Decent digital scale you have used?

[WobblyHand]

I'm looking for something better than my old Redding powder scale to measure cast pellets and slugs a little quicker.  The Redding doesn't have damping, so it takes a while to settle.  Have any recommendations that won't break the bank, and are stable?  By stable I mean they don't drift a lot forcing a re-calibration every 10 minutes.  (And you mistrusting your measurements after 5 minutes!)  I really only need to measure to 0.1 grain.  Thanks.

[RichH]

Hornady GS 1500 powder scale. Was like $30 at Cabela's. I bought it for my black powder, but use it for pellets.

[WobblyHand]

Hornady GS 1500 powder scale. Was like $30 at Cabela's. I bought it for my black powder, but use it for pellets.

Thanks for the recommendation.  Appreciate it.

Do you mean the G3 1500?  Midway has that, but it's $60.  How long ago did you get it from Cabela's?  Hmm, it must have been a while, I see Cabela's price is now $69.99.  Amazon has it for $60.78 and free shipping.  Midway I have to pay shipping.  Ok, one vote for the G3-1500.  How long do the batteries last?  Do you have to calibrate it often?

[WobblyHand]

Found a cheap fix to my problem.  I simply attached a couple of Nd magnets to the back of the scale, next to the pointer.  The magnets cause eddy currents in the beam pointer and slow down its motion.  Now my old Redding is the equivalent of a Redding #2 which has magnetic damping.  Cost of the upgrade?  $0.30.  No batteries, I can use my 40 year old scale and it works just as well as a new $114 Redding #2.  Can't believe the solution would be this simple, but I'll take it.

Now back to sorting pellets...

[nced]

I'm looking for something better than my old Redding powder scale to measure cast pellets and slugs a little quicker.  The Redding doesn't have damping, so it takes a while to settle.  Have any recommendations that won't break the bank, and are stable?  By stable I mean they don't drift a lot forcing a re-calibration every 10 minutes.  (And you mistrusting your measurements after 5 minutes!)  I really only need to measure to 0.1 grain.  Thanks.

I've been using a Smart Weigh Gem20 for weighing pellets. About $25 from Amazon............

20g = 309gr
.001g = 0.0154gr

[WobblyHand]

At that price point it's worth a try.  Thanks @nced
Adding damping to my Redding helped quite a bit, I was surprised at how well the magnet trick worked.  I just ordered the digital scale anyways and will try it out.  In the meantime I'll grab a washer or two to space the magnet a little closer to the balance pointer.  Only cost a penny or two to try.

Even with the magnet stack I cobbled up last night the damping is much improved.  Before it would take as many as 8 cycles to die down, now it takes about 3, which is almost 2/3 less time. 

Even so, looking forward to a digital scale, there should be a lot less fiddling to do, which means it will be a lot quicker.

[nced]

At that price point it's worth a try.  Thanks @nced
Adding damping to my Redding helped quite a bit, I was surprised at how well the magnet trick worked.  I just ordered the digital scale anyways and will try it out.  In the meantime I'll grab a washer or two to space the magnet a little closer to the balance pointer.  Only cost a penny or two to try.

Even with the magnet stack I cobbled up last night the damping is much improved.  Before it would take as many as 8 cycles to die down, now it takes about 3, which is almost 2/3 less time. 

Even so, looking forward to a digital scale, there should be a lot less fiddling to do, which means it will be a lot quicker.

"there should be a lot less fiddling to do"
There is an issue where the weighing needs to be done in "still air" because at the .001 gram rating even lightly breathing directly on the pan will affect the readout.
After weighing and sorting a few thousand .177 CPLs, with my HW breakbarrels and "sittin' on a bucket shootin' style" I didn't notice enough difference in accuracy out to 50 yards to be worth the hassle. I found that sizing the CPLs to guarantee a consistent "fit in the leade" there was enough difference to justify sizing the pellets using a home made pellet sizer to sort out any pee wees but as long as the pellet heads were large enough to be "sized" when pressed into the leade the pellet heads were consistent enough for me........

[avator]

I have to block the a/c unit when weighing with my digital scale to block the air. I just set a back pack on the edge of the bench to block it.

[WobblyHand]

I've seen air currents / breezes messing up measurements.  Have an indoor corner away from any AC vents for measuring.  I blocked the nearby AC vent simply because it was too cold in that spot!  Hope to get the new scale within the next two days.

[RichH]

Hornady GS 1500 powder scale. Was like $30 at Cabela's. I bought it for my black powder, but use it for pellets.

Thanks for the recommendation.  Appreciate it.

Do you mean the G3 1500?  Midway has that, but it's $60.  How long ago did you get it from Cabela's?  Hmm, it must have been a while, I see Cabela's price is now $69.99.  Amazon has it for $60.78 and free shipping.  Midway I have to pay shipping.  Ok, one vote for the G3-1500.  How long do the batteries last?  Do you have to calibrate it often?

Not the G3 1500, mine is the GS 1500. I bought it probably 4 or 5 years ago. Never replaced the batteries. Every time I sit the calibration weight on it the scale is spot on.

[Madd Hatter]

I've seen air currents / breezes messing up measurements.  Have an indoor corner away from any AC vents for measuring.  I blocked the nearby AC vent simply because it was too cold in that spot!  Hope to get the new scale within the next two days.

You also need to have it level.

[WobblyHand]

@nced this new digital scale seems to work pretty well.  Converges to 0.01 grains pretty quick.  I don't know how long it will last, but so far so good.  The problem with having multiple scales is knowing which one to believe.   I hope it stays consistent.  But sorting will be easier, a lot easier.

My scale is reading 10.001 gm for the 10gm unit without calibrating.  That's not bad.

@Madd Hatter the scale is sensitive to level!  Thanks for pointing that out.

[2A Georgia]

I purchased a Frankford Arsenal pocket scale 4 years ago.  Weighs to 0.1gr which is accurate enough for me for pellet/slug sorting.  In another life it confirmed 6.3gr drops.  It came with a 50.0gram deadweight and I just checked it was dead on...I believe it was under $30 Midway or Palmetto IIRC.  Wind and level do make a difference.

[Madd Hatter]

I purchased a Frankford Arsenal pocket scale 4 years ago.  Weighs to 0.1gr which is accurate enough for me for pellet/slug sorting.  In another life it confirmed 6.3gr drops.  It came with a 50.0gram deadweight and I just checked it was dead on...I believe it was under $30 Midway or Palmetto IIRC.  Wind and level do make a difference.

I use the same scale and have had no problem.