Pacific Gun Powder Scale Salvage and Repair

Starting with a good complete powder scale above it was zeroed out . This means that all the settings were set to zero and the adjuster at the end on the bottom left was screwed up or down in tell the pointer is exactly on zero. The scale will now give very accurate measurements. Aluminum counter weights were originally used in the Pacific scale  below. What I did was to use aluminum soda cans and a knife to cut the can apart and good sharp scissors. The thin aluminum allowed me to shave off little slivers so I could reach an exact weight 

There are two -20 grain (G) weights one 10 grain weight 6,5,4.3.2,1 and a 1/2 grain weight  or (.5 grain).

The metal was folded for convince and labeled with a permanent marker. An old medicine bottle will hold the weights.

Pacific (or other ) Powder Scale Salvage and Repair

There may come a time when we will need products that are not readily available. Powder scales are invaluable pieces of equipment in reloading and there are a lot of old ones around which could be brought back into service. If you only have one gun and are using one type of powder for the most part the scale could be set and used from loading session to loading session. This is not advisable, it is always good to check the scale each time but I am only saying it is possible.  In a war even if the Pacific scale  had no counter weights it could still be useful as long as the home made propellant was of a consistent weight, size, and shape and people knowing what they are doing worked up the appropriate loads and set the scale in the appropriate place. The two locking lugs would pretty much guaranty the scale would work well from day to day. But making the weights was about 1 and 1/2 hrs work so this is a small investment of time to make sure  the Pacific will meet all your loading needs  Replacement parts and balance weights and scale pans are sometimes not available or if they are they are as expensive as a new scale. In an emergency we may have to find ourselves making parts. Here to the weight of the home made scale pan and wire  cradle are not as critical on this Pacific scale because the counter weights can be set appropriately. 

  Before going on let’s talk about reliability of the old equipment. When it was made it was considered state of the art and worked well and offered very good results. That said there is no reason to doubt that just because a product is old that it will not do the same today. This example has a direct application. An interesting story told by my Dad was in the day when the old Ford model “A” and “T” and farm tractors were what they would depend on in their rural farm community in Lenard Texas. The barn became the family mechanics work shop when these things needed fixing. They worked by kerosene lamps which were not real helpful but better than nothing. On occasion a bolt would be dropped and could not be found. Taking a small stone one of the boys would lay under the vehicle and the other would drop the stone from about the same place. And in a wishful declaration would say “brother, brother go find your brother” the stones glancing blows would generally give them a close proximity of where to go looking for the lost bolt or nut. The moral of the story is the fact that you can use one useful product to fix, find a substitute, or repair another.

  Homemade replacement of balance scale weights and parts--- some of these principles apply to constructing most any product. 1) A product of a given accurate weight if measured accurately will replace a missing counter weight on a scale. 2) Shape has nothing to do with how much something weighs. So a product of a given weight can be folded, bent, waded or changed to meet the need without changing its weight. 3) When you look at replacing parts--- look at another working product to pattern the replacement part after. 4) There is nearly nothing that cannot be copied. We are too used to thinking of buying replacement parts. There was a time when people made replacement parts! Are we any less intelligent? Are we any less skilled today? NO! Our biggest problem in an emergency is not looking at what we can make do with, what is available around us. Our second biggest problem is not using what we have to its best application. Our third disadvantage is the idea “there is nothing I can do” defeatism is a sure sign you will be defeated. 5) There are products that can replace other products and work just as well. We are taught to look at apples and apples sometimes we must look at apples and oranges or grapes and bananas. Plastic can replace metal if not involved in heavy weight bearing operations or mechanical contact or applications of prolonged excessive heat beyond the products heat range. 6) In some cases heat can be used as a medium of forming plastic. 7)Aluminum can replace steal with some of the same restrictions above but steal has even greater applications. 7) Plastic is any product that can be affected and shaped by mechanical force to make a shape or using heat to make a shape. These products include steal, polymers (most of us think as plastic), aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, nickel, etc. People think of the metals mentioned before as hard and unyielding but in reality they are plastic and can be formed by pressure- pressing, heat, sawing, shearing, machining, drilling  or filing.

  A blow with a hammer will give the above weights a flatter shape. Though I used a permanent marker for this example these weights will be eventually stamped with numbers as I have the stamp set. With the new counterweights this Pacific scale will now work as well as if it was new.

  The weights you see above can be used to weigh heaver items beyond the combined weight of the whole group. This would be accomplished in one of two ways 1) by setting up the Pacific scale and weighing multiples of the weights above and dumping the products in a measuring cup. A measuring cup has a lip so it would be easier to use to return the product back into the balance scale pan, other than that the measuring cup has no other application. Another words this Pacific scale can do the same things as any other scale. The obvious reason for needing to measure heavier weights is apparent in setting up a shot gun loading machine and checking the weight of the charge bar shot hole. This is typicality only done once and afterwords the shot weight will be relied upon as being measured accurately. The same is true on the powder side of the shotgun press as long as you use the same powder. If you change the powder then you would need to check the weight again in loading book and confirm it in  your scale using the loading information for the powder involved. 
2)You can also do the above in reverse using the scale with a known weight and balancing small quantities of the shot or other product involved and dumping it into a container. There is more than one way to skin a cat! 
    Knowing these additional weights of oz to grains could be useful. 1/2 oz = 218.8 grains = G, 5/8 oz = 273.4 G, 3/4 oz = 328.1 G, 7/8 oz =382.8 G, 1 oz = 437.5 G, 1 1/8 oz = 492.2 G 1 1/4 oz = 546.9 G, 1 3/8 oz = 601.6 G, 1 1/2 oz = 656.3 G, 1 5/8 oz = 710.9 G, 1 3/4 oz = 765.6 G, 1 7/8 oz = 820.3 G, 2 oz = 875.0 G. 2 1/8 oz = 929.7 G, 2 1/8 oz = 929.7 G, 2 1/4 oz = 984.4 G, 2 3/8 oz = 1039.1 G, and 2 1/2 oz = 10938.8 G

   In an emergency the Pacific scale would be the easiest to reproduce with a 3/16 all thread rod and two threaded counter balance side by side as seen in the second photo below. The front steal and the rear aluminum. The rear balance wings set on two pins drilled into the aluminum casting seen as dark spots in the aluminum "V" notch. 

               

 Richard W Norman Junk Ologist  

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