NetHeads, WW's revelation that there was such a thing as a 400 pound "freight" scale got me looking. I'd been looking for inexpensive scales with more than a 300 pound range for months, but searches turned up thousands UNDER 300, which are hard to sort through. I found the jewel below at Office Max for $140 (see link below), which is a whole lot less than the thousand bucks I was used to seeing for "real" scales. This thing looks perfect for engine and airplane weight and CG purposes. So far, it looks to be correct, is and is 100% repeatable (after weighing myself 30 times over a period of an hour). One neat thing about it is that unlike my electronic bathroom scales, it never "locks on" to a weight. It'll sit here all day and let you put things on and take them off, always returning to zero.
I thought I'd caught them drifting upward a half a pound, but then realized I'd been drinking a large glass of ice tea for the last hour. A quick little trip and they were right back on again! This will work great for weighing the airplane, where you have to lower the wheel down onto it and then take the reading a minute or two later. It got to be a real firedrill trying to do that with my 300 pound bathroom scales, because they would lock on in about a second (even if you didn't have ALL of the weight on it yet) and not change until you removed the weight and put it back on again, not to mention that those scales don't have the range required now, especially after the wings are added. Also, the top is steel, so it doesn't flex under the point load of a tire. You can stand on one corner and it's still dead accurate. I'll check them against some calibrated scales at work and I'll be in business, but so far, I'm thoroughly pleased with them. I'll bring them to the next Gathering (if I don't forget), and we can have a weight and CG marathon. Thanks a lot, William! http://www.bizrate.com/buy/noncat_prod_details__cat_id--10,mid--371,md5id--710938ac80799ebaa05f1fb065b2bc5c,keyword--mailing%20or%20postal%20scale.html Plenum number two is finished and I'm wiring up the engine over the next few days... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL N56ML "at" hiwaay.net see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford
