Calibrating RCBS beam scale with #8 shot.

penguin

I watched a demo "You Tube" of a guy calibrating the above by disassembling the pan holder and adding #8 shot. How could a beam scale get that far out of calibration?

The bench was level and all adjustments were at 0 and height adjusted from max to min. Would not align.

Any suggestions?

charliemeyer007

Well Bubba could have adjusted it some along the way.

Static can do odd things - rub it down with a dryer sheet.

The pivot is very sensitive. The knife edge and the agate block can damaged easily. The pivots on the beam could be bent. The beam pointer could be dragging on the guard. Main weight isn't fully in the zero notch.

Yep, there is shot inside the pan holder.

11b6r

Different pan or powder holder.

Mobuck

Seems like a foolish endeavor considering the importance of "being right" and the relatively low cost of a new scale.

RobOz

A Scott Parker tuned scale is the cats meow when it comes to accuracy.

pip5255

just like anything else made by man sooner or later it will fail/fault......................

Okie743

The beam scale and the powder pan are calibrated together as a matched set from the factory. If the pan and scale gets separated or mixed up with others then it requires the calibration of the powder pan to the scale.

I bought a real nice Hi dollar RCBS scale at a garage sale dirt cheap that did not have a pan and when I found a pan for few bucks I used the lead shot method of calibrating the pan to the scale. I could have mailed the scale to RCBS lifetime warranty and the would have calibrated all for free but I did not want to act like a welfare recipient. Someone might think I'm a Obama supporter acting that low ball for a freebie ride taking advantage of nice nature of RCBS.
I wipe down scales and the pan with dryer sheets quite often to eliminate static which can cause erratic readings even in the plastic digital types.

v35

A set of weights is good to have.
The pivot knives on a 505 weren't straight on mine.
You could add soft aluminum wire to the pan support.
In fischer Scientific (Eimer & Amond) balance beams were adjusted with a ball pein hammer on the far side and weights adjusted by unscrewing weight tops and adding or subtracting shot.