Originally Posted by
hills
Balance might be the key with a platform scale. It's just guesswork, but i think the load cell would be placed dead center of the platform.
Try to imagine a 4 foot by 8 foot platform. Place an empty bucket dead center ... and you might get a good reading. Place it the very end of the long end of the scale ... and it might not weigh up at all.
It would be a similar thing when loading the platform. It needs to be loaded either dead center -or- have the weight distributed evenly across the whole surface.
Anyway ... i've noticed that my shop scale reads different from the ones at the yards. I'm weighing up my 12" x 12" boxes on a 12" x 12" postal scale. Everything is centered and balanced. They usually read a few pounds heavier at the yard. It might be because the scale guys don't think to center the load on their scale ? IDK ... it could be that my scale is off too. Been thinking about ordering up a warehouse scale.
While wrestling in college it was well known that a scale weighs heaviest in the center so it was common during weigh ins to stand towards the back of the platform and put your weight on your heels. It is assumed that if they are not centering the load, your scale might be light. Jamming scales with pennies was also common. Today on digital scales a wrestler can challenge a scale by reweighing on every scale available for the competition. In this example the scales can vary by several pounds even though they are all certified.
Since my last post I have been experimenting and found that depending on the surface the scale is on can affect the weight. Body weight was heaviest on concrete, followed by hard wood floor, linoleum, and lastly carpet. The difference was 4 lbs. from the heaviest to the lightest. Once again two different scales were used with a variety of outcomes.
Conclusion: If your yards weighs non ferrous on a scale sitting on a rubber shop mat, they are cheating the customer.
mx842 
Bookmarks