[Other] Disc Weight Issues

[Ted Bratton]

Discs are hygroscopic so the weight changes. Buy a $7 pocket gram scale off amazon and buy in person if possible. If not, buy from Marshall Street and ask them to weigh them for you.

 

[nolangherity]

oh man I was just gonna say we haven't talked about overweight discs for a while!

 

[DannyThunders]

Unless you play in the Japan Open, where they inspect and weight every disc in your bag for safety.

But that's a given, has anyone heard of them doing it in the USA??

 

[elmexdela]

had an aviar marked at 175 and it was really 180g. otherwise everything has been within like 3g. i throw mainly discraft, innova, discmania and lat 64. there is bound to be some discrepancies on weight. luckily i could nerd out at gggt and bring my scale. but ill take the manufacturers word for it. i havent gotten a disc yet where i noticed a huge difference and have been pissed. it is what it is. as long as i dont buy a 175g and scale it to 150 class i can stand a few grams of difference.

 

[Kodachrome]

had an aviar marked at 175 and it was really 180g. otherwise everything has been within like 3g. i throw mainly discraft, innova, discmania and lat 64. there is bound to be some discrepancies on weight. luckily i could nerd out at gggt and bring my scale. but ill take the manufacturers word for it. i havent gotten a disc yet where i noticed a huge difference and have been pissed. it is what it is. as long as i dont buy a 175g and scale it to 150 class i can stand a few grams of difference.

there is a scale on the display case by the register where you walk in - you can change it to oz. or grams, it is usually set to oz. so i always change it back for them when i'm done - i always just ask if i may use it when i'm there and they have no problem with it.

 

[Savage Henry]

I buy from a reputable dealer that weighs the disc for me. I haven't seen a big difference between what ive been sold and what is labeled with vibram, mvp and scandinavia. But coke and pepsi are all over the place.

 

[Flick Maniac]

"coke and pepsi..." that's just priceless

 

[DSmith]

Just a guess but maybe they do a run of discs molded at xxx grams. Pull that batch off and mark them the weight the run is supposed to be. I doubt they sit there and weigh and mark each disc. They probably pull off a few off each batch to qq but I bet that's it.

 

[mattc]

Which company do you think does the best job of accurately marking the weight?

Who's the worst?

I have found that Lat64 is perfect or rounded up a .5
Innova is the worst.

 

[elmexdela]

there is a scale on the display case by the register where you walk in - you can change it to oz. or grams, it is usually set to oz. so i always change it back for them when i'm done - i always just ask if i may use it when i'm there and they have no problem with it.

i figured they had one. thanks!

 

[garublador]

Should the PDGA, as the governing body, start leveling fines against manufacturer's that can't keep within guidelines?

Based on how the rule is written now, if they're selling illegal discs, then yes. However, there would need to be a study to show what kind of range of weights you could see depending on the atmospheric conditions for every different blend of plastic. Then they'd have to review the maximum weight rule to take that range into account. I'm sure the cost of that study and the extra work needed to enforce the rule would would drive fees up, so it would cost everyone, too.

If the putter weight thing is that big of a difference then it's probably best to get to know each of your discs individually and take their flight patterns into account. My guess is that it will be a long time, if it ever happens, before we get the type of consistency you're asking for.

 

[garublador]

i understand discs weighing in a few grams overweight, as dave dunipace has said on numerous instances on his pdga thread that discs absorb water over time. now how much they actually absorb is another story. another thing to consider is the conditions in the factory, and the scales they're using. in college i worked as a quantatative chemistry lab assistant for 4 years, and i was responsible for keeping all of the scales calibrated. i'm sure however they're scaled in the factory is far from ideal conditions. i've always been curious about discs that come in underweight. i had a few wizards marked 175 and were really like 168. i just figured they got mixed in with a bunch that had been scaled to max weight and were just labeled as such without being measured.

I've done some work gathering statistical data with weighing devices (though not with the precision that you have) and I have a whole different view of what it means to "know" the weight of something. It's not nearly as cut and dry as many people think, especially on the scale we're talking about with discs.

I've come to a similar conclusion as you. The ones that are way off are probably just mistakes. The rest can be attributed to the normal type of error you'd see with the measurement devices and conditions they're in and the fact that the discs can be holding different amounts of water at any given time.

 

[bhadella]

At the end of one of our tournaments we had a $5000 hole in one challenge where you had to weigh in your disc to insure it was PDGA legal. The first two discs I grabbed for it (a FLX Drone, Champ Roc3) were both overweight. This is probably the only time one of my discs will be weighed in any form of competition.

 

[tomte]

I never really checked discs weights. But I guess Lat64, DD and Westside take this issue a bit more serious since they stamp the disc weight into the disc. Discs beeing hygroscopic seems more like a cheap excuse to me, don't think that the discs plastic is able to hold/take up that much water.

It bothers me more that I can't even find max weight (180g) opto Mace and Pain and vip Warships out there anywhere. Guess I have to drive north and visit the factory...

And I hate it if retailers give you a weight range instead of a precise number...

 

[DannyThunders]

i have 4 Kc pro aviars total all penned 175, all of them weigh around 172. I don't know if this is because Innova has recognized this problem and decided to make discs lighter but pen them higher to make the max weight junkies feel good, or if they're just that inconsistent with their production. I'm leaning towards the latter.







All this aside Innova is my favorite brand to throw, and i don't see that changing regardless of these issues.

 

[Questatement]

3 grams is half a sheet of notebook paper which, if translated to plastic, is probably a few extra large drip-drops. I'm guessing it's tough to consistently hit max weight without going over or under.

 

[DannyThunders]

3 grams is half a sheet of notebook paper which, if translated to plastic, is probably a few extra large drip-drops. I'm guessing it's tough to consistently hit max weight without going over or under.

But even stated like this, it sounds like a manufacturing problem, not a player/customer problem.

Perhaps the PDGA should add a tolerance to the maximum weight per mold, like +4 or so grams (In reality if you're hit by a disc it's not going to make much difference if it's 175 or 179, you're gonna be hurt). This would help to eliminate the issue of overweight discs without affecting the manufacturing process.

 

[JeremyKShort]

well, i will say that i haven't had a bunk MVP disc weight yet. i haven't bought a ton of their stuff, though. all within 1 gram.

my wizards have been as far as 4 grams off before. usually they are 1, sometimes 2. gateway lives up to their consistently inconsistent reputation, but i still love them.

those are the only two companies i have weighed so i can't comment on innova, etc.

The way that MVP adds the weight to their discs will tend to make their runs much more consistent, so it's probably less of a hassle to mark the weights.

 

[rocthecourse]

Easiest solution to this "problem" is for manufactures to stop writing the weight on their discs.

 

[dysmike]

Disc Nation, Disc Golf Center, Marshall Street, and Community Discs all weigh their discs individually. I'm sure there's more stores that do, where are you shopping?

This, and never have to worry about it again.