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Ohaus Tipple Beam Dial-O-Matic Vs $8 Electronic Scale


docweathers

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I was buying some non-ceramic stuff online. My cart was to $48.99. They offered free shipping for orders of $50 or more. So I could either find something for a little more than a buck or pay $11.84 shipping. I sorted through their catalog and found the cheapest thing I could ever fantasize having a use for, a $7.95 brand unknown, 0- 600 gram pocket electronic made in China scale.

 

When I got it, it actually looked pretty well built. So I thought I would run some accuracy tests against my Ohaus. I have a couple of genuine Ohaus calibration weights to provide a standard of measurement. I could fiddle with the adjustments on my Ohaus and get it to acurately measure any individual or combination of my standard weights. However,  when I would change the weights, it would be off a tiny amount on the new weight.

 

When I weighed a single or combination of my standard weights on the pocket electronic scale, on average, it was more accurate than my Ohaus. The errors on either scale were actually miniscule and of no significance in mixing glazes.

 

 The significant outcome of my research project was that I could mix glazes, far easier,  twice as fast and  a little more accurately on my little  $8 electronic scale. My Ohaus is now sitting on a back shelf.

 

The scale has no brand name but is model MS – 600. I see many extremely similar looking ones on eBay for about what I paid for this one. Some of them have higher capacities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Congrats! That's quite a score. I use my digital shipping scale for weighing out buckets of glaze. At 9,000 grams, a few grams either way won't matter one but. But for test batches, I still use one of my triple beam scales, mostly because my shipping scale is not all that accurate for very small amounts. Plus using the triple beam reminds me of my early days of potting. Nostalgia is a funny thing...

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I was just hoping that other new potters would consider the cheap electronic scales available from eBay.... They're really quite good and inexpensive.

 

You production potters have much higher capacity needs than hobbyists like myself.  I've seen your stuff and it's really great.

 

Larry

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Guest JBaymore

My 40+ year old Ohaus  triple beam is dead on for the calibratuin weight also.  But the key there is taking care of that fragile knife edge upon which it balances.  Jar it around too much and that point can get chipped.  Loses accuracy.

 

The accuracy of the scale matters relative to the total weight of the objects being measured.  Weighing a 100 gram total batch.... 1 gram plus or minus is a 1% error factor.  At 1000 grams it drops to 0.1 % error factor.  At 10,000 grams it is 0.01 % error factor. 

 

Then it also depends on the accuracy you need for whatever you are weighing.  For some materials (like in SOME base glazes) a 1% +/- error factor will not be noticed.  But if you are weighting something like cobalt oxide into a base glaze.... a 1% error potential is going to likely result in a HUGE color rendition variability batch to batch.

 

All in all... you have to understand your materials and equipment.

 

best,

 

................john

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here's the link to the scale I bought http://www.hardrhino.com/products/mini-pocket-scale.html

 

If you like the kinda stuff these people sell, its very high quality and about half the usual price. I take about 20 g of their D-ribose sugar every day. It massively improves my energy level. D-ribose is a weird non-dietary sugar that the body manufactures to make adenosine triphosphate, DNA and RNA. It has zero metabolic calories.

 

Norm

 

If you like your digital scales, you might post the links where one can buy them.

 

-----

 

 I started out with the dial o matic because a couple of years ago when I was beginning to fit out my pottery studio. I was advised that the digital scales were sometimes inaccurate and I would be better off with the triple beam. I wished I had originally gone with the digital now because of how much faster they are to work with.

 

I buy a lot of "Chinese junk" off of eBay and a little at Harbor freight. Most of it is quite well-made and extraordinarily cheap.

 

Harbor freight is a very clever distributor. The exact the stuff I see on eBay clearly from China, They rebrand as Chicago Pneumatic, Pittsburgh Power Tools etc... ..good stuff we trust made, in America  (spelled China) right from of the Rust Belt. :mellow: . Whoever said , "the truthful over" was a blind ideologue.

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ive used both 3x beam compared to  chinese scale .  the cheap scale is acurate to .3 grain on a bad day..    un fortunately most pottery weights are not in grain  levels.    acurracy at a grain level is different than accuracy at a pound or kilo level.   it does however indicate it aint junk...... (15.43 grains  to gram)

 

im using harbor freight digi scale for all my pottery measures however i dont weigh over 3# at a time, i think it has 8 pound max.   and people love my clay and glazes.  aka it works.....

 

doc you just gave me krebs cycle nightmares....

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I am like John. I have had my Ohaus 3x scale since before the age of digital scales being available to potters.I got mine in 1971. I have moved it all over the US and it still seems to weigh things accurately. I use it for postal weights as well and convert on my computer. Maybe I am a dinosaur.

Your score sounds excellent. Congrats.

Marcia

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Dinosaur you say Marcia-well join the pack-sometimes I trip on my tail

I to have used my triple beam for since 72

But a few years back on this forum I read about the ohaus 5,000 electronic and have been using it ever since every week

Its been a sea change as its so much faster and in my life faster means more time for other things-since my triple beam is only 2600 gram vs 5,000 grams means less measuring. I do use the triple beam for small test batches but that's all

These electronic scales are really great to use

Mark

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Guest JBaymore

To be chear here, for larger batches (my typical glaze dry batch is 40,000 grams) I ALSO have a large capacity digital that I use.  And also have an intermediate total weight digital.

 

For the level of accuracy WE need as potters, for doing the typical 100 gram test batches, accuracy of 0.1 grams is just fine for 99.99999999999999 % of tests.

 

best,

 

.......................john

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  • 3 months later...

Paul stands, turns to his CAC friends, lights his candle, and says, "My name is Paul and I am a dinosaur." :wacko:

I have to confess that until I read these posts, I never considered using anything but a triple beam scale to measure glaze materials.  I ,mean.... isn't there a law or something?  Won't the CAC police come and take away my spray booth?  Don't you risk the kiln gods launching your pots out of the kiln like a trebuchet if you venture away from that faithful device created by the ancients?? Is nothing sacred anymore?? LOL

 

OK, all that comedic relief aside, I acquired one of these quite a while back, on-sale,  when I was doing a bunch of small package shipping and doing my own postage. It now lives right next to my clay prep/wedging area...wait for it....because I weigh every ball of clay before using it on the wheel.  I am laughing at myself, realizing how OCD that sounds, but it is true. File under: Confessions of an OCD Dinosaur.

 

Thanks all for guiding me into the 21st century...I do appreciate you!  I promise to venture into the world of digital glaze material weighing, soon....but if my spray booth is missing one day, I'm calling out the dinosaurs! ;)

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I just upgraded the studio's Ohaus triple beam to an Ohaus digital CS-2000. It's like we've moved from the RV in the desert to the lab beaneath Gus Fring's laundry. We keep 14 glazes in 10,000 gram batches on the floor for member/student use at all time, so it has already become a huge time saver. Of course the triple beam will stay put for 100 gram test batches.

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