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Discussion => Drug safety => Topic started by: b3tterliving on June 19, 2012, 06:56 am

Title: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: b3tterliving on June 19, 2012, 06:56 am
Looking to get a good mg scale that would be accurate +/- 2 or 3mg for weights under 10mg as many of the compounds im interested in are active at very low doses. So i was hoping someone could point me in the right direction towards a scale they would trust with such precise measurements. I have about $200usd to spend. Thanks in advance. - b3tterliving. 
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: spacetripper on June 19, 2012, 07:48 am
This one is really good: MyWeigh Gem Pro 250 Digital Scale
http://www.myweigh.com/gempro.html
http://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-GemPro-250-Compact/dp/B004C3I3AA
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: b3tterliving on June 19, 2012, 07:54 am
Thanks really appreciate the input!
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: Ben on June 20, 2012, 12:29 am
I find it hard to trust any scale as-is. The best way is really to check against a know weight to see if it is -still- accurate. You could simply pipet 20 uL of water onto a weighing dish a couple of times to check if it responds 20 mg after taring. The gempro one linked seems to be a good choice though, and it comes with a built in level so you can assert it is sitting on a level surface too.

With any scale, no mater the quality/cost, it is required to verify accuracy once in  while though.

Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: n0n00dz4u on June 20, 2012, 12:59 am
My dank ass eyes.

I need to buy a scale but the process I find ideal is as follows.

Buy a scale weighing down to .01. This is more than enough for 90% of commonly available RC's.

If you need to fine tune a dose to less than 10mgs your best bet is to weigh out a .01 dose and then eyeball 10 even parts. Shouldn't be too hard.

Then simply add the mgs as desired.

This works very well and also gives that I don't know whats coming feeling after you take your cap :)
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: InTransit on June 20, 2012, 03:22 am
So for my small measurements i have a Gemini-20 and it is a small milligram scale. It is stupid accurate and consistent, i am anal about calibration and i calibrate it quite often but it doesn't take any time to calibrate It is pretty well priced on amazon think after shipping i payed like 40 bucks, might have been a little less then that. A lot of people i know use this same scale for the very small measurements. It only goes up to 20g's but that isn't what i use it for i have a Durascale100 that weighs out to .01g's and to 100g's that scale was pretty pricey but still an excellent scale for weighing out oz and still have that great accuracy. if you want a really good one go to you local high school and pay a kid to get one out of the chem labs :-) ok that would probably bring some bad karma I'm not a fan of stealing but yeah those are the scales i use and love. Good luck
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: SpoonyBard on June 20, 2012, 04:55 am
So for my small measurements i have a Gemini-20 and it is a small milligram scale. It is stupid accurate and consistent, i am anal about calibration and i calibrate it quite often but it doesn't take any time to calibrate It is pretty well priced on amazon think after shipping i payed like 40 bucks, might have been a little less then that.

Seconded.  I paid $20 for my Gemini-20 on Amazon.  It's a bit finicky to use because the weighing tray wants to keep jumping around; but it's accurate enough for any use I'll ever have for it, and you can't beat the value.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: InTransit on June 20, 2012, 04:08 pm
So for my small measurements i have a Gemini-20 and it is a small milligram scale. It is stupid accurate and consistent, i am anal about calibration and i calibrate it quite often but it doesn't take any time to calibrate It is pretty well priced on amazon think after shipping i payed like 40 bucks, might have been a little less then that.

Seconded.  I paid $20 for my Gemini-20 on Amazon.  It's a bit finicky to use because the weighing tray wants to keep jumping around; but it's accurate enough for any use I'll ever have for it, and you can't beat the value.

So with the tray a little trick is superglue a small washer to the bottom of it. yeah the tray is a little wonky but for the money it does a good job. But yeah super glue a small washer to the bottom of it and your problem will be solved  :D
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: Banjo on June 20, 2012, 05:25 pm
So for my small measurements i have a Gemini-20 and it is a small milligram scale. It is stupid accurate and consistent, i am anal about calibration and i calibrate it quite often but it doesn't take any time to calibrate It is pretty well priced on amazon think after shipping i payed like 40 bucks, might have been a little less then that.

Seconded.  I paid $20 for my Gemini-20 on Amazon.  It's a bit finicky to use because the weighing tray wants to keep jumping around; but it's accurate enough for any use I'll ever have for it, and you can't beat the value.

So with the tray a little trick is superglue a small washer to the bottom of it. yeah the tray is a little wonky but for the money it does a good job. But yeah super glue a small washer to the bottom of it and your problem will be solved  :D

At the suggestion of an amazon review, I glued rubber washer to the bottom of my tray, and that really helps with it sliding around. I've never seen it go off by more than 2mg when testing it against calibration weights.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: Ben on June 21, 2012, 12:26 am
It's also important to deal with scales appropriately: A 1 mg resolution scale is not something to be used to measure 1 mg quantities. The lowest amount you could usefully measure with it is 10 mg, and 100 mg reliably.

Accuracy of scales is often defined as some percentage of deviation, plus some absolute error that is acceptable. This could, for example, be 1% +/- 2 digits. On a 1 mg resolution scale, a reading of 5 mg could essentially mean "2 to 8 mg", whereas a reading of 100 mg would be "96 to 104 mg".

If you wish to measure weights in the order of 1 mg accurately, you need to get something far more expensive. Analytical balances with 10 ug resolution surely exist, but they are insanely expensive (price of a luxury car) and require to be set on a solid, level, vibration-free surface to work well too.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: oscarzululondon on June 21, 2012, 12:36 am
I use a pair of proper old school Jewish jewellery scales... nothing like a tight bastard for accuracy  ;) Seriously, they're very good though.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: ZA6wUw8a on June 21, 2012, 03:20 am
Quote
What milligram scale do YOU trust!
The $1,000 ones at my work ;D goes down to 0.0001

These $20 milligram scales are often off by 5-10mg. Sometimes when you load your material, it doesn't even register that something's there until you dump in a good chunk of material. This can be potentially dangerous with 2C's, or MDPV, where a 5-10mg error may mean the difference between a nice euphoric experience or several hours in paranoid hell.

Most researchers don't need a scale that's very accurate because dosages on average are not under 20mg. When my scale broke, in order to dose 2C's I just dissolved a gram in water and dosed from a known volume.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: ilovelsd69 on June 21, 2012, 03:37 am
Just found this: http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/microgram_balance/balance.html or how to build a homemade microgram balance
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: SpoonyBard on June 22, 2012, 02:51 am
Just found this: http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/microgram_balance/balance.html or how to build a homemade microgram balance

That, sir, is the coolest thing I have seen all day. THANK YOU! (I may actually try to build one of these just for fun.)
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: ilovelsd69 on June 22, 2012, 02:53 am
Just found this: http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/microgram_balance/balance.html or how to build a homemade microgram balance

That, sir, is the coolest thing I have seen all day. THANK YOU! (I may actually try to build one of these just for fun.)

No problem  ;)
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: BandW on August 07, 2012, 09:56 am
Always good to invest in a set of good test/calibration weights as well - I like scientific scales but like someone above pointed out they are around 1k for good ones, in the past I have often used gunpowder scales - they are not too expensive and are very accurate but they do not usually have a very high capacity.   
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: correctly on August 08, 2012, 11:19 am
i invested in a $300 .001mg scale that you have to plug into an outlet to use before i ventured into research chemicals. every mg counts.
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: Snoopish on August 08, 2012, 04:11 pm
Just found this: http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/microgram_balance/balance.html or how to build a homemade microgram balance

Nice link. I may have to try this out at some point! Kudos to you sir!
Title: Re: What milligram scale do YOU trust!
Post by: BandW on August 08, 2012, 09:58 pm
Kind of like this one - capacity of 120 grams, count feature for a little more than $300

Sartorius Scale made by ACCULAB
This scale goes way beyond reloading scales commonly offered on the market. This precision scale weighs to 2/100th of a grain instead of 1/10th as most other reloading scales. The large footprint provides a very stable weighing platform. The scale has a glass air shield, a flip-up hard cover, a calibration weight, an integral centering bubble level, and adjustable feet. The scale can weigh in grains or grams. A nice feature of this scale is the weight percentage function that is useful when sorting brass. It also has a weight counting function (useful for counting bullets). the Sartorius scale has a TWO (2) YEAR WARRANTY. Capacity: 1852 grains. Scale Weight: 2.6 lbs.