Scale Tips??

Hey I have one of the little scales from Amazon to taper and have a few questions.

 

First, do you need to calibrate it periodically?  My instructions seem to be in Chinese ;( 

 

Second, do your measurements fluctuate?  Sometimes you think it is such and such, but i fyou wait  another 4 seconds it is something else.

 

Any scale tips??

I used a scale briefly.  The one I got says to calibrate 'often' whatever that means.  I calibrated it and used it for two weeks, then I was off the Xanax.  And I did not feel like I was updosing or anything.  I noticed the change in weight as well.  I think it does that because the micro dose weight may be midway between two measurements?  I have no idea.  But I would add or take away, just to be sure.  It helped me in those last two weeks.  I would not have been able to use a scale for a long period of time.  Too Frustrating!!

Well I don't have instructions for calibration.  Anybody have them?  This is for the little Pollux scale, although I'm sure the other brand on Amazon would have same instructions.  As I said, they are not written in English.

 

Thanks!

 

 

I wanted to know if this thread was still going on, I do have some tips for the scale. And it does fluctuate!!!

I calibrate it every time i weigh something out which is every evening.

 

I have notice large differences day to day if you dont calibrate it.

 

If you have the gemini or a scale like the gemini  you calibrate it by pushing the far right button and hold it until it says "CAL". Then you press it again kinda quick and then it will flash 10 or something like that. You put the 10 g weight on it. It will then flash 20 - place the other 10 g weight on top of the first 10 g weight. Let it flash until it says "PASS". Then you can take the weights off and use it.

 

I have a gemini and then i bought an extra one in case mine would break. I didnt want to be needing to weigh pills and not have one.

 

I make sure after I calibrate to see if the tray weighs the same amount as the last time I calibrated. Usually my tray weighs around 2602 - 2605 --Somewhere in that area.

 

There have been times when I have been weighing my pills and the scale has started to get off so I have had to calibrate it again. I also noticed with the second scale I bought that they totally weigh things differently. So who knows if these scales are even weighing anything accurately to begin with.

I use the 10g weight often to make sure it's weighing 10.000. If it's not I tare it, check with the weight again, and then weigh my dose.

I calibrate mine before every cutting session, which I do every two weeks. The fluctuation I noticed as well. I just try to get it as close as I can and keep a steady decline to avoid updosing accidentally. I go down .001g A day.

I calibrate my scale every time I’m about to cut, plus every time I am filling a capsule And press “tare” I put the empty capaule back again to make sure it shows “0.000”

I was going to order another scale as this one has been used every night for several years.

 

Are all the little ones the same... Pollux, Gemini, American Health, and there is some new brand on Amazon?

 

thx.  I have to reread the Chinese instructions to recalibrate.

I was going to order another scale as this one has been used every night for several years.

 

Are all the little ones the same... Pollux, Gemini, American Health, and there is some new brand on Amazon?

 

thx.  I have to reread the Chinese instructions to recalibrate.

 

I went to order another gemini from amazon but they were out so I got another brand. When I got it in the mail it turned out to be exactly the same as a gemini just a different name on it.

 

Like i said, the two dont weigh the meds the same. I thought about checking it again to make sure.

Yes what everyone else said. I also have two scales in case one breaks or in case I don't trust what one says.

 

I always weigh with my 10gr weight first and if it's off, I calibrate.

 

I also realized that as I'm filling my capsules, the capsule themselves sometimes weight completely different so that helped a lot, since I usually use one capsule to tare the weight and then I'm filling the other capsule with powder. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why things were so off.

 

I'll usually put the capsule on and tare, then fill and weigh another capsule with powder, then turn the scale off and add the capsule to the scale, and turn the scale on, which is still another way of taring it but I invite ably always get a different weight between those two so I then do it all again maybe 2 or 3 times until I feel like it's as close as I can get. When I was just dry cutting pills I did the same thing- Weight the pill then turn the scale off, test with my 10gr weight then do it all over again. I do this every night and it's very frustrating, usually takes about 10 or so mins. to get my nightly dose. When this is over, what will I do with all of my spare time?

 

These scales just aren't 100% accurate so we have to work with what we have. I try to find solace in the fact that my body is probably used to whatever inconsistency the scale provides. As long as we are steadily reducing and functioning that's a good thing. The scales are consistently inconsistent. Hope this helps.

I used to be an analytical chemist in a lab. I hated weighing things. 10 mg on a 4 or 5 place balance.... arghhh!

 

Leave your scale turned on. It needs to warm up for at least an hour if it was turned off.

 

Scales should be calibrated weekly. Scales often have an "internal" calibration check which should also be done daily. I don't use scales now for tapering, so I don't know how these ones from Amazon work.

 

Put your scale on a solid surface. In the lab they were on marble tables.

 

Make sure there are no drafts, no people walking by, nothing vibrating the area (like an air conditioning unit, heater, etc).

 

Any measurement is inherently variable. If you weight the same object over and over the weights will come out different. This is natural. If your scale only weighs to 0.001 g, then trying to weigh 0.001 g will have a lot of variability on it.

 

And yes, each capsule, each pill, each item you weigh will weigh a different amount. They are all manufactured individually. They are not clones of each other weighing the exact same amount. Pills for the most part will weigh plus or minus 10% of a target amount. So if a pill is supposed to weigh 0.100 grams, each individual pill can weigh anywhere from 0.090 grams to 0.110 grams. That's just an example. Your specific pills will have their own target weight.

Hope, great explanation thanks.

 

I am so sensitive to changes, it’s made weighing tough. Even a.001 reduction hit me hard at day 8.  So is it better to liquid titration from compounding pharmacy for accuracy?

I'm making up my own liquid, which I make pretty dilute so that any changes I make are easy. I use a graduated cylinder to measure my dose. I take 2 doses per day, and each dose is 50 mL. Each day I reduce each dose by 1 mL. So the next day each dose is 49 mL, etc. I like it better that way, instead of trying to figure out 0.01 mL on a syringe that I can barely see and since my hands shake so much (I've always been like that) it's hard to do.

 

Once I get down to each dose being 25 mL, I make my solution for dilute (fewer pills) and go back up to 50 mL per dose and start reducing again.

 

That was working pretty well. And then I started to rush it because I wanted to be done before I took a trip to Paris at the beginning of April. That didn't work out too well. So I updosed back to 0.5 mg and I'm starting my taper again.

Thx, Hope!

 

I am amazed when I read people can live their lives going off of this. I already suffer from chronic pain pre benzo, but nothing like now. I am cpuchbound 24-7 with every pain imaginable. If I try to use any muscle in my torso it spasms. And I’ve only made one cut. I am paralyzed where I am, but spasms keep worsening.

Sunflower67 are you on 0.25 mg synthroid? That would be 250 mcg (micrograms). That seems like a lot.

Hope,

 

Yes, that’s down from ,5 which I have been in for 11 years, pre benzo, no prob. I had to reduce it as it was revving me up a bit. But noticed I’ve gained weight since doing so.