Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Scale question O.T.
james d runchey
We have a small scale to weigh things in the kitchen, as well as things to mail. My wife thinks it is a little off, and I'm wondering how I can test it. What would weigh exactly one pound? Must be something in the house weighing an exact amount to test it. I want to sell some items on Ebay. Thanks
Re: Scale question O.T.
John Foster
Tough question. A lot of retail product is not exactly the same weight as the label says. I would take an object (maybe your favorite paperweight) to a friendly retailer get them to weigh it on their " legal for trade" scale , then mark the weight on the bottom of the object with a felt tipped marker. You will then always have a calibration standard to work from.
Re: Scale question O.T.
jergle
Assuming you can tare the weight of the container (and you have something to measure with), 453.6 mL of water or 15.34 fluid ounces of water weighs one pound.
Re: Scale question O.T.
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
Weigh a thin medium steel bowl. Now open a 1 pound box of pasta and pour it in the bowl. Subtract the bowl weight from the second number to get the scale's accuracy for 1 pound.
Easier if the scale has a "0" function so you weigh the bowl, hit 0 and add the pasta
Coins
Jack Dover
You can find weights here. https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coin-and-medal-programs/coin-specifications.
I would recommend using ten or twenty coins to average out minor weight discrepancies.
Re: Coins
Barry Irby
A nickel weighs 5 grams. (The origin of the Nickle Bag. I knew someone who smoked a little weed and he was all about it.)
Calibration weights
John K Jordan
It might be good to get some weights. I have both electronic and mechanical triple beam balance laboratory scales here and keep calibration weights for checking. You can search Amazon for calibration weights. Even cheap weights will be quite close.
In general it's important to use weights that are in the range of what you would like to weight. For example, if you want to weigh something several kilograms don't just check with a 10 gram weight. I keep a variety of weights since I have electronic scales from a tiny one that maxes out at 10 grams and a livestock scale that will weigh hundreds of kilograms.
If you just want a sanity check on your scale put a bag of sugar on it. For more accurate checking you can use water. For an electronic weight press the Tare button to zero the scale with a suitable container, then measure and add water. A pint is about a pound, or use a calculator:
https://www.inchcalculator.com/water-weight-calculator/
JKJ
Agree
Wiley Horne
I bought a set from Amazon. Turned out, my scale checked on the money against the weights.
You can select the weight range that’s right for you from the many offerings:
Wiley
Re: Scale question O.T.
Mark Nowicki
One litre of water weighs 1000 grams.
I have no clue what is in Farenheit.
Two problems with a liquid standard
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
Using a liquid just exchanges one problem for another. How are you going to accurately measure volume? And, density depends on temperature.
Measuring a quantity of unworn coins is going to provide a standard of at least 1% accuracy, which may be better than an inexpensive scale is capable of achieving.
Re: Scale question O.T.
Ralph Lipeles
Weigh something that is a couple of pounds and have the post office also weight it. They are usually friendly public service people and I am confident that they will help you.
Yep...
John in NM
That is what I was thinking too, along with the measuring problems that come from surface tension....
What I would do is to find someone who reloads and have them measure any suitable object in grains and convert to either grams or oz (easily done). Reloaders are justifiably fussy about weight measurements! 
How about a trip to the deli?
John in NM
Get yourself a pound of pastrami, weigh it when you get home, then have lunch.
Hopefully there will be some doubt in the results and you can repeat the experiment several times before she catches on!
Re: Two problems with a liquid standard
John K Jordan
>>>Using a liquid just exchanges one problem for another. How are you going to accurately measure volume? And, density depends on temperature.
That depends on whether you want to verify the scale is close enough for the intended purpose or if you need more accuracy. If more accuracy, first define the problem, accurate, to 1%, .01%, to .000001%.
We had an environmentally protected scale at the lab where I worked. It probably cost $10,000. Maybe that would be good enough for mail and ebay.
JKJ
^^^THIS^^^
kneale brownson