RCBS 5-0-5 scale zeroing, help needed

vikingm03 · April 15, 2010, 03:21 PM

Hey everyone,

So i bought a scale off ebay to check my lee dippers for accuracy, a RCBS 5-0-5 scale, and i just got it in the mail today. There is a problem though.

By turning the leveling foot, the scale will not zero out at all. Its waaaay off, like more than the weight of a 1/2 nut is needed in the pan before i can get it to zero out. Before someones says the obvious, im absolutely sure all 3 sliders are in their "0" position and the pan is infact on its little hanger

Is there something im missing? I did not get a manual with it, though there does not seem to be much to this scale. Anyone had this problem before?

GAR700 · April 15, 2010, 03:26 PM

Viking,
The only thing I can think of is that the actual pan may be missing. There should be a brass colored (might be brass) pan that sits in the tray.
Don't be offended if this is totally basic and I am insulting your intelligence, but it happend to me when I first got my scale.

GAR

edward5759 · April 15, 2010, 03:33 PM

does it look like this?

vikingm03 · April 15, 2010, 03:38 PM

Thanks for the replies guys.

GAR700 : No offence taken. And yes, it does have the pan part along with the hanger for the pan. But, it is not brass or brass colored, i believe its aluminum.

edward5759 : yep, thats it, except with an aluminum pan.

EDIT: actually, my pan looks like the one in the picture (other than mine being aluminum) except for one thing. While mine does have the built-in funnel section, mine does not have the tab thing that is in that picture. Im not sure what that is though, just a tab for holding the pan?

zippy13 · April 15, 2010, 04:14 PM

If your scale is similar to mine, there's a white metal sub pan that snaps into the wire loop and gold colored metal pan with thumb tab and spout. The sub pan is of two pieces and is held together with a screw. There's a void in the sub pan that has shot it it that allows fine tuning of the scale (at the factory) by the number of pellets. If that sub pan is missing then your scale is going to be way off, if the upper pan is missing you'll be a little off.

vikingm03 · April 15, 2010, 04:20 PM

zippy13 : Mine is like yours, but both the sub pan that holds the little BB's and the pan are made of aluminum and are silver in color. There are BB's in my sub pan, but i would guess that i would need to completely fill it up in order to zero the scale, it might not even have enough room...

Are there any other adjustment to make in this scale to zero it out?

**Mal H** · April 15, 2010, 04:28 PM

Realizing this is an extremely basic question, but is your table fairly level?

Does the balance beam swing freely?

You said your removable pan doesn't have a tab. Every one I've ever seen does have that tab for lifting the pan off the scale. That could be your problem right there. See if it looks like the tab may have been broken off.

Don't put any weights in the under pan until you're sure everything else is proper. There are no other adjustments other than the foot screw adjustment, and, of course, the sliding weights.

edward5759 · April 15, 2010, 04:35 PM

the little sub pan is made to gross zero the the beam
the screw adjustment is to fine tune the zero to where you want it.
you do not want to zero the beam with weight.
make sure all your weights are on zero.
you may have screwed the base up to far.
start with the base screwed in all the way.
http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instru...tions.pdfihere is the manual.

Ed

vikingm03 · April 15, 2010, 04:56 PM

Mal H : yes, the bench it is on is level. With everything on (the entire pan assembly) if i add a 1/2" nut and 4-5 paper clips in the pan, i can then use the zeroing foot to zero out the scale. Then, the scale moves very nicely, i can add another small 1/4" nut in the pan and use the sliders to find its weight in grains. Works great, other than the fact that i have to use a bunch of metal to balance out the scale. They pan does not appear to have any tears were a tab could have been, but even with the little tab it would not be enough weight to level the scale (unless the tab is depleted uranium or something.)

edward5759 : i havent removed or added any weight to the sub pan, just observing that there are BB's in it. The base adjuster does nothing unless i add counter balance to the pan in the form of a 1/2" nut and paper clips (a lot of extra weight)

If possible, could someone measure the weight of their complete pan assembly? Maybe i dont have the correct pan setup and is way too light.

**Mal H** · April 15, 2010, 04:59 PM

"If possible, could someone measure the weight of their complete pan assembly?"

Yes, hold on ...
.
.
.

Here ya go:

The whole pan assembly weighs 329.5 grains
The pan weighs 140.5 gr, and the hanger assb weighs 189.0 gr.
The BB's in the subpan weigh 32.2 gr. (they vary widely in size from lead "dust" to about #6 or 7 shot size)

Do you have another scale to check yours with?

"... unless i add counter balance to the pan in the form of a 1/2" nut and paper clips"
That is far too much weight to be made up in lead shot in the pan.
I'm beginning to suspect they didn't supply the correct pan with the scale. Can you take a picture of it?

jtmckinney · April 15, 2010, 05:11 PM

Go to RCBS website and download their instructions from the below link.

Or go to rcbs.com and bore down.

http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instru...structions.pdf

It sounds like you have some stuff that don't match up. You can probably make it work but I would want to verify accuracy against a scale that is proven correct. Weighing bullets with a known weight might work.

Sorry I just saw that somebody already sent you the link for the instructions.

Good Luck!
James

vikingm03 · April 15, 2010, 05:24 PM

Mal H : Thank you!

No i dont have another scale, i need to think of how im going to zero out the scale with extra weight then add the pan. Ill post back when i get a weight, though i really wont know if what i get will be accurate... we'll go from there i guess.

jtmckinney : great idea with the bullets, i was actually just going to post on how to measure the scales accuracy. I have some 230gr lrn that will be perfect, how much do bullets in a 500pc. box very in weight typically?

Ill also get some pictures of the pan i have.

Thanks for the help guys.

Don H · April 15, 2010, 05:36 PM

Quote:

I have some 230gr lrn that will be perfect, how much do bullets in a 500pc. box very in weight typically?

Depending on the supplier's QC, there may well be 10 grains variance and the average weight will most likely not be exactly 230 grains.

Edited to add: I have never seen the 5-0-5 scale to have an aluminum pan without a handle. I very strongly suspect that the aluminum-colored pan you are refering to is the sub-pan and the actual pan is missing. The weight of the missing pan is needed to zero the scale.

jtmckinney · April 15, 2010, 05:43 PM

I load mostly Hornaday bullets and usually check the weight of at least a couple and never found one more that a grain off (usually light). Maybe cheaper bullets vary that much, I don't know.

Good luck!
James

zippy13 · April 15, 2010, 06:35 PM

Assuming both pans are correct, are you're missing one of the weights?
On the major beam there's the tens weight.
On the minor beam there the ones weight and the thin tenths weight.
Look at edward5759's pic, it sounds like your ones weight is missing.

roc1 · April 15, 2010, 06:47 PM

I have two 5-0-5 scales and the pans are different ,on both one ways real heavy on the opposite scale and the other too light. I check mine with a set of Lyman scale gages time to time.
roc1

ZeSpectre · April 15, 2010, 06:48 PM

vikingm03,
The hanger is aluminum (and silver aluminum colored) with the hanging hook attached.

The pan is removable and yellow anodized.

It sounds like you have the hanger but not the pan.

uncyboo · April 15, 2010, 07:18 PM

Maybe this is why it was on eBay.......?

tac_driver · April 15, 2010, 08:19 PM

did you try cleaning the anvil (seat what the knife edge sits on) with alcohol? and make sure the needle part isn't rubbing on the frame?

Hook686 · April 16, 2010, 03:49 AM

There are obviously more than one version of the 5-0-5 scale. Mine has an aluminum pan.

Perhaps the knife edge on the beam is disfigured. Perhaps the magnetic dampener is sticking. Perhaps ....

ZeSpectre · April 16, 2010, 06:07 AM

Hook686
I'm pretty sure your scale is a "5-0-2", not a "5-0-5"

Though even with that I've never seen a plain aluminum pan before...interesting. How old is that scale?

jtmckinney · April 16, 2010, 08:07 AM

I purchased my 5-0-2 in 1994 and it doesn't look anything line the scale hook686 has even though it's operation would be the same. Mine only has 2 weights the large one in 5 grain notches and the small one in tenth grain notches just like hook686 scale. It looks very similar to the one Zespectre shows except for the third weight and notch graduations.

Vikingm03 this probably isn't helping any.

Again good luck!
James

**Mal H** · April 16, 2010, 10:44 AM

I suspect ZeSpectre just might be right - vikingm03 may not even have the pan, only the hanger. I'm basing this on a re-read of his original post.

Quote:

... and the pan is infact on its little hanger

This implies that there is one pan, and it is the one hanging on the hook.

vikingm03 do you have one pan or two? You should have two. A missing powder pan would easily account for the large amount of weight you need to add to zero the scale.

Hook686 - like ZeSpectre said, you have a 5-0-2 scale, an old, but very clean, 5-0-2 scale.

howlnmad · April 16, 2010, 02:00 PM

I bought a RCBS 5-0-5 scale off of flea bay as well. The pointer had been broken off and repaired but it was still accurate. I double checked it with check weights from another scale. I used it quite a bit until one day I took it out and could not get it to zero out. It has the aluminum pan as well. The only thing I can think of, it's a magnetic scale and possibly it had become demagnetized. I'm no scientist but that's all I can come up with.

slowr1der · April 16, 2010, 03:46 PM

My first thought is that he is missing the pan too and just had the aluminum part the pan sits on that is attached to the hanger. This will do what he is describing if he doesn't have the gold colored pan on it. I have this same scale and noticed this at first when I unpacked it. You have to have that gold pan on there to level it out.

April 15, 2010, 03:21 PM	#1
vikingm03 Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Posts: 49	RCBS 5-0-5 scale zeroing, help needed Hey everyone, So i bought a scale off ebay to check my lee dippers for accuracy, a RCBS 5-0-5 scale, and i just got it in the mail today. There is a problem though. By turning the leveling foot, the scale will not zero out at all. Its waaaay off, like more than the weight of a 1/2 nut is needed in the pan before i can get it to zero out. Before someones says the obvious, im absolutely sure all 3 sliders are in their "0" position and the pan is infact on its little hanger Is there something im missing? I did not get a manual with it, though there does not seem to be much to this scale. Anyone had this problem before?

April 15, 2010, 04:35 PM	#8
edward5759 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ. 30 miles from water, two feet from Hell. Posts: 355	try this the little sub pan is made to gross zero the the beam the screw adjustment is to fine tune the zero to where you want it. you do not want to zero the beam with weight. make sure all your weights are on zero. you may have screwed the base up to far. start with the base screwed in all the way. http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instru...tions.pdfihere is the manual. Ed

April 15, 2010, 05:11 PM	#11
jtmckinney Senior Member Join Date: March 2, 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 490	Go to RCBS website and download their instructions from the below link. Or go to rcbs.com and bore down. http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instru...structions.pdf It sounds like you have some stuff that don't match up. You can probably make it work but I would want to verify accuracy against a scale that is proven correct. Weighing bullets with a known weight might work. Sorry I just saw that somebody already sent you the link for the instructions. Good Luck! James Last edited by jtmckinney; April 15, 2010 at 05:37 PM. Reason: Already had link to instructions.

April 15, 2010, 06:48 PM	#17
ZeSpectre Senior Member Join Date: June 4, 2007 Location: Shenandoah Valley Posts: 3,276	vikingm03, The hanger is aluminum (and silver aluminum colored) with the hanging hook attached. The pan is removable and yellow anodized. It sounds like you have the hanger but not the pan. __________________ "The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on"

April 15, 2010, 08:19 PM	#19
tac_driver Member Join Date: April 14, 2008 Location: North Carolina Posts: 61	did you try cleaning the anvil (seat what the knife edge sits on) with alcohol? and make sure the needle part isn't rubbing on the frame? __________________ http://home.roadrunner.com/~cuttingedgz/ 22/45 Ruger S&W 640 Glock 21SF,S&W 67 Combat,Colt series 80 Combat,Glock 19

April 15, 2010, 03:26 PM	#2
GAR700 Senior Member Join Date: September 22, 2008 Location: East of the Crest, Oregon Posts: 184	Viking, The only thing I can think of is that the actual pan may be missing. There should be a brass colored (might be brass) pan that sits in the tray. Don't be offended if this is totally basic and I am insulting your intelligence, but it happend to me when I first got my scale. GAR

April 15, 2010, 03:33 PM	#3
edward5759 Senior Member Join Date: September 15, 2009 Location: Phoenix, AZ. 30 miles from water, two feet from Hell. Posts: 355	does it look like this?

April 15, 2010, 03:38 PM	#4
vikingm03 Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Posts: 49	Thanks for the replies guys. GAR700 : No offence taken. And yes, it does have the pan part along with the hanger for the pan. But, it is not brass or brass colored, i believe its aluminum. edward5759 : yep, thats it, except with an aluminum pan. EDIT: actually, my pan looks like the one in the picture (other than mine being aluminum) except for one thing. While mine does have the built-in funnel section, mine does not have the tab thing that is in that picture. Im not sure what that is though, just a tab for holding the pan?

April 15, 2010, 04:14 PM	#5
zippy13 Senior Member Join Date: August 23, 2008 Location: SoCal Posts: 6,442	If your scale is similar to mine, there's a white metal sub pan that snaps into the wire loop and gold colored metal pan with thumb tab and spout. The sub pan is of two pieces and is held together with a screw. There's a void in the sub pan that has shot it it that allows fine tuning of the scale (at the factory) by the number of pellets. If that sub pan is missing then your scale is going to be way off, if the upper pan is missing you'll be a little off.

April 15, 2010, 04:20 PM	#6
vikingm03 Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Posts: 49	zippy13 : Mine is like yours, but both the sub pan that holds the little BB's and the pan are made of aluminum and are silver in color. There are BB's in my sub pan, but i would guess that i would need to completely fill it up in order to zero the scale, it might not even have enough room... Are there any other adjustment to make in this scale to zero it out?

April 15, 2010, 04:28 PM	#7
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	Realizing this is an extremely basic question, but is your table fairly level? Does the balance beam swing freely? You said your removable pan doesn't have a tab. Every one I've ever seen does have that tab for lifting the pan off the scale. That could be your problem right there. See if it looks like the tab may have been broken off. Don't put any weights in the under pan until you're sure everything else is proper. There are no other adjustments other than the foot screw adjustment, and, of course, the sliding weights.

April 15, 2010, 04:56 PM	#9
vikingm03 Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Posts: 49	Mal H : yes, the bench it is on is level. With everything on (the entire pan assembly) if i add a 1/2" nut and 4-5 paper clips in the pan, i can then use the zeroing foot to zero out the scale. Then, the scale moves very nicely, i can add another small 1/4" nut in the pan and use the sliders to find its weight in grains. Works great, other than the fact that i have to use a bunch of metal to balance out the scale. They pan does not appear to have any tears were a tab could have been, but even with the little tab it would not be enough weight to level the scale (unless the tab is depleted uranium or something.) edward5759 : i havent removed or added any weight to the sub pan, just observing that there are BB's in it. The base adjuster does nothing unless i add counter balance to the pan in the form of a 1/2" nut and paper clips (a lot of extra weight) If possible, could someone measure the weight of their complete pan assembly? Maybe i dont have the correct pan setup and is way too light.

April 15, 2010, 04:59 PM	#10
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	"If possible, could someone measure the weight of their complete pan assembly?" Yes, hold on ... . . . Here ya go: The whole pan assembly weighs 329.5 grains The pan weighs 140.5 gr, and the hanger assb weighs 189.0 gr. The BB's in the subpan weigh 32.2 gr. (they vary widely in size from lead "dust" to about #6 or 7 shot size) Do you have another scale to check yours with? "... unless i add counter balance to the pan in the form of a 1/2" nut and paper clips" That is far too much weight to be made up in lead shot in the pan. I'm beginning to suspect they didn't supply the correct pan with the scale. Can you take a picture of it?

April 15, 2010, 05:24 PM	#12
vikingm03 Member Join Date: October 9, 2009 Posts: 49	Mal H : Thank you! No i dont have another scale, i need to think of how im going to zero out the scale with extra weight then add the pan. Ill post back when i get a weight, though i really wont know if what i get will be accurate... we'll go from there i guess. jtmckinney : great idea with the bullets, i was actually just going to post on how to measure the scales accuracy. I have some 230gr lrn that will be perfect, how much do bullets in a 500pc. box very in weight typically? Ill also get some pictures of the pan i have. Thanks for the help guys.

April 15, 2010, 05:43 PM	#14
jtmckinney Senior Member Join Date: March 2, 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 490	I load mostly Hornaday bullets and usually check the weight of at least a couple and never found one more that a grain off (usually light). Maybe cheaper bullets vary that much, I don't know. Good luck! James

April 15, 2010, 06:35 PM	#15
zippy13 Senior Member Join Date: August 23, 2008 Location: SoCal Posts: 6,442	Assuming both pans are correct, are you're missing one of the weights? On the major beam there's the tens weight. On the minor beam there the ones weight and the thin tenths weight. Look at edward5759's pic, it sounds like your ones weight is missing.

April 15, 2010, 06:47 PM	#16
roc1 Senior Member Join Date: July 31, 2005 Location: Lubbock Texas Posts: 560	I have two 5-0-5 scales and the pans are different ,on both one ways real heavy on the opposite scale and the other too light. I check mine with a set of Lyman scale gages time to time. roc1

April 15, 2010, 07:18 PM	#18
uncyboo Senior Member Join Date: November 7, 2008 Location: Shelby, MT Posts: 1,013	Maybe this is why it was on eBay.......?

April 16, 2010, 03:49 AM	#20
Hook686 Senior Member Join Date: May 22, 2005 Location: USA The Great State of California Posts: 2,090	There are obviously more than one version of the 5-0-5 scale. Mine has an aluminum pan. Perhaps the knife edge on the beam is disfigured. Perhaps the magnetic dampener is sticking. Perhaps .... __________________ Hook686 When the number of people in institutions reaches 51%, we change sides.

April 16, 2010, 06:07 AM	#21
ZeSpectre Senior Member Join Date: June 4, 2007 Location: Shenandoah Valley Posts: 3,276	Hook686 I'm pretty sure your scale is a "5-0-2", not a "5-0-5" Though even with that I've never seen a plain aluminum pan before...interesting. How old is that scale? __________________ "The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on" Last edited by ZeSpectre; April 16, 2010 at 06:39 AM.

April 16, 2010, 08:07 AM	#22
jtmckinney Senior Member Join Date: March 2, 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 490	I purchased my 5-0-2 in 1994 and it doesn't look anything line the scale hook686 has even though it's operation would be the same. Mine only has 2 weights the large one in 5 grain notches and the small one in tenth grain notches just like hook686 scale. It looks very similar to the one Zespectre shows except for the third weight and notch graduations. Vikingm03 this probably isn't helping any. Again good luck! James

April 16, 2010, 02:00 PM	#24
howlnmad Senior Member Join Date: April 29, 2009 Location: Harriman Tn Posts: 424	I bought a RCBS 5-0-5 scale off of flea bay as well. The pointer had been broken off and repaired but it was still accurate. I double checked it with check weights from another scale. I used it quite a bit until one day I took it out and could not get it to zero out. It has the aluminum pan as well. The only thing I can think of, it's a magnetic scale and possibly it had become demagnetized. I'm no scientist but that's all I can come up with.

April 16, 2010, 03:46 PM	#25
slowr1der Junior member Join Date: March 25, 2010 Posts: 169	My first thought is that he is missing the pan too and just had the aluminum part the pan sits on that is attached to the hanger. This will do what he is describing if he doesn't have the gold colored pan on it. I have this same scale and noticed this at first when I unpacked it. You have to have that gold pan on there to level it out.