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i have a lee beam scale and i've used it for a few years.... i have always been curious how accurate? it is.......... i mean when it says 3.4 grs. of bullseye how real is that............. do i need check wieghts or not?? opinions please.........
LIFE IS SHORT.....
THE 2ND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL..............................
what i used for a long time was a piece of steel i weighed on the certified scale at work.
for my lyman 5-0-5 all i ever did was make sure it sat in the same place on the bench everytime and adjusted the zero as needed
i had a lee scale but never trusted it. or maybe myself to not set the ball in the wrong place.
as soon as i could afford a digital scale and some proper check weights i got one.
You always need some method to check your scale, either a set of certified check weights or other object of a known weight. It doesn't take much in the way of rough handling to damage the knives of a balance and throw things off. I have two scales and check them against each other. For weighing powder, we are not asking much in the way of accuracy from our scales, and any of them on the market are up to the job, but all of them do need checking because they can get out of adjustment without us realizing it. Normally, a few tenths of a grain isn't going to cause a disaster, but with small handgun cases and rifle loads pushing the pressure envelope, even that small an error can be enough to ruin your day.
As more are making the move to digital scales, remember that with any digital tool, just because it reads out to three or more decimal places does not mean the tool (scale , caliper, mic) is actually accurate to that degree. They all need to be calibrated and checked regularly, too. A good balance and a good digital scale should be repeatable and accurate, and easy to adjust when needed. Most of them are and will last for many years of happy use.
Lee's inexpensive design looks cheap, but IME is as accurate as many scales costing much more. If it isn't they'll replace it. I know of several in use and have checked them with weights and against my trusty ancient RCBS (Ohaus) to find them acceptible accurate. (Really accurate scales go for many thousands of dollars.) By current scientific standards, the scales we use are basically toys, but properly maintained are more than adequate for what we need and good enough in quality to outlast most of us under normal circumstances.