I didn't know where to put this. It's not a rocket, but I built it for rocketry and I figured if I wanted one, someone else probably did too. So anyway, here's my build thread on the balance beam scale I built. I actually went to Home Depot and spent about $5.50 on this. I bought the chain to hang the pans on and a two pack of bar magnets for the dampener.
The attached picture is the complete scale. The scale turned out even better then I had hoped. I don't have calibrated weights yet, guess I'll have to spend some money on those too. You can see the dime sized piece of paper on the right pan. That actually caused a 1/2 mark deflection in the pointer when it was added.
Most of the scale is made of pine I had laying around. The pans are the bottoms of 1 lb. coffee cans. I bought three feet of the chain that holds them. The aluminum is from the side channel of a shower door frame. There is a 1/2" by 1/8" piece of steel about 1.5" long that is used as the piviot point.
On the left side is a large nut attached. This is a counter weight to the aluminum piece that was attached to the right side of the beam as part of the dampener.
The attached picture is the complete scale. The scale turned out even better then I had hoped. I don't have calibrated weights yet, guess I'll have to spend some money on those too. You can see the dime sized piece of paper on the right pan. That actually caused a 1/2 mark deflection in the pointer when it was added.
Most of the scale is made of pine I had laying around. The pans are the bottoms of 1 lb. coffee cans. I bought three feet of the chain that holds them. The aluminum is from the side channel of a shower door frame. There is a 1/2" by 1/8" piece of steel about 1.5" long that is used as the piviot point.
On the left side is a large nut attached. This is a counter weight to the aluminum piece that was attached to the right side of the beam as part of the dampener.
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