What Scales Are You Using?

[StogieSteve23]

I'm wanting to buy a scale for the weighing of my cigars.  What are everyone go-to scales? 

Thank you in advance for any assistance! 

 

[djrey]

I have used my Frankford Arsenal DS 750. It’s a reloading scale so it’s extremely precise. About $28 on Amazon. 

[joeypots]

I need a fine scale for work. I have two.

A Mettler Toledo Xpress XRW11-4220. 

Single grams to 30 lbs, the thing is a titan of durability and accuracy.

I've used to almost daily for at least ten years so the expense was less important than the quality of the scale.  

I also have a Ohaus  triple beam balance for very small weights. 

 

[PigFish]

Balances are another 'big gun' contest. If for cigars it does not matter that much unless you are really trying to analyze with a lot of accuracy. Personally, I would only buy an electromagnetic force restoration balance. That is what I use. The one I have is around 30 years old at this point. It was made by Denver Instrument Company, now owned by some larger scale conglomerate.

I have no love for torsion load cell balances, but if you are just fooling around, and you don't want to drop a bundle on a scale, one of the cheap ones will likely do you just fine.

Grain scales for reloading small arms typically read to 1/10 of a grain, or 1/70,0000 of a pound.

Cheers! -Piggy

[StogieSteve23]

4 hours ago, joeypots said:

I need a fine scale for work. I have two.

A Mettler Toledo Xpress XRW11-4220. 

This is certainly a little more than I want to spend on a scale for what I need it to do, but I appreciate you sharing.  It's very interesting learning about all these different scales.

 

3 hours ago, PigFish said:

Balances are another 'big gun' contest. If for cigars it does not matter that much unless you are really trying to analyze with a lot of accuracy. Personally, I would only buy an electromagnetic force restoration balance. That is what I use. The one I have is around 30 years old at this point. It was made by Denver Instrument Company, now owned by some larger scale conglomerate.

I have no love for torsion load cell balances, but if you are just fooling around, and you don't want to drop a bundle on a scale, one of the cheap ones will likely do you just fine.

Grain scales for reloading small arms typically read to 1/10 of a grain, or 1/70,0000 of a pound.

Cheers! -Piggy

There's a big rabbit hole one can go down here I feel like. 

[SCgarman]

7 hours ago, StogieSteve23 said:

I'm wanting to buy a scale for the weighing of my cigars.  What are everyone go-to scales? 

Thank you in advance for any assistance! 

 

Never thought about this in 30+ years of cigar smoking. I tend to choose, cut, light and enjoy.  

[joeypots]

5 hours ago, joeypots said:

 

I also have a Ohaus  triple beam balance for very small weights. 

 

Grain scales for reloading small arms typically read to 1/10 of a grain, or 1/70,0000 of a pound.

5 hours ago, PigFish said:

Cheers! -Piggy

I was talking about 1/10 gram, not a grain.   Small is relative I guess. 

[Booyaa]

Why are you weighing cigars?

[Habana Mike]

57 minutes ago, Booyaa said:

Why are you weighing cigars?

They all have a specified weight. Scales can help determine if they're under or over filled.

[Silverstix]

They all have a specified weight. Scales can help determine if they're under or over filled.

But then what? Sorry not being sarcastic


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[Habana Mike]

Just another OCD trait of some cigar smokers....

[Silverstix]

6 minutes ago, Habana Mike said:

Just another OCD trait of some cigar smokers....

Ah ok, didn’t think it was something as simple as that. Weigh on, brothers and sisters!


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[PigFish]

Big gun contest, rabbit hole, same thing.

Why do this? Curiosity...!

The fact is, PMC is not calculated via a formula. It is all empiric. If you build precision humidors as I do, you 'may' want to know if your experiments and efforts are more than anecdotal and if they have real merit. You cannot verify water content in a cigar without a comparative analysis of cigars before and after climate changes.

I have been doing this for years now.

Yep, cutting lighting and smoking is way easier... -LOL

-Piggy

 

At one point in time I had many 'tracking' boxes of cigars. These were cigars that had a number on each band for comparison of weights in the future.

And by the way. There are some other points of interest here.

Many have asked me why I don't believe in flavor profiles. Part of this is in the physical evidence of weighing cigars. I have found cigars in one box to vary more than 40%. I will say that again... 40%. This means that after the cigar were allowed to come to a EMC, that some cigars had as much as 40% more tobacco than than the least cigar, or vise versa. 

If cigars have a taste, and that taste is blended via adding or removing, using consistent tobacco, what does it say about the recipe when cigars from the same box have such variances?

How would your favorite dish taste if you left out 40% of the ingredients or had little or no concern for how much of what ingredient was included? Frankly, bagels are made with more care than Cuban cigars...!

Food for thought!

[Silverstix]

Big gun contest, rabbit hole, same thing.
Why do this? Curiosity...!
The fact is, PMC is not calculated via a formula. It is all empiric. If you build precision humidors as I do, you 'may' want to know if your experiments and efforts are more than anecdotal and if they have real merit. You cannot verify water content in a cigar without a comparative analysis of cigars before and after climate changes.
I have been doing this for years now.
Yep, cutting lighting and smoking is way easier... -LOL
-Piggy
 
At one point in time I had many 'tracking' boxes of cigars. These were cigars that had a number on each band for comparison of weights in the future.
And by the way. There are some other points of interest here.
Many have asked me why I don't believe in flavor profiles. Part of this is in the physical evidence of weighing cigars. I have found cigars in one box to vary more than 40%. I will say that again... 40%. This means that after the cigar were allowed to come to a EMC, that some cigars had as much as 40% more tobacco than than the least cigar, or vise versa. 
If cigars have a taste, and that taste is blended via adding or removing, using consistent tobacco, what does it say about the recipe when cigars from the same box have such variances?
How would your favorite dish taste if you left out 40% of the ingredients or had little or no concern for how much of what ingredient was included? Frankly, bagels are made with more care than Cuban cigars...!
Food for thought!

I dig it man, very interesting indeed! In a way I’m afraid to let myself go to this place because I know it would totally consume me!!!


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[PigFish]

11 minutes ago, Silverstix said:

 

I dig it man, very interesting indeed! In a way I’m afraid to let myself go to this place because I know it would totally consume me!!!


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This begs for another anecdote! 

In late 2000's as some of my friends started to lose interest in Cuban cigar for various reasons, deletions, fat cigars, cigars that all taste the same (my words, my opinions) I began to focus on pursuing my interest in water content and taste. Weighing cigars is integral to that interest. It has consumed me... as you say!!!

Cheers! -R

[bpm32]

If you’re just curious about water loss or gain in cigars, any old inexpensive kitchen or reloading scale will pretty much do. You can get them for as little as $10.

[LLC]

If you’re just curious about water loss or gain in cigars, any old inexpensive kitchen or reloading scale will pretty much do. You can get them for as little as $10.

I agree. My wife has a small scale in the kitchen and I’ll use it to weigh cigars on occasion and it works just fine.


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[BrightonCorgi]

My trusty old coke scale from high school...  That and a beeper is all you needed to start a business....

 

Joking aside, as long as it can go down to half a gram you should be all set.

[StogieSteve23]

12 hours ago, PigFish said:

Big gun contest, rabbit hole, same thing.

Why do this? Curiosity...!

 

What really interests me about all this is the fact that so many CC's seem either over/underfilled.  You're points about the cigar changing flavor profiles an exponential amount is very interesting and I can't argue with you that I haven't felt the same way sometimes.  It certainly is a very large topic of conversation.  I'm not so much concerned about water weight as I am production weights of the cigars themselves but I guess water weight would play a factor in that depending on age, storage, etc.

[Capt. Corona]

Ohaus triple beam bought back in the early 70's and originally used for.....................let's just say it was used! ?

Manually scaled down to one tenth of a gram. ?

[cigaraholic]

I have been weighing my cigars for years, probably since the use of draw...or as I like to call them..wind tunnel machines. I got tired of smoking under filled cigars like this Monte 2....3 grams light. That’s a very expensive bland piece of shit. I find the heaviest cigars in a box smoke the best, taste the best and last the longest. The number of plugged cigars I’ve had in 50 years is less than 10, I can’t believe how many complain about plugged cigars. But wind tunnels, there’s usually 5 to a box theses days. I just give them to a friend that doesn’t have my cigar budget and is happy to have something to smoke. It’s disappointing that such a luxurious product is produced at 4th world standards theses days.

And any inexpensive digital scale is fine for checking cigar weights...just make sure you have plenty of Kleenex to wipe your eyes ?

[CaptainQuintero]

  Just wondering for those that do, what variables would you have to consider, or what are your aims? Off the top of my head:

-Do all type of leaf weigh the same? Eg is Volado heavier than Seco? Medio Tempo etc?

-How do you weigh the ratios?

- A cigar may weigh correct, but could be lacking a certain amount of a certain leaf which is critical to that blend, but it's been made up with excess "other leaf" by hand/eye of the roller. Wouldn't the weight then be correct but blend be incorrect? On a day where supplies are short would a correctly bunched filler made entirely of Volado weigh the same as the usually correct blended filler?

-Would an excess of a heavier type of leaf lead you to believe a cigar is filled correctly, but actually has not enough bunched so has a loose draw?

-Will leaf (All, or certain leaves off different parts of the plant) weight change plant to plant, season to season? 

 

  Is it an exercise to avoid windtunnels/plugs or to find a "good example" etc? I've never considered doing it just as the variables in something handmade mostly by eye/touch from an organic material seem huge. But would be interested to hear what the pros/cons are and if people are doing it for different reasons, such as Pigster and moisture content or others for blend accuracy, or poor/good draw.

 

[cigaraholic]

In my case it’s simply to find the wind tunnels in a box....aka bland tasteless cigars. I usually put the 3 heaviest cigars in a desktop so I know where the monsters live?

Living in a no tax, no duty country ? makes living in these wind tunnel times a lot easier. If I lived in a country where I could walk in and buy cigars I’d definitely bring my scale. The thought of leaving a tobacconist with a $50 wind tunnel would turn me into a cereal killer.

[PigFish]

i stated my position. 

From a humidor maker, does intentional dehydration work in a controlled humidor? How long does it take and does it make sense to build or use, buy, own a controlled humidor? Are people like me wasting time and money?

I don't believe in cigar myth and hype. I have been bashing those involved in such practices for decades now. As someone (if hell bent on making money from my humidor business) posed to make a profit from the cigar industry, am I being a proponent of myth or involved in a practice I could prove? 

Regarding theories about the care in making Cuban cigars; smoking is subjective for the two subjects, the cigar, the smoker. An acclimatized box at matched EMC 'proves' the carelessness put into our products. Regarless of the percentages, that cannot be proved, a vitola should have a small standard deviation. With the maximum deviation being 40% or more.... the proof is in the weights of the cigars. You cannot follow a recipe for a given vessel, a vitola, and have these large standard deviations and at the same time be true to a recipe.

While the recipe may be fact, the adherence to it from a QA/QC basis is a myth.

-Piggy

[StogieSteve23]

Thank you everyone.  This is why I love this forum.  You ask a simple question and you get excellent, in depth answers/explanations.