PACT Scale & Dispensor

[augustinaustin]

I did a lot of checking and asking before pulling the trigger on their new & improved unit. Between its constantly fluctuating zeros and their most unfriendly service I'm selling it today. What a mistake

 

[milanuk]

Yes, mine definitely behaves better if I let it warm up a while. I just usually leave it plugged in all the time (old model, though). Another thing, is that I think a surge protector strip at a minimum is in order, and one of the small power filtering UPS's might not be a bad idea, regardless of brand of electronics. 'Dirty' power causes all kinds of hate and discontent w/ electronics, makes things harder on the power supply of the unit itself.

Monte

 

[Brent]

Mine stays on all the time too, but I still calibrate before I use it, it is however warm all the time, and this does make a big difference in stability. I have no complaints with mine.

 

[augustinaustin]

I let it warm up for hours actually, tried it on a surge suppressor then a power conditioner. It actaully worked better during the first 5 minutes but I let it warm up never the less. Tried recalibrating numerous times. Manual said it would throw light charges while learning....mine always threw heavy charges. I had to check EVERY charge on my manual beam and when I would return it to the scale it would read different weight than it said before and I dont mean tenths. It seemed to work much better in my kitchen for some reason. I would have to say tech support was the most unhelpful bunch of jerks I have dealt with. I have been a service tech for a printing company for years and one of the things I serviced and calibrated was our digital scales that had to read a sheet of paper up to a stack of 75lbs. They were not this finicky by a long shot. As for speed, I normally load by dropping a light charge on my balance beam and trickle up the last grain which would easily beat a Pact. Add warmup, calibrating BOTH units, the unit 'learning' the load and well...there are only so many hours in a day.

 

[Guest]

I'll give you $5 for it...

 

[Brent]

I calibrate the scale first, takes 30 seconds or there abouts. Then about a minute or so to calibrate the new powder, then I load. My 20 gram check weight weighs 308.6 gr, and I periodically drop it on there to see if the scale is even drifting by .1gr, never does for hours though.

When I go to load days later or something, it's never perfectly calibrated, usually a few tenths off or so, no worries, I expect it would drift some over a length of time like that, temp, humidity or whatever makes them fluctuate a small amount.

It dispenses the powder about as accurately as I would expect it could, probably better really. It usually falls right on the money, sometimes a tenth off. Usually I find it will drop either to the light side, or to the heavy side, not both. So the side it tends to drop to is the side I allow as OK, say for example the light side. If it drops heavy, I pick a few kernals out and redispense it with my fingers minus a kernal or two. I tell you this, I don't find it any more accurately than that with my beam scale, and I've tested it quite a bit to see if mine was up to the job. My beam scale may be at the most, .05gr more accurate, but no more, if even that. Something I think that magnetically dampened beam scales can not likely even detect.

I drop all my charges at once from the Redding dispensor a grain below, cases in the loading block, 20 - 30 - 50 rounds or whatever I'm loading at that charge. After that I dump them into the scale pan and trickle up with the dispensor one after the other, which takes about 10-15 seconds a case. The electronic dispensor's too slow to dispense the whole charge, I don't care how fast they make them, it'll never dump 100gr in one second, which I prefer.

You probably bought a bum scale it sounds like, seriously. Mine's the RCBS, least RCBS would be my customer service contact anyway. Good luck.

You might try another one and see, mine is faster than manual trickling for **** sure, less stress on top of it too, but you might prefer the Ohaus like Eric and Steve both use, a refund should about pay for one I think.

[ 04-12-2004: Message edited by: Brent Moffitt ]

 

[jb1000br]

you made sure to let the scale warm up for 30mins or so before using it right??

JB

 

[niknman]

I don't know if this will help but I just bought a new Dillon digital scale. It came highly recommended by a friend who's owned them all. I like it and it works great.

 

[JustC]

I would have to agree that your scale sounds defective. My combo unit (new version) requires little warmup time,..and once it has leanred the powder (may throw a few crazy charges) it is usually within .1gr +/-, which canbe scooped out or added by hand in no time at all. I have tried mine with 100gr charges just as an experiment of it's "throw time" and it was finished in less than 40sec,..in which time I am seating the previously loaded round and checking for runout. I really like mine and have not gotten anywhere near the issues you have experienced. Sounds like time to exchange the scale for a new one.