Anybody have any suggestions on weighing their finished product for a rookie? I.E., what kind of scale to use & where to buy? Hang from the ceiling or weigh on the floor, etc. Thanks in advance....

Go to your local fishing tackle store and get a spring balance. These have a ring at the top for hanging on a hook (or your finger) and another on the bottom to attach to your model.
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Merlin

good idea but I use the digital fish scale $25.00 at meijers or Walmart gives accurate readings to the ounce!!!

Goto a local package store one that ships your packages etc for you. most places will be happy to weigh it for you free of charge and their scales are pretty accurate. its always a blast as they will be interested in it and if you come by with your projects now and again they will be waiting to see what you bring next.

Joe

I asked the same question about a year ago. The conclusion was that no scale is really accurate except postage scales.

I bought a digital fish scale for about $30 and it read 7 lbs with a known 10 lb weight for example.

It WAS reproduceable, and I guess with weights like 1, 3, 5, 7, and 20 you could plot points and then use it for accurate weighing.

So, whatever scale you get, get something with a known weight about the same weight as your plane and work from there.

I use a "Royal digital postage scale" The (RC40) model.
It is very accurate, I have checked it with calibrated scale weights and the post office scales.
It is good up to 40 lbs.
You can find them on ebay or Office Max, Staples etc.
I got it because of someone here on RCU who was using it and liked it.

Another option is a refrigerant charging scale, a lot more expensive but very handy and can be found used.

Ebay has several available from different vendors. Search "digital scales"

Not an ebay fan myself, but it does work for hard to find items.

Go here for a good quality scale for the price.

http://www.oldwillknott.com/6001tblu.html

about 50 bucks and scales up to 13.5 lbs and as low as 1 gram

There are cheaper scales out there but for quality measurements this one works great.

Now if your into measuring epoxies for the right mix you will have to step up to more expensive units or a triple beam scale.

My scale came from Wal-Mart for less than $10 and is a Richard Simmons Deal-a-meal food scale...I fly sanctioned combat and our planes are weighed proir to the contests...Richard Simmons hasen't let me down, and my planes are within .5 ounce on the electronic scales used at the contests.

I agree.

Here's mine: http://www.oldwillknott.com/6001blk.html

I got mine from him also, good to deal with.

This is mine 40 lbs.
http://www.oldwillknott.com/royrc40.html

Office Max has pretty good scales. Mine only goes to ten pounds and it is accurate to two tenths of an ounce. I think it was about $70, but that was years ago. They must be cheaper and better by now.
My new T28 weighs 7lbs 8.4 oz. Darn, went .4 over !

Whirley Bird is the only other person I've seen that has mentioned deli scales. I have a set of Toledo meat market scales, the kind that has the graduated price cylinder in it. It has prices from 1962 so $1.20/lb is as high as the prices go...

But it weighs 24 lbs in 1oz increments, has a nice large platform to hold lots of stuff, and best of all it's accurate. Even today if I buy something from the store that's weighed on digital scales I can throw it up there and it's right on.

And as long as my planes only cost $1.20/lb, I feel better. But I don't know where you could get a set, I got these from a buddies dad's storage building that had stuff left over from when he had a market store.

I do the same as fryfly

An excellent source for scales at good prices is www.myweigh.com/ From that site I went to SaveOnScales by a link and bought a model 3001 digital scale that has a 6.6lb. capacity and reads to 0.1 oz. for $36 plus shipping.

TECHNICALLY these things are more like $200/lb give or take $25/lb

My scale from Will Knott works flawlessly so far.

see previous post for link

Wayne

I love my Ohaus triple beam... even if it only weighs up to 3,610 grams(7+ LBS) at a 1/10 gram accuracy(dead on as measured by my pharmaceutical weights). I only care about weighing/controlling what goes into the plane, measuring out epoxy portions (5/1 west systems) and grading each piece of a bulk balsa orders. After the plane is built... I really don't care what the sum is as long as all the individual parts target weights are met. The only planes I ever weigh as a whole are my pylon racers.

go here:

http://www.scaletron.com/jaidoscales/personalscales.htm

Scroll down, and near the bottom of the page, they have hanging scales. I got one. Tells time, and will even tell the tempurature!!

They have tohers too, like 'lab scales' and counting scales... so you know exactly how many bolts you have in that box...