Opinion Re: My Scale And If It's "OK"

[fguffey]

Originally Posted by FROGO207 View Post
I then check the beam knife edges for square and level using a hand held layout "t" square. If things eyeball out wrong I GENTLY bend them with long nosed pliers.

I came home with enough parts to be build a 10/10 RCBS scale. My wife got involved, she decided to clean the beam, after cleaning all the markings were gone. I explained to RCBS what my wife did, they offered help. At the next gun show I found another beam for less than the cost of shipping the scales back.

My wife has added to her arsenal of cleaning materials, she has added a white sponge looking cleaning pad to WD40 and vinegar.

F. Guffey

 

[FROGO207]

Google Craftsman 12 inch stainless steel combination square. That is what I have. It finds a bunch of uses in my reloading room. I have called it a layout square for eons----sorry.

You use the straight edge to set parallel along the knife edge axis and look to see if they are both the same distance off the straight edge and parallel when the bottom of the beam is flat against the top of the ruler straight edge. If it is bent enough to bother you should be able to see this with just your eyes. You use the 90* part to see if the knife edge ears are bent side ways in relation to 90* to the beam fore and aft.

 

[1066]

Here's a few pic from my rogues gallery.
This first one shows a chipped end (and an abused knife edge). Really not much can be done with this. If you shorten the blade to take out the damaged end there's too much end float and, on the 10/10 or 5-10 the damper blade could touch the magnets.


This was a problem with a new scale not zeroing - the pan hanger knife edge was way out of square.



This was a new 10/10 (Chinese) the knife edges were about 20 degrees off vertical.



This is an illustration of the problem Frogo was talking about



I have always found the Lyman and RCBS check weight, although not lab grade, quite accurate, certainly within 1/20th grain.

If you have real problems with a knife edge they can be removed from the beam without too much trouble - they are just a press fit and can be pushed right through.

 

[otisrush]

The responses here have been REALLY helpful.

BTW, I have one of those squares. It was really helpful. Thanks for the idea.

I'm pretty sure I'm concluding the knives are not aligned horizontally. One of them seems to be bent up a little. I've tried taking a pair of pliers and gently tried to move it down - but I'm not seeing different behavior in the scale.

I'm hitting the limits of my frustration and am currently leaning towards getting a new scale. I've lost confidence in what this is doing and it seems getting a new one might be the most prudent thing to do.

Thanks for all the help!

OR