I’m looking for a postal or kitchen scale that accurately weighs (to within, say, a half oz.) items as light as our HO scale rolling stock and costs less than $40 or so. Is a digital or mechanical scale any more accurate than the other?
What’s been your experience with them? Recommendations, reliable brands and sources for purchase other than Amazon appreciated.
Thanks!
I bought a Dymo M5. It has Tare, selectable kg/lb and a hold. I’ve been using it for about 6 or 7 years and has been very reliable. It has a relatively large weighing area, 5½” x 6”.
It will measure from 0.1 ounces to 5 pounds.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I bought a digital Sunbeam brand kitchen scale for less than $10.00 al WalMart about ten years ago. It weighs 0 to 32 ounces in 1/4 ounce increments.
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This is plenty good enough for weighting train cars.
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-Kevin
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I am pleased with the Salter digital scale presumably meant for kitchen purposes. If I was in a scale larger than HO I’d probably want something physically larger and more robust. Probably got it at Target or WalMart.
Dave Nelson
Harbor freight, coupons on line. Doubles as my postal scale up to 11 pounds.
https://www.harborfreight.com/digital-scale-95364.html
Good enough for model railroading, mixing rocket fuel, maybe not.
If you’re price conscious, it’s hard to beat waht the Chinese have to offer. I’ve seen a variety of digi-scales from them that weigh a max of between 500g and 3 kg, with accuracies from 0.1 to 0.01g and all cost in the $10 range. I picked up a 500 gram capacity scale with an accuracy of about 0.01g for $12.
Often, the scale table or platform is too short for model railroaders, but a few quick slices on some black foamcore and you can glue up a platform that you can zero out.
I bought a digital postal scale.
It weighs from .1 oz all the way up to 20.0 lbs.
It can run off of a single 9V battery, or a wall wart plug.
It does all my train stuff, and any “bay” shipping needs.
A few years ago I was shopping local and found one at Amazon for about ten dollars.
Many products they sell show the specs and reviews. Two days I had it. No driving all around looking in stores.
Rich
I use the postal scale, wife has one for her business. I use it for Ebay selling, and car weight. It’s give a digital reading, in decimals.
Mike.
Ricky,
What is a wall wart plug? Where did you buy yours?
Wall Wart’s is the name for the little transformers that plug into the wall and then plug into your phone charger, NCE power cab, computer or what ever. They come in varying voltages
Ah! Being blissfully content without - and unemcumbered by - such electronic devices, a wall wart would be of no use to me. [:D]
Thanks for the education!
I bought a 5 lb digital postal scale on Amazon several years ago for $16. I looked it up and the same one is not available. There are lots to choose from. Suggest read the reviews (remember a 3 star average means lots of bad opinions), look at the features and you won’t go wrong.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=postal+scale
EDIT: I take it back, this one looks like it.
I would guess that one with a very high weight capacity might be less accurate or precise at relatively low weights.
Wall wart, as answered, is a plug in transformer. (Mine is 9V, just like the battery.)
I got it from the same “bay” that I occasionally sell stuff on. (Just waited for one nobody else seemed to be after, and got it cheap.)
I use a Pelouze Dymo Model K5 postal scale. It has a 4.5" x 4" platform and is a mechanical radial dial type. It measures in .5 oz increments up to 5 lbs. It’s perfect for all HO scale weight measurements. I’ve had mine for several years and it still works perfectly. The current model is available from Amazon, for one, for $50. Worth it, in my opinion, for its longevity.
What I use, I have had it for a number of years. Weighs in ounces & 10ths, pounds & ounces + 10ths , & grams
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Glass-Digital-Kitchen-Scale/49883592
This is the one I got for free from Stamps dot com when I signed up for an account over ten years ago. It still works. It’s great for shipping small items like locomotives or rolling stock. It automatically adjusts the tare every time you turn it on so you can add a larger platform if you need too. Uses a 9 volt battery. Max weight is 5 lbs. in 0.1 oz. increments. Not suitable for very light items like gemstones but works for model railroad stuff.
All,
Thanks to everyone for your leads and recommendations. I’m going scale hunting this weekend.
Call me cheap, but I use an older type kitchen scale. I don’t recall the brand but it came with a bowl. It’s perfect for calculating the weights of cars. I don’t get the rationale for running cars under NMRA weight standards.
Ditto on BigDaddy’s Harbor Freight suggestion or try Walmart in the kitchenware aisles. The Harbor Freight scale shown is a duplicate of other brands. I use mine frequently when building or rebuilding rolling stock kits. If you are substituting metal wheels for the cheesy plastic ones, weight all materials (with the metal wheels) unassembled first and get a true initial weight, then calculate the NMRA suggested weight using the 1/2 Oz times the linear measure of the car plus the 1 Oz to get the optimal revised NMRA weight.
I use 1 oz, 1/2 oz and 1/4 oz fish line weights (or roofing lead fixtures cut and flattened into sheets) from Home Depot, which can be cut in to smaller amounts as needed. I always paint the weights if they are leaded for safety.
The inexpensive scales do the job well.
Cedarwoodron
