Aww crap. busted my Lyman Scale - recommendations for a replacement?

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anothernewb

anothernewb

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had a Lyman Pro 1000 scale that a friend gave to me. Has been a very nice and reliable scale. Until yesterday.

In the process of making a new reloading bench, I've been making it rather heavy duty. Unfortunatley, while working with adding onto it last night, I fumbled the board, knocked the scale off the bench, and it was struck by one of my new (overbuilt) shelf boards. The beam arm is bent, and the metal that formed the aperture that limited the beam swing snapped off. I suspect that it's ruined beyond repair *sigh*

Sooo... looks like instead of buying more bullets, I'll be buying a new scale. Any recommendations out there? My lyman has been the only one I've ever used, and since it came out dead on with every check weight I've ever thrown at it, I've never even bothered to look at alternatives. The only thing stopping me from buying a new one, is that I always felt the base was a little too light on it. and I never got around to packing it full of lead shot and clay to firm it up.

So, thoughts. What's out there?
Buy another lyman 1000?
just go with a rcbs 10-10 and buy once,cry once?
Dillon?
or gamble on a fleabay purchase. (although prices there seem to be 80+% of new so it's seeming kinda silly to me.
 
Was in the same spot and found a nice old Pacific (pre-Hornady) cast iron 3 beam for about $30 on the popular online auction site.
Stays put and is much nicer than the cheapo lightweight 5-0-5 or Lee offerings.
red_dot.jpg
 
Depending how much you reload, single stage, you may be better off getting a digital scale. digital have their pros and cons, just like beam scales. I find it faster to use a digital scale when using single stage press, because you can see how far you have to go. You dont have to wait for the beam to finally move.
 
Buy another lyman 1000?

Well, if you liked it and was happy with it then just remove and replace with another like item. Buy another one. :)

Ron
 
Nothing wrong with most scales, everyone likes the one they own. I like the 10-10 myself.
But before you jump into buying another, Call Hornady just for grins and see what they say.
Tell them exactly what happened and let them know you really like their products..:)

You never know..They may repair it or send you parts, or maybe send you another one...Or nothing??

One thing I do know is that the reloading tool manufactures are way better at CS than most. !! Well...Snap-On is way up there too. Both companies have replaced tools with only an email.

TxD
 
If you want top shelf buy the RCBS 10-10, if you want something that costs less but it still very accurate buy the RCBS 5-0-5 or one of the other Ohaus clones. (IMO of course)
 
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TexasDon

Nothing wrong with most scales, everyone likes the one they own. I like the 10-10 myself.
But before you jump into buying another, Call Hornady just for grins and see what they say.
Tell them exactly what happened and let them know you really like their products..

You never know..They may repair it or send you parts, or maybe send you another one...Or nothing??

One thing I do know is that the reloading tool manufactures are way better at CS than most. !! Well...Snap-On is way up there too. Both companies have replaced tools with only an email.

TxD
Click to expand...

OOps...I meant to say Lyman not Hornady.
Hmmm...Maybe they will do something????
 
Check out Harbor freight, they have several digital scales with calibrating weights, under $50.
 
I find the Ohaus (Now rcbs) 10-10 to be fast, accurate, and repeatable. I trust it far more than any digital scale, and if properly cared for, should last a life time.
 
anothernewb said:
okay. sent an email off to lyman. worst case is they say I'm SOL. but you're right, you never know.
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Nothing ventured would be nothing gained. Nothing to lose. I had a friend who managed to shoot his Dillon scale. I told him to send it to Dillon and he was too embarrassed. Told him give me the shot dead scale and I'll send it. What do I care if a bunch of people share a laugh on me and I get a scale. He finally sent the scale to Dillon, they likely had a good laugh and the scale became an office piece and my friend got a brand new scale.

Ron
 
anothernewb said:
okay. sent an email off to lyman. worst case is they say I'm SOL. but you're right, you never know.
Click to expand...
I hope I'm wrong but don't expect much from Lyman. Below is a reprint of the post in a thread I made 2 years ago about Lyman customer service, or lack of service as it were.
I have owned a Lyman #55 powder measure for a long time. I had it put away for a while and when I brought it back out the fine adjustment of the 3 was not working. The pin inside seemed to be jumping over the base of the brass adjuster. I sent Lyamn an email and they said to send it to them because there have been several changes over the years to to be sure they wanted to see it and "the would take care of it"...

Well, a few weeks later I get a letter from Lyman telling me they repaired my measure and I should send them $50 so they can send it back to me!!!!!

I called them and asked why they are charging me for repairs when they powder measure has a life time warrant? The girl on the phone tells me it's a limited lifetime warrant and that parts not covered! I then asked her why they repaired the measure without my OK. She said it wasn't fixed, the letter was looking for the OK. I said no, the letter says it's fixed. She puts me on hold and comes back and tells me it was fixed just to save time when they took it apart they repaired it. When I asked her what if I didn't want to spend the money she tells me WELL, WE CAN TAKE THE NEW PARTS OUT, PUT THE OLD ONES BACK IN AND SEND IT BACK TO YOU! I need my powder measure but for $50 I might have decided to replace it with a new Lyman #55 I found on an online store for only $78. She tells me they cost $102 so $50 is a bargain but I tell her she's wrong, I can buy a new one for only $78.

I told her talking to me like that was just not right and then told her about RCBS replacing the parts for my scale I lost with no charge. She asks me if the scale was 20 years old like the measure and I told her I wasn't sure but they were both bought within 2 weeks of each other. Her answer was, we are not that company! I told here that was quite evident and that I would never buy another Lyman product as long as I live.
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Like I said, I hope you get better service than I did but don't get your hopes up. Here is the original thread I made about what happened.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=687521&highlight=lyman
 
ArchAngelCD
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I DON'T want to start a bashing post please, but I'll never buy Lyman products again.
I mentioned it in a post a while back that I had a problem with a die of theirs and asked if they could fix/replace it.
They said sure, just send us your sales receipt and pay to fix it, plus shipping. And give us your CC number. And that was under warranty...!!!

I just tossed it and bought another RCBS die to replace it.
Redding, RCBS, Dillon etc. says " I sorry you had a problem with our product, give us your address and we'll send you a new one TODAY!!! "

Customer Service is EVERYTHING.
I'm not cheap and looking for handouts, I'll pay when needed.

TxD
 
I'ld be pretty surprised if Lyman doesn't help you get that scale back up and running. It might cost you some , but,, it wasn't their fault..
I have one of the 1200dps units. It went haywire about a year after the warranty ran out. I called them about fixing it, the gal said send it in. So I sent it in called in a couple weeks to see what the status was, she said. "oh I was going to call you, we sent it out 3days ago."
Great, did you send an invoice and bill with it>
" No, there's no charge, just say something nice about us if you can".
Yessir I buy Lyman, Hornady and RCBS products, they all 3 stand behind what they sell.
 
I have an RCBS 5-10, it's at least 35-40 yrs. old, but spot on. But since those are not longer being made, I would say buy the RCBS 10-10, can't go wrong with those. If my 5-10 doesn't out live me, which it probably will, I'll replace it with a 10-10 without a second thought, top of the line scale.

GS
 
did some looking last night at both a 5-0-5 and a10-10. read a few things that some people don't like the rolling weight on the 10-10, they think it's slow. I thought it was just fine, I could wheel it right to the weight I wanted in moments. If that's slow for some people I guess I wouldn't want to see them when they're in a hurry!

after looking at lots of stuff, I think it's going to come down to rcbs or dillon. the dillon's cheaper, but kinda like the fact the 10-10 comes in a case.

The dillon's like $70 from graff, and the RCBS is like 160. $90 buys a fair number of bullets....
Guess I'm now in the same boat as all the other threads I've read on beam scales. 10-10 is nice, but I don't need 1000 grain capacity. Is is 2x the scale for 2x the price, and is a cover worth that....? Oh well, it's only money, right?

I'll make a decision one way or the other by this evening.

*edit*
I got a response from Lyman today, that I could send it in for repair, and I would get an estimate of cost once they received the scale. I'm going to just buy a different one. I did like the scale - except for how light it was, but I'm not critically attached to it either.

By the time I get it mailed back and forth, and fixed, I'll probably be at the same cost as a fleabay one.
 
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Found a 10-10 on fleabay with a buy it now of $125 and free shipping. In all the posts I've read, I have yet to see anyone who owns one say they'd get rid of theirs regardless of which scale they're currently using. Sounds good enough to me. Buy once, cry once. It's worked pretty well for everything else I've bought under that philosophy, I see no need to change that now!
 
anothernewb said:
after looking at lots of stuff, I think it's going to come down to rcbs or dillon. the dillon's cheaper, but kinda like the fact the 10-10 comes in a case.

The dillon's like $70 from graff, and the RCBS is like 160. $90 buys a fair number of bullets....
Guess I'm now in the same boat as all the other threads I've read on beam scales. 10-10 is nice, but I don't need 1000 grain capacity. Is is 2x the scale for 2x the price, and is a cover worth that....? Oh well, it's only money, right?
Click to expand...
If you decided the 10-10 wasn't necessary I highly suggest the RCBS 5-0-5 over the Dillon scale.
 
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