Grains to Grams

[Cmaro21]

Is it possible to convert grains to grams for use on a digital scale? If so what is the conversion?

Thanks

Edit: I know I can google this as I have, I'm looking for second opinions, not looking to hurt myself or others. I have access to an accurate scale (get your mind out of the gutter, it's in no way drug related, my father deals with saffron and if you know the spice its worth more than gold) and would like to verify several auto measurements without purchasing an extra scale if not needed. Thank you for your input and opinions on the matter.

 

[RKG]

Using EngNet Tools, 1.00 grain equals 0.06479891 gram, and 1.00 gram equals 15.43236 grains.

 

[SemiAutoSam]

Not what you were looking for.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

you know the spice its worth more than gold

I see internet retailers selling allegedly "pure safron" for $263.54/oz (http://www.gourmet-food.com/gourmet-food/syren-saffron-100581.aspx) , and http://saharsaffron.com/#price reports that saffron is up to $175/ounce.

Spot gold buillion is at $938 (a bit more in coin form).

What am I missing?

 

[DukeInFlorida]

DO NOT buy a scale that only measures in GRAMS.

It will only get you in trouble.

Grains is an old English measure. It is 1/7000th of a pound. Grams is also a Euro measure, but is 1/1,000,000th of a cubic meter of distilled water.

You'd be doing all sorts of calculating/averaging/rounding up or down. It will get you into trouble.

Wait until you can find a scale that will do grains directly.

 

[Cmaro21]

I see internet retailers selling allegedly "pure safron" for $263.54/oz (http://www.gourmet-food.com/gourmet-food/syren-saffron-100581.aspx) , and http://saharsaffron.com/#price reports that saffron is up to $175/ounce.

Spot gold buillion is at $938 (a bit more in coin form).

What am I missing?

Haha, alright it's not worth more than gold but you got my point..

Thanks for all the links and providing your feedback.

Duke, as I stated I was just looking to use the scale I already had access to to test an autoload measure from a new press and save the cost of a scale at this time. Since this isn't the best way of doing it I'll find other means. There's a local guy who reloads who may let me borrow his scale for the night. Once my press is set and verified I think that I'll be ok from there on out and shouldn't require the regular use of a scale, correct?

 

[Stratocaster1422]

I don't even reload yet and you should constantly be verifying your auto loads. I'd hate to blow up my gun, hand, face because i was too cheap to buy a $70 scale and check my auto load machine every now and again.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

Here's about how you should be testing:

Dump 10 loads in a row, measuring each one. They should each be within .10 grains. Once you have the powder measure working at that range, it's time to run a "signal amplification" round. Meaning dump 10 rounds into the scale, accumulating the weight. The total of those ten rounds should add up to 10X the weight. Or, to say it differently, take the resultant weight, and divide by ten. That should still be within .1 grain. Adjust until you have it going good.

Then....

Load ten rounds in a row, and measure the tenth round. If that tenth round is still within spec, statistically the 1 through 9 rounds were also.

Load bullets, and check for gun cycling before you get too far into it. If they shoot fine, and the gun works good, then continue loading powder.

Do a ten round string again, measuring the tenth round. If that one if still in spec (.1 grain), then 11 through 19 were fine.

Maybe, if you are new to this, do another ten string.

And, after that, start doing a twenty string, measuring the twentieth powder load.

What you are doing by following this kind of checking is building a confidence that the statistical process is in control.

HOWEVER.................

Tomorrow when you start making more........ things have changed. Humidity in the air is different, affecting the weight. Powder would have settled in the dispensor during the night.

Whenever you leave the powder for a while, you have to RE-CHECK everything. Don't assume it will be right, especially if you are loading anywhere near the max pressure load for any round. Just a few granules of powder too much could over pressure the gun, causing excess wear and tear on the gun, and perhaps even an "event"....

A scale isn't one of the things that you should be going cheap on when reloading.

 

[graftyman]

Once my press is set and verified I think that I'll be ok from there on out and shouldn't require the regular use of a scale, correct?

Although not a seasoned reloader and still kind of new, i would say that is incorrect. From what I've read and seen there is no such thing as "Set it and forget it".

I'm using a Lee Autodisk measure now. There are no adjustments that can be made to the disk. It will measure volume and it actually very accurate on the loads it pulls.

Before I even think of putting the powder into a casing for that series that I'm making I pull at least 10 powders from it into an extra case (which has a spent primer in it). I make sure that all 10 pulls are within .10 grains. Once I'm confident of the powder coming out I will then entertain loading casings.

I test the first 5 measures. If they are correct, I will load 4 more without testing. The 10th overall gets tested. If it is correct then I continue, if it's off I dump all 10 and start over. (Actually have never had this happen). I then will check every 5th for the next 10. After that I will check every 10th. If I'm doing over 100 at a time I will eventually move to every 20th.

In my mind the more I check the powder measures the safer I am.

I'm 700 reloads into it on a Single Stage press and have 200 resized and primed waiting for powder, bullets and crimp. No matter how many I have I just can't see myself no checking the powder measures the way I described.

Just shot off 100 for lunch that I made. Grouping were good. Now I'm getting curious as to velocity so I have to find myself a chrono.

 

[Dick]

Did you know that Google will do unit conversions directly? I only learned this a short while back and, as my work involves lots of that sort of thing, I now use it all the time.

Simply enter the conversion you want in the box where you would normally type your search string, for example "100 grains in grams" or "5 miles in yards" and hit "enter." Very convenient.

 

[DukeInFlorida]

That's great, Dick. But in reloading, you are going back and forth all the time, double checking the reference book, the weight on the scale, etc. If you're OVER, you want to know how much without having to run over to the computer, and put the over weight in, wait for the calculation, then go back, and make an adjustment, etc, etc, etc.

Much much easier to just get a real scale (which measures grains accurately), and always have it handy whenever you are going to dump powder. Whatever type of scale you get, balance beam or digital... it;s always important to check it's accuracy with known reference weights. Most scales come with those these days. The digital ones also come with a process for "calibrating" the scale to the known reference weight.

The digital one I use for the classes (digital) is so accurate that when I was leaning on the bench top while the student is measuring, the scale registers my slight movement of the bench top.

 

[Dick]

I wasn't suggesting that the OP or anyone else attempt to do their reloading with a scale weighing in grams and then convert the readings on Google, which I agree would be both cumbersome and fraught with the potential for error. I was simply letting folks know about a feature of Google that I find very convenient at times. I currently have three scales on my reloading bench - two digital, one oldie-but goodie RCBS 505 beam scale.

The Mettler analytical balance I used to use in my laboratory was sensitive to the amount of air dissolved in a few cubic centimeters of water, which we had to extract via a vacuum chamber before doing any critical work with aqueous samples. (We were doing density determinations on sectioned deep cores from the Indian Ocean for the Navy - something to do with hiding submarines, I believe. Only my assumption, as the Navy wasn't saying.).

ETA: As you probably know, check (reference) weights come in different levels of accuracy. Even the cheap ones are good enough for reloading, but the really high-end super-accurate weights are unbelievably expensive and far beyond the reach of most hobbyists.

 

[Cmaro21]

Great posts and info by all. I am ordering a scale and will do it the right way. In retrospect it seems ridiculous to not spend ~100 on a scale that could prevent harm to myself and others. At 1/10 the price of the gun, I'll get a scale and make sure it's safe.

Duke, is your method possible with a progressive press? The first pull is deprime and resize, then prime and powder. If I pull one from the line to test won't that screw up my assembly? If I pull the bullet and then test then won't reloading that case drop the fresh primer?

Sorry if this is dumb, it doesn't explain this process in my book and I'm starting to fall asleep on the keyboa.....

 

[The Village Idiot]

Too tired to see if this was already posted but I have used this free utility for at least 10 years:

http://www.pawprint.net/vv/download.php

It is well worth the price (free)!

 

[DukeInFlorida]

Yes, it's possible with a progressive press, but not in the way you think:

Yank the rest of the tooling from the press, so that none of the other operations other than the powder dump/bell mouthing (same station) gets done. And, then run the brass, a piece at a time through the press until it gets filled with powder. At whatever point you can (where ever your press allows you to yank a cartridge off line), pull the brass with the powder carefully (so as to not spill any powder... even a couple of granules will affect the weighed amount), dump it carefully into the pan on the scale (also avoiding spilling any out of the pan), and weigh the result. Adjust as needed.

When I first fill a powder dispenser, I like to tap on the reservoir with my fingers to get the powder to settle and compact. That will get consistent results.

Once you have the powder measuring properly, add in the other stations per directions.

Great posts and info by all. I am ordering a scale and will do it the right way. In retrospect it seems ridiculous to not spend ~100 on a scale that could prevent harm to myself and others. At 1/10 the price of the gun, I'll get a scale and make sure it's safe.

Duke, is your method possible with a progressive press? The first pull is deprime and resize, then prime and powder. If I pull one from the line to test won't that screw up my assembly? If I pull the bullet and then test then won't reloading that case drop the fresh primer?

Sorry if this is dumb, it doesn't explain this process in my book and I'm starting to fall asleep on the keyboa.....

 

[Cmaro21]

Gotcha,

Thanks for the advise, again.

 

[K.W.]

DO NOT buy a scale that only measures in GRAMS.

It will only get you in trouble.

I like very much my Hornady-scale that only measures in grams. I use VihtaVuori powders and .........................

 

[jhrosier]

... Once my press is set and verified I think that I'll be ok from there on out and shouldn't require the regular use of a scale, correct?

WRONG !

You should verify the charge weight every time that you use your powder measure.

Even the inexpensive Lee balance beam scale is better than leaving things to random chance.

Jack

 

[KMaurer]

Don't forget that a pound of gold weighs less than a pound of spice, but an ounce of gold weighs less than an ounce of spice.

Ken

 

[highscore]

Yes, it's possible with a progressive press, but not in the way you think:

Yank the rest of the tooling from the press, so that none of the other operations other than the powder dump/bell mouthing (same station) gets done. And, then run the brass, a piece at a time through the press until it gets filled with powder. At whatever point you can (where ever your press allows you to yank a cartridge off line), pull the brass with the powder carefully (so as to not spill any powder... even a couple of granules will affect the weighed amount), dump it carefully into the pan on the scale (also avoiding spilling any out of the pan), and weigh the result. Adjust as needed.

When I first fill a powder dispenser, I like to tap on the reservoir with my fingers to get the powder to settle and compact. That will get consistent results.

Once you have the powder measuring properly, add in the other stations per directions.

I never "yank" any tooling. I just put a case into the powder dump station and take it out of that station when checking charge weight. Taking dies out and having to put them back in sort of defeats the purpose of tool heads!
Bob