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Avon scales calibration

Chris Thomson

Chris Thomson

Senior Member
Hi, wheres the best place to get my Avon dial scales serviced and will they calibrate them if they are not reading true ? Thanks
 
Chris Thomson said:
Hi, wheres the best place to get my Avon dial scales serviced and will they calibrate them if they are not reading true ? Thanks
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I took a slightly different approach. I took mine apart, gave them a thorough clean ( they are a very simple mechanical movement ) replaced everything .
I have a small piece of “ pig Iron “ in my workshop, I made a string “ harness “ for it and took it down to the local post office , the lass behind the counter weighed it on her calibrated GPO scales , it was 7lbs 6 oz dead , took it home zeroed the Avons , weighed the pig iron on the scales.
Hard to believe but they were bang on .
As I dont have any intentions of ever claiming any records they are good enough for me . I have kept the lump of iron in its sling with its weight marked on it for future use, and have used it to check some digital scales I use occasionally, they are a couple of ounces out !
I suppose you could use a bag of sugar or similar if you dont have a lump of iron .

David
 
Yes, that's the thing about these old Avon scales, they are so robust. I had mine calibrated when they were about 15 years old and they were still accurate. That is after all sorts of abuse and only minimal maintenance.
Regards,
G.T.
 
There is Not a lot to those Avon’s really as David said.
sure You can validate them and see what tolerance you get but there is no way of actually calibrating them that I know of. (Bringing them back in if they are out)
They are either in or out.
unless you actually need a validation certificate I’d just do some home tests. A good one is to thread your leads one by one on the hook to see if it moves exactly the weight of the lead applied. Use known weights etc, try different variations to see what you get.
service on those is more of an inspection. covers off, a check nothing silly is happening like it’s jumping teeth or your springs are not completely closing (over stretched) and that’s it. Never apply lube to them.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
There is Not a lot to those Avon’s really as David said.
sure You can validate them and see what tolerance you get but there is no way of actually calibrating them that I know of. (Bringing them back in if they are out)
They are either in or out.
unless you actually need a validation certificate I’d just do some home tests. A good one is to thread your leads one by one on the hook to see if it moves exactly the weight of the lead applied. Use known weights etc, try different variations to see what you get.
service on those is more of an inspection. covers off, a check nothing silly is happening like it’s jumping teeth or your springs are not completely closing (over stretched) and that’s it. Never apply lube to them.
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Richard. Why not use lub?
 
Colin Dapp said:
Richard. Why not use lub?
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It’s specified on manual scales not to and my belief as to why is Because while lubricant keeps things moving freely it changes the resistance of two moving parts.
your scales are precision instruments and with a certain weight applied the teeth between the rack and gear will be in a certain position to give you a read out. There will be resistance there carried out by the springs but if you apply lubrication you could slightly override that resistance in either positive or negative depending on the lube type you use and where it’s applied. They were dry when new so keep them dry and just keep them clean.
you would never lubricate a DTI gage for example which works in much the same way but with even more precision but you would lubricate a fishing reel.
The first thing you’ll notice as soon as you add grease to a reels worm drive is it feels tighter and slightly more pressure on the handle needed to turn it over. If you remove the grease and apply a thin oil instead suddenly the resistance drops dramatically and the handle flys round
On a reel that’s ok but on a precision instrument operating on a set certain resistance it’s not
 
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took my Avons to a shop to get them calibrated and he told me they can`t be and all you can do is check to see if they are correct at a certain weight or over or under.
 
The needle on my Avons wobbles quite a lot so that its hard to make an accurate reading to say more than 8oz, any way to remedy that ?
 
Cliff Turner said:
The needle on my Avons wobbles quite a lot so that its hard to make an accurate reading to say more than 8oz, any way to remedy that ?
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Mine does the same Cliff it’s because we are not 100% stationary when lifting them under load as it’s quite a sensitive needle.
I don’t think there is anything can be done I’m afraid unless you are able to hang them off something that doesn’t move. It’s certainly not just your set as every set I’ve seen in action does the same thing.
They do settle once you hold them steady.
 
Cliff Turner said:
The needle on my Avons wobbles quite a lot so that its hard to make an accurate reading to say more than 8oz, any way to remedy that ?
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Sometimes its the fish that wriggles that causes the wobble.... Many years ago when I used to fish matches, an old angler told me that when they were in the scale basket , it was the heat the fish felt by being in air and not water that made them wriggle, he used to say... "Blow on them " I remember forty years plus later that it calmed them enough to get a scale reading .
I have always remembered that , and even these days if I actually get around to weighing a fish, I still blow a few lungfuls of air on them when they are in the sling, it seems to work for me.

David
 
Have a steady stance, on even ground, feet hip width apart and try to tuck your elbows in against your chest plus avoid the wind if you can.
 
David Craine said:
Sometimes its the fish that wriggles that causes the wobble.... Many years ago when I used to fish matches, an old angler told me that when they were in the scale basket , it was the heat the fish felt by being in air and not water that made them wriggle, he used to say... "Blow on them " I remember forty years plus later that it calmed them enough to get a scale reading .
I have always remembered that , and even these days if I actually get around to weighing a fish, I still blow a few lungfuls of air on them when they are in the sling, it seems to work for me.

David
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Nice tip. You just know that everyone including myself that reads that is gonna be blowing on our next specimen before she takes to the scales.
 
David Craine said:
Sometimes its the fish that wriggles that causes the wobble.... Many years ago when I used to fish matches, an old angler told me that when they were in the scale basket , it was the heat the fish felt by being in air and not water that made them wriggle, he used to say... "Blow on them " I remember forty years plus later that it calmed them enough to get a scale reading .
I have always remembered that , and even these days if I actually get around to weighing a fish, I still blow a few lungfuls of air on them when they are in the sling, it seems to work for me.

David
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Hi I can remember doing exactly the same thing, It worked for small fish. I never caught anything big. lol
 
Bob Gill said:
Maybe worth saying - Check them over a range of weights. Some scales maybe dead on at a certain weight, but at a few pounds either side of that may not be.
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Agreed. Years ago weights and measures at my local council kindly validated some Salters dial scales for me. They produced a validation certificate at various weights over the scales range. Remarkably, at near their full range (220 lbs) they were out by only 4 ounces.
 
Cliff Turner said:
The needle on my Avons wobbles quite a lot so that its hard to make an accurate reading to say more than 8oz, any way to remedy that ?
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Cliff 'bracing' the scales helps with weighing heavier fish. This involves tying the Avon scales holder to say a pole and suspending between two braces (2 peoples shoulders). This will help ensure that the sales needle stays stable for reading.
 
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