clayart - thread 'looking for scale recommendations'

George,

I think this is extremely similar to a scale I use (at work, too.) Great price! The one I have also has an RS232 and 10BaseT ports. The one at work is hooked to the crib computer, haven't taken care of that yet for the one at home.

Both scales were originally puchased for shop use in the crib. (Weigh 1 item, weigh a bag of them and multply out for total quantity in stock). We ended up replacing one scale (that I acquired) with one that was highly precise to weigh gold and braze paste. Even though these were incredibly accurate, we just couldn't run the risk of discrepancy with materials that was $400/ounce (or more even).

Anyway, the digital scales for kitchen use (well under $50) are notoriously inaccurate - I think they can vary by as much as 10%. I much prefer digital. It sort of fell into my lap so I just bought it from work. I know the triple beam balance OHaus are the standard, but I just prefer the ease of use with these digitals. The calibration tool is important only to verify the accuracy of the scale. If you have something that you KNOW weighs a precise amount, that's all you need. An exact cup of water will work just fine, but you do need to know your elevation and use distilled water for extreme accuracy. I use the OHaus weights to calibrate mine. (At work our inspection department handles all calibration and I really don't know specifically what they use, but it's a standard weight item.) I can tell you that these scales cost a goodly amount of money! Quite a bit more than an OHaus. If I remember correctly they were around $1,000 a few years back. They could have been even more. I know people get very proficient with the triple beam balance, but I wasn't one of those. As far as I'm concerned, nothing can be quicker than a digital! Plus the computer interface&n

bsp;is important for maintaining a high level of accuracy. I was going to write an interface program to Insight (Digital Fire) to load in recipes right from the PC and then verify weight once that ingredient is weighed out. A good project for my spare time (NOT! - do enough of it at work all day. I have pots to make at night!)

So I'm thinking it sure sounds good and the price is right, why not? But then again I never did like or get comfortable using the manual alternative....

>1. A common option on these scales is a calibration mass.<

Well, you need some way of knowing how accurate it is. Don't know how expensive this can be, but ANY mass that you know the exact weight of will work. And you really don't need to calibrate it ALL the time. If it stays in one place and you keep it clean, it should be OK indefinitely but you'd want to check it after a period of time (3 months?) If you constantly move it around and it's left in the open where dust can collect and stuff can spill on it, then you'd need to check it before each use just to be sure of the accuracy of the glaze batch. It depends pn how exacting you are (or want to be).

Hope this helps!
S

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Susan Giddings
Daytime phone: 860-687-4550
Cell phone: 860-930-8813

looking for scale recommendations

updated sun 18 jan 04

wayneinkeywest on fri 16 jan 04

Susan Giddings on fri 16 jan 04

George Koller on fri 16 jan 04

Carol Tripp on sat 17 jan 04

Earl Krueger on sat 17 jan 04

Marcia Selsor on sat 17 jan 04

Scott Ackerman on sat 17 jan 04

Joyce Lee on sat 17 jan 04