Mad Science and the Lee Safety Powder Scale

[DrThunder88]

I got tired of having a plain old powder weighing setup and decided to tinker with it! Video! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ibXm8XGqk)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e310/DrThunder88/Guns/scale_zpsfc0874fb.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/DrThunder88/media/Guns/scale_zpsfc0874fb.jpg.html)

For those who can't be bothered to watch the whole six minutes, here's the cliff notes version:

I started by replacing the magnets in the scale body with powerful, neodymium magnets to slow down and attenuate the seemingly endless bouncing of the beam.
I also keep a smaller neodymium magnet at hand to slide under the pan in order to take any swinging of the pan out of the equation.
I built a small table with four adjustable legs and a bullseye spirit level to keep the scale truly level wherever it sits.
I modified my powder trickler to work more closely with the whole setup.

[LongRange]

i like the adjustable table with the level and will be copying your design lol...as far as my scale i have an old lyman D-5 thats been tuned by scott parker.

[Smokey262]

Thank you for not playing music throughout the video. I like the mods. How has it improved the usability of the scale? Reduced cycle time?

[DrThunder88]

The increased damping power does mean less beam bouncing, so it's easy to get a fix on there the beam is when trickling up a charge.

[allan1066]

Excellent work sir. With a bit of work the humble Lee scale could form the basis of a quick, slick powder weighing process. There are some excellent design points on the Lee scale. The razor like knife edge, if not damaged is hard to beat. The single point pan hanger eliminates many of the zeroing problems associated with the traditional stirrup pan hanger. The approach to weight system is identical to the RCBS 10/10.

The down side is the poor vernier type poise and the short arm length. If Lee could have aimed it at a slightly higher price point (ok, twice the price) with a larger, heavier scale and better poise system it would have been hard to beat.

Here's a modified Lee with a longer arm.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/allan1066/th_Snap_20130928_16h42m40s_002_zps9cd9958a.png (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/allan1066/media/Snap_20130928_16h42m40s_002_zps9cd9958a.png.html)

[DrThunder88]

Very neat. I was apprehensive about tinkering with the moving parts of the scale for fear of upsetting the balance, so to speak. The pointer is probably the biggest problem I have with the scale now. I have some more ideas for making it a bit more precisely readable, but it's not been a major concern.

[pinsnscrews]

What? No webcam view on a 24 inch monitor for that micro view of the arrow ;-)