Homemade scale... OUT OF LEGO!!

[moeburn]

I recently bought a quarter ounce from a friend, but it was looking a little light, so I wanted to weigh it to be sure, but I didn't own an electronic scale, or any scale for that matter. What's a poor boy to do?

Make a balancing scale! But what could I make it out of? Wood? Metal? Nothing I make would be perfectly symmetrical... there would always be tiny flaws... unless I use... LEGO!

What do I use for the weights? Coins! Wikipedia has a concisive list of Canadian and American coins, and how much they weighed depending on what year they were produced.

The weed
This is a photo of all the weed compared to a bic lighter.

Step 1
You see the little bubble balance in the middle? You will need one of those. For your scale to be accurate every time, you have to place the scale on a level surface every time. If this isnt possible, just make sure you never move your scale around, or your results might be different.

First, I weighed a ziplock bag, trying different combinations of coins, and found that the bag weighed exactly the same as a 2.5g coin.

Step 2
Then, I weighed the bag with the weed in it. The bag weighed a little more than 3 coins that weighed 9.5g

Therefore, 9g-2.5g = 7g. Looks to me like its a quarter ounce!

Build it! Step 1
First, build a base tall enough to support the scales. I reccomend one shorter than mine. You'll find that the scale tends to flip around in circles when it is too tall.

Build it! Step 2
Then, you'll need 3 things:
-A wide beam (the wider, the more accurate the scale), the white thing at the top of the picture.
-A fulcrum, the black thing at the bottom of the picture. Try and find a lego piece with as little friction as possible, one that fits loosely. You might even want to oil it, but I didnt need to with mine.
-Two weighing pans, the purple things on the left and right. Mine are fairly basic, they're just equal sized squares of paper folded into a bowl. You might want to use aluminum foil and make a shape easier to work with, just make sure that both basins are exactly the same size.

To attach the pans to the beam, I used 4 tiny lego pieces, two on the far end of each side of the beam. Then I taped a piece of thread inbetween these two tiny pieces to hang the pans from. Both pans must be of identical distance from the center of the beam! Even a centimeter off will fuck up your scale.

Attach everything together, and you're done building your own lego scale!

Of course, this isn't a highly accurate scale. You're not going to be measuring out tenths of a gram with a great degree of accuracy. But I've found this scale to be pretty reliable, even when weighing tiny amounts of things.

If you dont want to use coins, remember that 1/4 teaspoon of regular ol' sugar = 1 gram!

moeburn Reviewed by moeburn on 01-10-2007. Homemade scale... OUT OF LEGO!! I recently bought a quarter ounce from a friend, but it was looking a little light, so I wanted to weigh it to be sure, but I didn't own an electronic scale, or any scale for that matter. What's a poor boy to do? Make a balancing scale! But what could I make it out of? Wood? Metal? Nothing I make would be perfectly symmetrical... there would always be tiny flaws... unless I use... LEGO! What do I use for the weights? Coins! Wikipedia has a concisive list of Canadian and American Rating: 5

[Pipe Dreams]

9- 2.5 is 6.5 Go get your half gram fool.

[orangeman]

Eh. Those pictures doesn't link to what I think they should. The second one links to some gay poster.

[moeburn]

Eh. Those pictures doesn't link to what I think they should. The second one links to some gay poster.

http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2hi3.jpg

Sorry, I meant 9.5g-2.5g=7g. I didn't get ripped a half gram.

[konqrr]

A plastic ruler and a prism work too...

[moeburn]

Holy fuck that poster IS gay!!

Sorry, I copied the tags wrong, I am now linking to someone else's image. Mods please change if you can, to this:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Build 1:

Build 2:

[orangeman]

Now you attached the thumbnails instead of the real thing lol. Either that or those pictures are smaaaall.

[Pipe Dreams]

lol that shit is pretty tight though.

[Jack the Tripper]

I'm speechless.

[moeburn]

Now you attached the thumbnails instead of the real thing lol. Either that or those pictures are smaaaall.

SHITFUCKINGHELLDAMNIT

i'm bad at this whole "imageshack" thing.

PICTURES ARE HERE

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Build 1:

Build 2: