble with the scale that came with his stuff. The scale itself looks to be in good shape, but I can't get it to zero with everything set right. Looks to be about 2 tenths off, and the screw base won't work when everything is set to zero. Any help fellas?

Hamer

In the pan hanger, there is a screw and a small plate - take out the screw and plate - under the plate, there are about a trigillion little bits of shot - take out or add as you need to get the scale to zero.

It should zero with the left end height screw half way in it's adjustment.
 
OK guys. I cleaned it top to bottom with alcohol. It looks like new. I un-screwed the plate from the pan and took out one tiny ball and got it to ballance, with a little adjust ment with the screw leg. The problem now is, when the scale beam comes up from the bottom it settles at Zero, but when it goes down from the top and settles, it's almost a grain high. What would be causing this? Does it have something to do with the magnets that stablize it? It really shouldn't be this hard, should it?

Hamer
 
Originally Posted By: hamerheadOK guys. I cleaned it top to bottom with alcohol. It looks like new. I un-screwed the plate from the pan and took out one tiny ball and got it to ballance, with a little adjust ment with the screw leg. The problem now is, when the scale beam comes up from the bottom it settles at Zero, but when it goes down from the top and settles, it's almost a grain high. What would be causing this? Does it have something to do with the magnets that stablize it? It really shouldn't be this hard, should it?

Hamer

Something is dragging. The magnets have nothing to do with friction - they only wirk on the beam when it is moving, the slower it moves, the less the magnets work - when it stops, the magnets have no effect.

See if you can find where there is friction - it is usually in the bearing/knife place.

Look at the knife edges and make sure that they have no dings in them - that is the biggest cause of drag

Clean it very well, and if you have loose agate bearings, make sure that they're free to move.
 
Your scale is a RCBS Model 5-10. Check under the frame on the pan end of the scale and make sure the two little nubs they have for feet are not broken off.

I had one that was broken off and it drove me nuts until I noiced it was broken. If it is broken their's nothing you can do because Ohaus doesn't have any frames to replace it. They couldn't fix mine so they sent me a brand new 10-10 scale. Not a bad deal since my scale was almost 40 yeares old.
 
Ok. I did everthing that you guys have collectively sugested to do. I cleaned it again, paying extra close attention to the pivot area. I deburred the knige edge on the pivot and made sure the agate moved freely. I also checked the knobs/feet on it and both were there, but I did notice that the vinyl top on the inherited bench has grooves in the pattern and could cause it not to always sit flat. After taking all into consideration, it seems to be working. Thanks guys!!

After digging through some other boxes of things I got from my Grandfather, I also found this scale. It set up easily and leveled up right out of the box of stuff. Is this a better scale than the first one, or ist an older model? Anyone got an idea about what these are worth? I feel like a kid at Christmas, going through these boxes. Who knows what else I'll find.

Hamer

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If the second one you have pictured works well use it. Send the 5-10 to RCBS and have them repair it, they did mine last year for free. It was having the same problems as yours, the salt air out here had rusted the knife edges.
 
Once you have gotten your scale to ZERO on the bench, Take a marker of some kind and out line where your scale is sitting. Put your scale in the exact same spot every time and recheck ZERO. It will always be very close if not exact
every time. This marking will save you alot of headache. It is what I do and works great.

Tony
 
Thanks guys for all the help. I'm still curious on what this other scale is. Is it basically the same scale just older? Or is it another model?

Hamer
 
From the picture it looks like it has RCBS on the base, it is just a different model scale. There are very few scale manufactures. Allot of the scales are made by Ohaus and labled for the different retailers, I'm pretty sure that they built for Lyman and RCBS, possibly Hornady.
 
Good to see these old scales out doing what they were designed to do .I have a 1950's model Redding that I use I had Scott Parker do his magic on it and i have it setup on my computer webcam so i can see the needle at the balancing point .And it will measure to a kurnel of powder . These scales are simple and can be very accurate .

Jim
 
I just got that EXACT same scale from my father. He didn't use it for 25 years and he bought it form someone else. I just sent it back to RCBS for the same problem and they are taking care of it.
 
Originally Posted By: AWSIf the second one you have pictured works well use it. Send the 5-10 to RCBS and have them repair it, they did mine last year for free. It was having the same problems as yours, the salt air out here had rusted the knife edges.

THIS
 
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