Official Luthiers Forum!

What type of scales are you using to weight tops and component pieces (for those of you who are weighing these things)? Any recommendations?

Thanks, Peter Z

I have a Taylor that was purchased at Walmart. Less than $20.00 IIRC. Goes from 1 gram to about 2.5 kilos.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I use an "Ohaus" triple beam balance. It's a lot fussier to use than a digital, but it never needs to be calibration tested. Range is zero to 2.610 Kg. with two 1Kg. counterweights.

I second the Bed, Bath, and Beyond recommendation. We got a 50 or so dollar Cuisnart with a removable digital read-out. Hang the read-out off of the edge of a table and you can accurately see the mass of a wide top plate, etc. No more trying to catch a glimpse of obscured numbers on scales. I checked this scales calibration against a good triple beam balance and found it accurate within a gram at about 200 grams. Good enough for me.

Peter

FYI, I'm sure that is a great scale and plenty accurate for this type work. I work with scales at work for batching systems and automated truck loading systems. A month or so ago I started a project where 1/10 gram accuracy was requested. After some research, I found most load cells are accurate to no more than 5,000 divisions of resolution. There are some 10,000 division load cells available but they aren't common. Above that, it appears you are looking at lab grade equipment that must be kept/used in a lab with a controlled environment.

Note that 10 lb is about 4,536g......divide that by 0.1g accuracy and 45,360 divisions would be needed to obtain that accuracy. Not likely a load cell in a scale sold at BB&B has that kind of resolution (possibly no load cell has that kind of resolution). With that said, the display may increment in 1/10g increments but it doesn't mean it has that kind of accuracy.....that's very common.

Here is a test that will provide some indication of accuracy. Weigh the same sample 20 or 30 times and see how much variation there is in the weights. Do it again when the temperature is 10 degrees F different and compare. The inaccuracy is at least as large as the variation.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Ohaus Triple Beam Balance here also...no load cells

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Another Ohaus triple beam balance here also.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Digital kitchen scales, 0-5 kg X 1g, $15.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Ohaus triple beam. No electronics, no hidden calibrations. My wife made a cover to keep the dust off. My scale is nearly 40 years old, originally purchased for my free-flight model aircraft projects, long before I started building guitars.