Need scale advice... update post 30

[chief38]

My original RCBS 10-10 Scale is still in perfect shape and still accurate so it's the only reloading scale I've ever owned.

Most of the younger guys are buying Digital Scales these days and I did use one of Dillon's Digital's at a friends house last year. It was nice, seemed easy to use but being stuck in "vintage world" I prefer my mechanical 10 -10.

 

[forestswin]

Most pharmacies today don't need scales, they mainly just take pills or liquids out of big bottles and put them into smaller ones. Some compounding pharmacies still use scales.

It sseems you're right,
I asked a pharmacist friend

But she said all pharmacies are required by law to have one

OP is dealing with medicine, I'd bet they'd be glad to help

 

[Squarebutt]

A compounding pharmacy that mixes custom prescriptions would be a good place to check your scales and your methods. They might even pre-mix your son's doses. I wish you and your family the best.

 

[rwsmith]

The Frankford Arsenal...

I've had very good luck with the little digital I got from Midway. I does grams and grains. It also has a calibration weight in it but I think for smaller measurements I'd get a 'check set' of weights. The whole shebang would cost well under $100, more like $75.

Mine works VERY well but you have to keep an eye on it and when it has difficulty getting consistent readings or is slow about showing a reading, it needs the batteries changed. Check it often and you'll have no problem. I've had this one a several years now and if it breaks tomorrow, I'll just go buy another one.

 

[MichiganScott]

You do realize that the difference between a Milligram and a Gram is a factor of One Thousand don't you. The OP stated he will be working in the Gram range, as in "a couple of grams". I believe that he is weighing out is a liquid solution that I would expect already has the protein powder in solution. This means that he doesn't need a 500 to 5000 dollar lab grade scale, a simple moderately accurate scale that reads out in decimal grams will do just fine.

I certainly do. I've been dealing with mg and grains on a daily basis for over 40 years. The OP talks about measuring peanut powder, not a solution. The starting doses listed in the chart are in mg weights of powder and microgram weights in liquid. You don't weigh solutions except under unusual circumstances; you measure them.

The easiest way to get the concentration the OP shows in the chart is to dilute a gram of powder in 1 liter of fluid. You get a 1mg/ml solution. Then you can take an aliquot with a pipette and dilute that down further depending on the strength of the solution needed.

The OP needs a scale with the sensitivity that DWalt mentioned. The other ones that have been mentioned that are sensitive to 0.1 grains won't make it. His best bet is to get a prescription for a solution mixed up by a compounding pharmacy with the proper directions for use. It won't be cheap, but it will be safe.

 

[glenwolde]

I've been using one of these for a couple of months. It's great. Comes with a case, check weight, instructions. It replaced an inexpensive scale by the same maker that I used for many years.

Frankford Arsenal DS-750 Electronic Powder Scale 750 - MPN: 205205

 

[ridgewalker]

With the spirit to be helpful and to help avoid mistakes, here are some definitions from your titration chart posted in post #11 above: mcg = micrograms, mg = milligrams, g = grams, ml (more correctly abbreviated mL) = milliliter.

In modern medicine measurements are metric. However some old timers still might use grains which is abbreviated gr. If handwritten it can be a very big problem to differentiate between gr and gm. The way I remember the conversion is 2 standard Tylenol tablet is 10 gr or 650 mg therefore 1 gr is 65 mg.

I hope the doctor's office or a pharmacy is supplying the titrations premixed to you. This is best left to the professionals.

 

[DWalt]

For a long time I used an ancient two-pan apothecaries' scale for weighing powder. You had to use weights on one pan if you needed to weigh more than 15 grains (up to which you could use a slider). I made up a series of 10 and 25 grain weights myself to use it using a laboratory analytical balance. I still have it, but haven't used it for many years.

My very first real job was in an analytical chemistry lab (believe it or not, in a smokeless powder plant production lab), and I got a lot of experience working with the old-style two-pan analytical balances. They had a precision of 0.0001 grams (1/10th of a milligram). I doubt that most chemists today have ever used (or maybe never even seen) one of those.

BTW. I weighed (on my Ohaus 4-beam scale) some high-condition clean pennies and dimes to find average weights. To the closest 0.01 grams, a penny is 2.51 grams (38.7 grains), a dime is 2.23 grams (34.4 grains).

 

[Boogsawaste]

Thanks everyone. We started on Tuesday sitting in the dr office for 5 hours with the nurse administering the first 10 doses every 20 minutes and waiting around afterwards to monitor (this was not easy with a 4 year old). They thankfully pre measure the liquid solution and all I have to to is measure volume until we start the dry. Then the scale is used. So everything seems as easy as possible and for those who care he did great. It's still a little nerve wracking for me to give him the solution but we're following all the protocols and I'm watching him closely for 2 hours after. It's only day 3 but it's started and we're hopeful.

I'll get back with everyone as time goes by and let you all know how he's doing (if anyone cares to hear).

 

[Boogsawaste]

Well if anyone cares he "graduated" from his peanut OIT! He's been on maintenance for a month now. He eats 8 peanuts a day, at the same time every day and although he doesn't like the taste of peanuts, it makes him safe from cross contamination and that's all that we really needed anyway. So now we can eat out at any restaurants, have all kinds of treats that are made in facilities with peanuts, and basically be a kid and not have us take away most of his Halloween candy etc. Had a few bumps on the road but no major reactions. We were skirting on the edge during escalation sometimes so we dropped the dose back and waited another week during those times.

Thanks everyone for the help and offers through pm etc. Great bunch of guys here.

Here he is yesterday eating ice cream at a local ice cream shop. Somewhere we couldn't even go to because of peanut dust/residue on things.

Oh forgot to mention. I went with a Frankfort digital that works perfectly fine.