Balances for measuring chemistry

[David A. Goldfarb]

So for a long time the expense of a balance was putting me off from mixing my own formulas, even though I knew it would pay for itself eventually. Then I found via Michael Smith's Azo forum a recommendation for www.balances.com, which has a great variety of quality balances at affordable prices.

I wanted a compact digital balance (no room in my little Manhattan apartment for another toaster-sized appliance like a traditional triple-beam balance), and I settled on a Toyo 250 pocket balance. It has a 250 g. capacity, which seems sufficient for the quantities of chemistry I'm likely to mix in general, is fairly simple with tare function, several units of measurement built in and even parts counting function (e.g., weigh one ball bearing, then put a handful on the scale and tells how many you have), and it really does fit in a shirt pocket, so if I were planning to do some extended stay away from home and wanted to process film on site and mix my own pyro, or make contact prints with my own amidol, it wouldn't be too difficult to take with me. I paid around $46 for it including shipping and a 100g calibration weight. If you already happen to have a 100g weight, it's a few bucks less.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

David

I've purchased a couple of years ago a Proscale 250 (very much like yours), and it was a good investment.

I use it for almost everything but paper fixer (hypo, sulfite), which I just measure by volume.

Jorge O

 

[brimc76]

That sounds great David. I tried your link but keep getting an error message. Is there anything missing?

 

[removed account4]

brian:

the comma was included in the address
try this http://www.balances.com

- john

 

[brimc76]

Thanks.

 

[fhovie]

I am spoiled - I work for a scale company - the set up I use is for industrial applications and costs several thousand dollars. Those pocket gram scales make a lot of my distributors rich. Lots of people would come in and pay cash and didn't want a receipt or didn't even to fill out a warranty card. They would all come at once too ... hunph .... I wonder what they were weighing?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

My thoughts exactly. I can't imagine there are as many quality control specialists at small parts factories out there who might be making spot checks on a production line with a pocket scale as there are drug dealers (who might be making spot checks on a production line, I suppose).

A further non-photographic aside: the parts counting feature is THE thing for rolling pennies into paper tubes to go to the bank.

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

fhovie

I didn't fill my warranty card, but I do not do business in the backdoor...

((-:

Jorge O