everybody talks about weight of components. a recent thread about guide weight has me thinking (again) about the weight of some of the components i use. can anyone recommend a scale and where i can find one, particularly at usual in-town outlets which wold be helpful in weighing guides and such?

thanks

eric
fresno, ca.

Harbor Freight Tools has a cool little digital pocket scale...cheap, but very functional and very accurate. It measures in ounces and grams, has a tare function as well as a counting function. Been a handy little tool for the 10 bucks or so that I paid for it. I use it primarily to measure out equal parts of finish and epoxy, but perfect for weighing rod components. Ive even weighed blanks with it...tricky, but do-able. If you dont have Harbor Freight nearby, cigar shops usually have similar scales, typically in the $30-50 range. I think I've seen them at Radio Shack as well. Heres a pic of mine in action comparing the weights of some guides: [www.deep-color.com]

...sorry, double post.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2007 05:37AM by Scott Throop.

Hi Eric I use powder scales (for reloading firearm amunition) to weigh stuff. Should be able to get them from a sports store or anywere that sells firearms.Two types available digital & beam type the beam type ones generaly only weigh in grains 15.43 grains to a gram. Digital lets you switch betwwen grains & grams & are a lot quicker & easyer to use so i'd go with digital if Icould

sometimes your the windscreen sometimes your the bug

ERic, get one with as fine a measurement as possible, or it will not be accurate with teh smaller guides....which you'll end up haveing to weigh in lots of 5 or 10 anyway to get an accurate weight.

I have an electronic pocket scale that I picked up on @#$%& for about $20 that is great for weighing rod blanks, finished rods, etc.

When it comes down to weighing individual guides, even wire guides, I use my powder beam scale as it will weigh very small items with great accuracy. If it can weigh indivdual grains of gunpowder, it can handle those huge clunky pieces of wire some people use for rod guides.



....................................


Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

I use my old beam powder scale for the light stuff.

Scales for reloading need to be accurate and have fine resolution. Like most things these days, they are repackagings. Lab, pharma, and jewelers scales no doubt.
Anything with resolution in the .01gram and .1 grain range should be fine for weighing rod components. Overkill even for rod building.
If you want to weigh complete rods, reels, and such, you will need a coarser scale capable of greater loads tho. The scales for reloading limit out at around 1 or 2 ounces usually.

One sign of an accurate scale is one that comes with check weights, and if electronic has a calibration mode using check weights.

Some may question this, but accuracy in weighing rods and components is not a life or death situation, as pharma and reloading are. There are far cheaper electronic scales around where the absolute numeric accuracy may be a bit off, but they work just fine relative to their own measurements. Such scales are less than 1/2 the price of the ones used for critical apps and are all over @#$%& and at places like Harbor Freight.

Yes, you want something with resolution down to 0.01 grams if you are weighing small fly guides.

Sounds crazy as 28.4 grams makes one ounce.

The cheapie stuff on @#$%& works just fine but as observed, you may need to weight a few and average them out

Mo

Actually I found the cheap ones to be repeatable. Weigh a few things, then weigh them again on the same scale. Same answer. But take those same things and put them on a good scale, and you can get slightly different answers. Now do you care if a shown 1 gram is really 0.97 grams? If you do, then you probably need to go expensive, and have proffesional calibration done periodically.

I also have the scale that Harbor Freight sells. I find it pretty accurate and easy to use.

Eric, the harbour freight off of 99 and shaw is where ya need to go.


Tom Kaufmann
GySgt USMC

Eric;

I just bought the small, digital scale mentioned in the posts above (Item #93543). Regular price is $17.99. It's on their website for $9.99. I told that to the cashier in the store and she cheerfully charged the lower price. I figured for ten bucks it was worth a try. Seems o.k., but if you haven't got one yet, I thought I'd let you know.

RON.

Will the scales listed above weigh fly lines accurately?
Jim

JIM;
I HAVEN'T WORKED WITH THE CHEAP DIGITAL i BOUGHT FROM HARBOR FREIGHT ENOUGH TO DETERMINE IT'S ACCURACY. HOWEVER, I JUST READ YOUR POST AND QUICKLY WEIGHED TWO SINKERS ( MARKED 5 OZ.) THAT WERE HANDY. THE LITTLE DIGITAL SCALE SAID EACH WEIGHED 4.75 OZ. I RAN INTO THE KITCHEN AND WEIGHED THEM ON OUR DIGITAL KITCHEN SCALE WHICH IS ACCURATE (AND A LOT MORE EXPENSIVE). SURE ENOUGH, 4 AND 3/4 OZ. I DON'T KNOW IF THIS TELLS YOU MUCH. I'LL TAKE IT INTO FISHERMAN'S TOMORROW AND WEIGH SOME FLY LINES AND LET YOU KNOW...

FOR REAL ACCURACY, I WOULD GUESS YOU WOULD STILL BE BETTER OFF WITH A QUALITY BEAM TYPE POWDER SCALE. SOMEWHERE IN THE $80-$100 RANGE.

RON.

The weight of lead sinkers is not very accurate. Most tend to be a little lighter than their marked weight. When I got my scale, I put ten pennies on the scale and got a weight for the group of ten. Pennies minted after 1996 that are in fairly good condition have a well known weight (see the Common Cents System). I used this measurement to judge the accuracy of my Harbor Freight scale. I don't remember the numbers I got, but I remember being pretty happy with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2007 10:36PM by Rob Matarazzo.

ROB;

I didn't expect the sinkers to be accurate, just wanted to compare the weights to my kitchen scale. Now, what I really feel stupid about is I didn't think about the Common Cents System when I picked up the sinkers. Especially as I have a couple rolls of freshly minted pennies in my desk. Converting grains to ounces, my calculator says 10 pennies should weigh 0.8825087 ounces. My digital scale said my pennies weighed 0.89 ounces. For my purposes, that's reasonably accurate. So I'd say I'm pretty happy with the numbers too.

By the way, until I come up with a 500 gram check weight, I've discovered that a 500 ML (16.9 fluid Oz.) container of bottled water weighs just over 500 grams. I Weighed a 6 pack of them and they are 530 grams each. For now, I'm pouring a little out until I have 500 grams on my Kitchen scale. What do you think? Do you know where I can get a 500 gram check weight?

RON.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2007 06:29PM by RON NIX.