Scale needle pointer

[500Stroker]

I would like to add a needle pointer to my Ohaus mechanical scale. I have searched the forum and found nothing.
Anyone have some tips.
Thanks

 

[hoz53]

I would like to add a needle pointer to my Ohaus mechanical scale. I have searched the forum and found nothing.
Anyone have some tips.
Thanks

if you search for scale tuning here there have been threads discussing this. If youre scale has magnetic dampening it would probably be best to use something non magnetic like a copper or aluminum wire. make sure when you add the pointer to balance the beam by adding weight in the chamber on the scale pan hanger.

 

[pikespeakgoat]

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/tuning-a-balance-beam.3923960/page-2

 

[JohnKielly]

I did it the other way round & fitted a fine edge to the scale upright. It's high tech. I took one of those Sierra labels that comes in every bullet box & cut a suitably dimensioned L shape out of it, the upright on one side of the peel off backing & the extended cross piece on the other. The by peeling off the backing on the long leg, I positioned it so the edge of the short leg was square with the upright over the centre of the centre line graduation.

It gives exactly the same outcome & doesn't change the balance of the scale arm.

 

[IPSCNUT]

I did it the other way round & fitted a fine edge to the scale upright. It's high tech. I took one of those Sierra labels that comes in every bullet box & cut a suitably dimensioned L shape out of it, the upright on one side of the peel off backing & the extended cross piece on the other. The by peeling off the backing on the long leg, I positioned it so the edge of the short leg was square with the upright over the centre of the centre line graduation.

It gives exactly the same outcome & doesn't change the balance of the scale arm.

Damn, my head hurts. Could we get a picture please!!!!!!!

 

[dickn52]

Speaking of picture. Get a USB autofocus camera and hopefully an iPad or tablet with USB connector. Then watch on the screen instead of bending over every time. My computer is in my garage so I just go USB camera to USB in and turn on the camera function. Forgot. You aim the camera at the pointer on the scale obviously.

 

[JohnKielly]

Here it is.

 

[hoz53]

I did it the other way round & fitted a fine edge to the scale upright. It's high tech. I took one of those Sierra labels that comes in every bullet box & cut a suitably dimensioned L shape out of it, the upright on one side of the peel off backing & the extended cross piece on the other. The by peeling off the backing on the long leg, I positioned it so the edge of the short leg was square with the upright over the centre of the centre line graduation.

It gives exactly the same outcome & doesn't change the balance of the scale arm.

I hadnt thought of doing it that way thanks

 

[DHuffman]

Here it is.

Nice! Sure seems a lot simpler than somehow attaching a non magnetic pointer to the beam then re balancing the pan.

 

[JohnKielly]

Nice! Sure seems a lot simpler than somehow attaching a non magnetic pointer to the beam then re balancing the pan.

That's why I came up with that.

Some time earlier, the knob on the plastic screw that holds the roller weight adjuster in place broke off & I replaced it with hot glue. It was a real pain rebalancing the beam - nah, I won't go into detail.

 

[BillPa]

My wife make gaudy look'n fish'n lures or what she calls it jewelry. In her collection of stuff she has some sort of a chromed plastic wire I use for scale pointers.

http://tinypic.com/m/jj8zrq/3

Bill

 

[sfldiver]

I did it the other way round & fitted a fine edge to the scale upright. It's high tech. I took one of those Sierra labels that comes in every bullet box & cut a suitably dimensioned L shape out of it, the upright on one side of the peel off backing & the extended cross piece on the other. The by peeling off the backing on the long leg, I positioned it so the edge of the short leg was square with the upright over the centre of the centre line graduation.

It gives exactly the same outcome & doesn't change the balance of the scale arm.

I've been doing something similar for a while now; however, I just cut one of those yellow 3M Post-It squares I had in my office. The light adhesive sticks right on and works pretty good.

 

[rogn]

Iused a piece of monel wire and glued it to the groove in the beam with a reinforced super glue(Q-bond). Then I cut a piece of wire slightly longer than the "pointer piece and trimmed it to achieve balance then put the piece of wire in the ballast chamber of the pan. Really pretty easy and little time taken.

 

[gambleone]

I gotta try something,,, I'm tired of squinting.

 

[centershot]

I put a strand from a stainless steel brush on the end of the pointer with super glue. I then opened up the tray under the powder pan and took out a pellet or so to be able to zero the scale. The strand goes right through the scale and it is very easy to see the zero reading.

 

[BillPa]

I gotta try something,,, I'm tired of squinting.

My solution using my old four eyes.....
A like new used Alcatel cell (Ebay), cell tripod mount(Ebay) and a piece of 1/4-20 threaded rod.

The link I posted earlier showing the scale pointer was shot using that cell / setup.

Bill

 

[IPSCNUT]

Here it is.

Thanks John. Now I see what you are talking about. Very clever. Thanks for the tip.

 

[JohnKielly]

BTW you might have noticed that the paper looks a bit creased. You can tweak it so it j-u-s-t misses touching the beam & cut out parallax error.