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Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:55 pm
by justicious
I called Andy and got a great price on a Ryedale and he was real nice! Fast email responses like lightening speed!
When I get my Ryedale I will need a scale to weigh coppers for storing or sale. What is the most accurate scale that you guys use for coppers for the money? Saw some on eBay for $20.
Just list what scale you use and its cost and other recommendations please.
Thanks,
Justin

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:06 pm
by getdong
A scale in the $30 range will be perfectly fine. You can probably find something online for even cheaper maybe 10-20 i bought one of the office depot brand scales years ago for ebay sales and things like that think it only goes up to 11 pounds but its very accurate. For this type of weight and with a product like pennies you don't really need the best scale anyway its not like your selling expense teas or sprices or truffles or even drugs lol its pennies so a penny or two over or under isn't gonna break the bank

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:14 pm
by Cent1225
I got the ones in the picture on Ebay

The larger one has an 11 x 11 platform and weighs up to 220 lbs, accurate to .05 lbs, also weighs in lbs/oz and kilos. It is a Weighmax with a remote readout(attached by a cord).
Got this one for about $40 shipped

The smaller one got on ebay also for about $9 shipped from China. Has several functions including grains, grams, ozTroy, oz, dwt an carets.

Hope that helps.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:32 am
by justicious
Amazon seams cheaper than eBay. I got $40 in amazon gift cards too from an online website where you do offers for gift cards and Paypal cash.
http://www.amazon.com/AMWSHIP-Capacity- ... B000JZ9W96

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:48 am
by NHsorter
I deal with a lot of scales here at work. We manufacture a lot of blended products so weight is critical to us. This probably makes me a scale snob, I know. So I feel compelled to chime in and bust on these cheap scales. As with most things, you get what you pay for. I would not trust these $40 scales with anything important and I would not trust them to last very long either. Look on eBay or Craigslist for a good used scale. Ohaus, Mettler Toledo, and Fairbanks all make nice reliable machines in our experience. That's just my 2 zincolns on the topic. I am a stickler for buying things once. Don't mind shelling out the money for something that will last.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:07 am
by justicious
are pennies that important? I just need to weigh my pennies. If I need a $300 dollar scale I might as well just get a counter on my Ryedale.....

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:26 am
by justicious
This one seems better. I just don't see spending 3X the money unless they are that terrible all reviews are good. I'm new though.
http://www.amazon.com/Weighmax-Up823-Di ... _sbs_op_11

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:29 am
by NHsorter
I know that weighing pennies is not a critical task, but the scale is good for other stuff as well. And really being able to trust your scale is nice. I don't really know much about the cheap ones, but if you need to get a new one every 5 years, it'll eventually catch up to you. You can find a quality used unit for $150 or even much less if you shop around and wait for a deal. A quality scale will also hold it's value much better and be much easier to resell if you choose to do so. We have an old drum scale here that my grandfather bought almost 50 years ago. We use it every day. We could sell it for more now than he paid for it.

Or maybe you think I am just crazy. My wife thinks so. So you would be in good company at least. :D

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:55 pm
by Cent1225
justicious wrote:This one seems better. I just don't see spending 3X the money unless they are that terrible all reviews are good. I'm new though.
http://www.amazon.com/Weighmax-Up823-Di ... _sbs_op_11

That is the one I have pictured. It works for me for pennies. Works more accurately than my Cabela's meat grinding scale and my wife doesnt notice it as much either(BIG PLUS). And then, I really dont need it for pennies, just like to keep track of the weight of the incoming bags and weight of copper removed from each bag as well as the dollar amount. I keep a record of all of this in a chart and chart my percentages. Gives me something to do while the Rydale is clicking.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 5:21 pm
by justicious
Royal Exacta ex315w Shipping Scale Andy said he uses this one

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:27 pm
by justicious
still have not ordered scale any more people with scales please post.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:56 am
by mflugher
http://www.ebay.com/itm/500g-0-01g-Elec ... 27ba9758e0

as far as I'm concerned thats the scale you want. unless you plan to spend $500 plus on a mettler or other very high end scale.

We use this scale to buy gold and silver, its not quite good enough for the loose diamond weights, tends to weigh about .02 ct off.

Anyone who is looking for a small accurate scale I'd really suggest this one, had it for 3 years abused the heck out of it (prob why the cts are off) and it works great.

These are for sale on ebay pretty often at $12 shipped approximately.


NH if you know where to find a used Mettler or other high quality scale w enclosure for $150, or even $400, let me know I need one for my 2nd location. unfortunately the guys at the weights and measure division of the county are scale snobs too...

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:54 pm
by Lemon Thrower
if you are lazy you can find similar scales to mflugher's if you head on over to your local 'smoke' shop.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:49 pm
by justicious
I was looking for like a 100 lb or 200 lb scale cheap $40 seams the cheapest but I don't know.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:04 pm
by robroy
I went to either Harbor Freight or Northern Freight (don't remember which) and got an el cheapo for $8. It really was either a nice or as big as the one that Cent1225 had purchased. It is just a cheap Chinese model that seems to adequately do the job. Perhaps next time I'll get a better one. I will say this that Cent1225's appears to be quite sturdy, while mine is small an could more than easily fit into my shirt pocket.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:20 pm
by Dr. Cadmium
NHsorter, I agree. The two scales shown in the photo are some of the worst on the market. They are both surprisingly fragile for scales, I had that pocket scale (mine was ASW branded) and it only lasted a month before the screen cracked, and it was also consistently off +/- .1g, which is a too much when dealing with precious metals.

The large one is an OK scale, but the control module is garbage. I bought two of those in the past six months, and the control modules are already dead on both.

A good cheap pocket scale is made by Digiweigh.

For the money, the best all-around scale for postage packages and small items is the Ultraship 75 lbs model. It's accurate, handles more weight than most other scales its size, has multiple modes and a hold feature, and the display unit detaches from the base for weighing large packages. I've owned several scales for shipping, and this one is by far the best.

For heavier items, Weighmax makes a 330lb scale that's very durable and affordable. It's great for larger packages or buying small amounts of scrap materials. I've had one of these for a couple of years, and it's still accurate despite being dropped and thrown around in the back of vehicles.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:41 am
by mflugher
While you can find similar scales at a smoke shop, this one works, I have no experience or warrenty for those ones. plus the smoke shop charges about 3x the price as ebay...

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:08 pm
by justicious
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TW ... =ox_ya_os_ product ordered this one with amazon gift cards reviews were all good except one saying after 2 weeks his went out. the ultra ship model did not come with adapter so I would not buy.
thanks for all the help,
Justin

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:22 pm
by Dr. Cadmium
I never use adapters with my small scales, so that's not a feature I considered. I'm pretty sure the Ultraship scales I have came with them, it may be a particular third-party seller is selling them without adapters.

Hopefully that scale will work well for you. The only issues I see are:

1) It only does 0.2 oz increments, which is bad if you're weighing small packages, where you may unintentionally have insufficient postage - a package will show up as 3.0 oz when it's really 3.09 oz, I've had customers billed on the receiving end for packages weighed on a scale like this.

2) The display unit doesn't detach from the weighing platform, which is useful when weighing multiple large packages.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:49 pm
by motos
Don't buy this one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003N4 ... d_i=507846

Bought this and it does the job but it does this thing where when the weight locks in it stays for 10 seconds. Stupid feature you can't turn off. It's also starting to turn off in the middle of weighing slowing everything down. For 2O bucks i'm not completely disappointed but spend a little bit more to save yourself from this!

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:04 pm
by lewbo
I got one the looks like the $9 shown in the pictures. I use to sort 82's I get without having to use the Ryedale. It works great since you are just trying to get 3.1 or 2.5 grams.

Re: Best scale for the money

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:12 pm
by slickeast
I use a Toledo scale that I picked up off e-bay for less than $100. It can be calibrated by the Dept of Agriculture. I use it to weigh everything that I ship and print my labels at home. Once something is over 1 lb you are charged for the next full pound. So something that weighs 8.10 lbs will cost the 9 lb rate. If it is questionable when it come to something small and weighs less than 13 ozs ( for 1st class) I use the next oz up to make sure i have the postage covered. It is nice to walk in the post office and walk by 20 people and leave something on the counter.