Beam Scales

Shadrach2986

Well-Known Member
Hi All,
got a bit of money for Xmas and fancy getting some new beam scales to replace my lee ones and digital ones.
what would you recommend, i have about £100 to play with.
was looking at the lyman 1000, hornady, or rcbs 502 or 505 scales.
atb Matt
 
Last edited:
RCBS 5-0-5 or 5-0-2 would be my first choice :) You should be able to get a "slightly used" set for under £60, they do come up fairly often.
 
Hi All,
got a bit of money for Xmas and fancy getting some new beam scales to replace my lee ones and digital ones.
what would you recommend, i have about £100 to play with.
was looking at the lyman 1000, hornady, or rcbs 502 or 505 scales.
atb Matt

got some Dillon scales from optics warehouse, around the £100 mark, they are made by ohaus and are practically the same as the RCBS 505's, certainly worth a look.
 
All of them all weight to about the same accuracy. No difference. So the question then becomes solely which TO YOUR METHOD OF WORKING is the most "user friendly".

I have owned and used a set of RCBS basic, I think they were 5-0-2 scales but ended up with the tall balance scale 304 that they once listed. I got it reduced from John Longstaff when I was at Leeds University in the late 1970s for about sixty quid.

View attachment 65530

But my desired scale would have been the one with the plastic cover although, truth be told, it was just as easy to dissamble the 5-0-2 and put it back into its box to keep it safe. But as to accuracy neither the 5-0-2 nor the 304 were more accurate than the other.

Bottom line of they are really Ohaus made then they will be good quality whoever has badged them.
 
I agree with the Ohaus quality assurance. I have a Dial o Grain beam scale that has been giving me sterling service for over 30 years. I also have the Ohaus-branded 505 in with the plastic case; both are equally accurate. I have a Bonanza (now owned by Forster) 'Blue Ribbon' scale that I acquired in a lot of used reloading gear I'd purchased and have found that this simple, circa-1980 beam scale is very accurate despite having been simply stored in a cardboard box in a shed for the last 10 years; equally accurate to the previously mentioned models. You can kill a good scale, but just lying dormant won't do it. A good blowing off of the dust on the pivots and a general cleaning up of the beams usually has them up to speed. My general rule for buying a used scale is that if it appears undamaged and zeroes, it it probably good. I will bring along a bullet and weigh it five times on the zeroed scale. If the weight comes out inside a tenth of a grain each time, it's probably fine**. Certainly good enough for reloading purposes.~Muir

(** Just don't discount a 2nd hand scale because the bullet you weigh on the zeroed scale weighs, say, 178.5 grains instead of 180. Hunting bullets are often not exactly the weight they say they are! As long as it weighs the same every time, you are good. I had a friend pass on a very good deal on an Ohaus 10-10 because his 165 grain Hornady Interlock weighed 163.8 grain 10 times in a row!!)
 
I passed on a dial-o-grain a few years ago only because i operate my trickler with my right hand and the ohaus is the wrong orientation for this, as such i use a RCBS 10-10.

Ian.
 
I use RCBS 304 Scales, with a Target Master, cheap web cam and laptop.

Works a treat and never loses zero - I "borrow" certificated calibration check weights from work to check them once a month and they've never needed adjustment.

WP_20160117_007.jpg
 
I passed on a dial-o-grain a few years ago only because i operate my trickler with my right hand and the ohaus is the wrong orientation for this.

It's a bot "okkard" 'tis true. But my RCBS trickler if I use it sits on the drop down baize covered platform on my 304. But I find it quivker to "tap" those extra kernels into the pan by hand from a yellow Lee Popeye pipe powder measure.
 
The 5-0-2 is a great scale. Accuracy is good with most scales but the speed by which they settle, the grind of the fulcrum and the quality of the agate pivot point is all important. This is where the Ohaus/RCBS scales are hard to beat.
 
Does anyone know who makes the Lyman beam scales? And are they any good?

Might be set on offer for me and they look in good order Lyman 500 the label on them says and they are orange with a gold coloured pan.
 
Does anyone know who makes the Lyman beam scales? And are they any good?

Might be set on offer for me and they look in good order Lyman 500 the label on them says and they are orange with a gold coloured pan.

I believe the Lyman D500 is made by Ohaus. The older D500 with the cast metal base is a simple 2 poise scale, much the same as the RCBS 502, unfortunately to a slightly lower spec.

The RCBS range all have floating agate bearings allowing the knife edges to self align in the bearings, the Lyman D500, D7 etc. use a thinner knife edge and fixed agate bearings.

The newer Pro-500 is a lightweight scale with a plastic base :(. The Lyman M5 (Made by Ohaus) was one of the best reloading scales ever made, the newer Lyman scales are just not in the same league.

Here's a video of my tuned RCBS 502 scales in use:

 
1066 (previous post) refurbishes and 'tunes up' beam scales, and as the post indicates is an expert on these devices. (He also makes the Target Master Trickler.) I have an elderly set of Ohaus scales he did for me for the 2013 F-Class World Championships in the USA back in 2013, and with the Target Master, this is an easy to use, quick to operate and superbly consistent set-up. Not only more accurate than good quality electronic scales, but a lot cheaper too.
 
I believe the Lyman D500 is made by Ohaus. The older D500 with the cast metal base is a simple 2 poise scale, much the same as the RCBS 502, unfortunately to a slightly lower spec.

The RCBS range all have floating agate bearings allowing the knife edges to self align in the bearings, the Lyman D500, D7 etc. use a thinner knife edge and fixed agate bearings.

The newer Pro-500 is a lightweight scale with a plastic base :(. The Lyman M5 (Made by Ohaus) was one of the best reloading scales ever made, the newer Lyman scales are just not in the same league.

Here's a video of my tuned RCBS 502 scales in use:



Thank you. The Lyman scales just have Lyman 500 on them and the base is a cast metal from the look and feel of it. They are not new being probably 20 years old or may be moe? Will take a better look at them this evening hopefully.
 
Back
Top