I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

On Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:31:49 -0700, Bob La Londe
wrote:

I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.
Look on ebay. There are all sorts of scales that read to 1 tenth of a
gram, with an accuracy of perhaps + or- 1/2 a tenth. And a tenth of a
gram is 1/280 ounce. I recently bought a couple electronic scales and
one reads to .01 gram. And repeats within less than .01 gram. I have
another scale that reads to .001 gram with an accurace of + or - .001
gram. It's fun to weigh a small piece of paper, tare the scale, make a
short mark with a ball point pen or a pencil, and then weigh the mark.
I test the scales with precision Ohaus weights. These scales are
remarkably cheap and accurate.
Eric

On Friday, August 30, 2019 at 3:31:51 PM UTC-7, Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces.

You're in luck. I've got an old Ohaus that does tenths of a gram,
and a set of calibration weights to test it, but it's mainly
just gathering dust because kitchen scales are SO good nowadays.

Taylor makes a glass-plate thing

https://www.taylorusa.com/product/digital-glass-top-scale/

that's accurate to a tenth of a gram (that's under a hundredth ounce),
and there's other brands just about the same performance.

On Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:31:49 -0700
Bob La Londe wrote:

I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

I bit on one of these awhile back to weigh airgun pellets and such:

https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Ars.../dp/B002BDOHNA

Reviews for it were okay at the time. I've only used it a few times, it
worked okay. Figured I wouldn't be out much $$ if it failed...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI

Bob La Londe on Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:31:49 -0700
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

There was a saying back when clocks were a new fangled technology,
that if a man had one clock, he knew what time it was. But if he had
two, he could not be sure. (Some early clocks were +/- fifteen
minutes a day.)
Same applies he you have too many scales. B-) Not to mention,
you do not have one which is accurate "enough". Bite the bullet, and
buy one which will work for you. Which reminds me of the time my
friend was considering the purchase of a yard debris shredder. I
asked him "how often have you needed one?" He replied "Not often, but
if I had one, I would be using it more often."
So, in all likelihood, you will discover that being able to
measure to the 1/64th oz (or better) will become one of those things
you do more often. Because you have the scale "right over there."


--
pyotr filipivich
"With Age comes Wisdom. Although far too often, Age travels alone."

Harbor freight had a scale with a maximum of 1 lb/500 grams.
It read to 0.1 grams and was quite handy.
Their new version is nearly worthless, however. If you put
a cup on that scale & add a fluid slowly, the scale won't show
it! Programmer probably viewed slow changes as electrical noise.

Hul

Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

On Fri, 30 Aug 2019 15:31:49 -0700
Bob La Londe wrote:

snip
I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

HA! You can still get the old beam powder scales:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=beam powder scale

Then you won't have to worry or scrounge around for a battery

I've got an old one around a friend gave me a long time ago. Worked
good for reloading small batches. Even had a magnetic damper in it that
helped slow oscillations when approaching your set weight. I'll bet
it's still working and accurate long after the digital craps out...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI

On Sat, 31 Aug 2019 19:33:46 +0000 (UTC), Hul Tytus
wrote:

Harbor freight had a scale with a maximum of 1 lb/500 grams.
It read to 0.1 grams and was quite handy.
Their new version is nearly worthless, however. If you put
a cup on that scale & add a fluid slowly, the scale won't show
it! Programmer probably viewed slow changes as electrical noise.

Hul

It suffers from the boiled frog syndrome.

My tiny chiwanese 300g scale has a .01g accuracy and has seemed to
retain accuracy. It will react to small increases as I have tried it
with powdered (legal) herbs and spices when making Garam Masala.
Similar to this $6 Chiwan model on Ebay: https://tinyurl.com/yypqwc6v


Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

--
If more sane people were armed,
crazy people would get off fewer shots.
Support the 2nd Amendment

Scales are incredibly cheap and decently accurate nowadays and amazon
is full of them. There is probably many more brands than actual
manufacturers, as is often the case with imported products.

i

On 2019-08-30, Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

On 9/4/2019 6:04 PM, Ignoramus21008 wrote:
Scales are incredibly cheap and decently accurate nowadays and amazon
is full of them. There is probably many more brands than actual
manufacturers, as is often the case with imported products.

i

Yeah, I was over thinking the whole thing. Just ordered a "jewelry
scale" that claims resolution of 0.001oz or 0.01g for ten whole
smackers. If its no good I can send it back on Amazon's dime. I
already have a set of calibration weights so I can check it.





On 2019-08-30, Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

Yes this is metalworking related.

On 2019-08-30, Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

O.K. I've got a cheap Harbor Freight digital scale, one of two
they offer -- the other is for postal purposes.

This one can read lbs, oz, or gm (with the gm being the highest
resolution). It can only read down to 1 gm, which translates to
0.035273962 oz, so not quite good enough for your purposes.

For your purposes, a beam balance (inexpensive classroom lab
scale) with a sliding weight covering the range from 0 to 10 gm.

My example is marked "Ohaus Harvard Trip Balance", and I got it
at a hamfest maybe a decade ago or so. It is an example of the "Triple
Beam Balance" Some of them have several sliding weights so you don't
need the separate set of weights. Just slide the weights and add the
readings to get your final value. There is an example of one in eBay
auction # 362760119741 -- and many others.

If you want to weigh things above 10 gm, you also need a set of
weights to put on one pan, while what you are weighing is on the other.
Once you get it close (almost heavier on the weight side) you then use
the sliding weight to get it down to 0.1 gm.

Looking at the two-pan balance (like mine), there are a number
of the "Ohaus Harvard Trip Balance" on eBay -- *new* and around $300.00,
so not the ones to play with. But they are examples with a second beam
and sliding weight, so it can go up to 2000 gm without external weight
sets.

There are also a bunch of Ohaus made toy balances -- plastic
parts, and bright colors for kids, which are not worth considering for
your purposes. :-)

Also from another hamfest is a really nice one made by Mettler,
which directly weighs from 159 gm down to 10 mg (0.010 gm), which is
2.2857143e-05 oz. (0.000022857143 oz). This might be more difficult to
find -- and especially to find for a reasonable price. It is a single
pan balance, working with a number of ring-shaped weights lifted clear
or put down by knobs on the front panel. It has sliding glass doors
to keep breezes from disturbing the pan. And it has a projected light
scale on a ground-glass screen to tell when it is in balance as you work
the knobs. The main thing you need to do when you set it up is to dust
off the hanging pan, then set the knobs to zero, and adjust an extra
knob to zero it with nothing there to weigh. There is a lever on the
left hand side about half-way back which will limit the travel so it
won't be damages by bouncing around -- or with too much weight applied
to the pan too quickly. Put the thing to be weighed in the pan, then
operate the lever to gently let the pan bottom before you start to
balance it. You can see the lever/knob in the view from the left hand
side.

Oh yes -- also when you first get it -- take the top off and
make sure that the ring weights are centered so they are properly lifted
by the knobs. There are different sizes of concentric weights which are
added by the knobs to give the right display.

I find one on eBay -- for $65.00 at the moment. eBay auction
# 202723286908


Or you could use a reloading scale, but beware, that is
measuring in grains, not grams. 1 grain (gr) is 0.0022857143 oz, or
0.06479891 gm (grams).

Yes this is metalworking related.


--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 9/23/2019 6:18 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2019-08-30, Bob La Londe wrote:
I have three small digital scales, and they have a reasonable margin of
error down to around .25 ounces. Maybe even .125. at 1/8 oz I double
check across all three because sometimes one or another feels a little
"sticky". I can't really justify the cost of a high end lab scale for as
often as I need to weight smaller objects, but I sometimes do need to
weigh small objects. Today down to .015625. 1/64th of an ounce. Two
of my scales round to the hundredth, and most of the time that's "good
enough." On these they both read .02. That's a huge margin of error.
The third scale that gives resolution to the thousandth didn't even
register the object in normal mode. Not surprisingly it is the cheapest
of the three.

I'm looking for something I can keep in my desk when I am doing design
and reverse engineering work to verify those small weights.

O.K. I've got a cheap Harbor Freight digital scale, one of two
they offer -- the other is for postal purposes.

This one can read lbs, oz, or gm (with the gm being the highest
resolution). It can only read down to 1 gm, which translates to
0.035273962 oz, so not quite good enough for your purposes.

For your purposes, a beam balance (inexpensive classroom lab
scale) with a sliding weight covering the range from 0 to 10 gm.

My example is marked "Ohaus Harvard Trip Balance", and I got it
at a hamfest maybe a decade ago or so. It is an example of the "Triple
Beam Balance" Some of them have several sliding weights so you don't
need the separate set of weights. Just slide the weights and add the
readings to get your final value. There is an example of one in eBay
auction # 362760119741 -- and many others.

If you want to weigh things above 10 gm, you also need a set of
weights to put on one pan, while what you are weighing is on the other.
Once you get it close (almost heavier on the weight side) you then use
the sliding weight to get it down to 0.1 gm.

Looking at the two-pan balance (like mine), there are a number
of the "Ohaus Harvard Trip Balance" on eBay -- *new* and around $300.00,
so not the ones to play with. But they are examples with a second beam
and sliding weight, so it can go up to 2000 gm without external weight
sets.

There are also a bunch of Ohaus made toy balances -- plastic
parts, and bright colors for kids, which are not worth considering for
your purposes. :-)

Also from another hamfest is a really nice one made by Mettler,
which directly weighs from 159 gm down to 10 mg (0.010 gm), which is
2.2857143e-05 oz. (0.000022857143 oz). This might be more difficult to
find -- and especially to find for a reasonable price. It is a single
pan balance, working with a number of ring-shaped weights lifted clear
or put down by knobs on the front panel. It has sliding glass doors
to keep breezes from disturbing the pan. And it has a projected light
scale on a ground-glass screen to tell when it is in balance as you work
the knobs. The main thing you need to do when you set it up is to dust
off the hanging pan, then set the knobs to zero, and adjust an extra
knob to zero it with nothing there to weigh. There is a lever on the
left hand side about half-way back which will limit the travel so it
won't be damages by bouncing around -- or with too much weight applied
to the pan too quickly. Put the thing to be weighed in the pan, then
operate the lever to gently let the pan bottom before you start to
balance it. You can see the lever/knob in the view from the left hand
side.

Oh yes -- also when you first get it -- take the top off and
make sure that the ring weights are centered so they are properly lifted
by the knobs. There are different sizes of concentric weights which are
added by the knobs to give the right display.

I find one on eBay -- for $65.00 at the moment. eBay auction
# 202723286908


Or you could use a reloading scale, but beware, that is
measuring in grains, not grams. 1 grain (gr) is 0.0022857143 oz, or
0.06479891 gm (grams).

Yes this is metalworking related.


I ordered on MVZAWIND X001RHV22V off of Amazon. It was as cheap as my
Harbor Freight scales or darn close. My calibration weights show it at
dead on at 5 grams (the smallest calibration weight I have). I weighed
some items that "reportedly" run around 1/64 oz and it registered them
at .016 for nine out of ten units with a rare few registering at .015.
That's close enough for what I am doing.

The best part is that it does not seem to suffer from boiling frog
syndrome. I was able to add much lighter objects and consistently get
stack up readings +/- .002 or better.

I keep it in its pouch, in the clam shell, in the box, and ONLY take it
out for those times when I needed it. The rest of the time I use my
Harbor Fright scales. I've needed it twice since I bought it.

When weighing multiple items and removing them I noticed zero drifted a
couple thousandths. Rezero each time and the weights were consistent.
At .001 resolution I imagine just very little dust or a detritus can
make a difference.