I weigh the beans and weigh the water in. every time.
I don't aim for to-the-gram accuracy though, that was a coincidence today and in this picture. I'm usually a little sloppier and as long as it's within a few grams of my target I don't care.
Discussion
I got a scale and chemex a while back and did that for a bit, but ultimately got lazy and just eyeballed it. Today we're using a crappy machine since it's easy and I can brew more volume and keep it hot. The chemex and scale are still around though
Yea I get it. I have a couple of old automatic percolator style pots that I use sometimes when I just want a bunch of coffee, easily and kept hot for a while.
I've been thinking of getting a crappy machine like you're describing for those "lazy volume days" - which are getting more frequent lately for some reason...