I teach a High School Tech Design class where the students have built two Electrathon cars. We'd like to be able to accurately weigh them in our lab so that we can measure the effects of various modifications to reduce mass. Can anyone recommend a method or piece of equipment that would give us that capability without breaking the budget?
Kyle Keenan said
Oct 28, 2012
On the real cars we use scales, but those range from $1000-$25k for a set.
Here's a quick budget scale system:
Buy 3 bathroom scales (or 4 if your car is 4-wheeled)
Stack some wood so they are even in height with the scales. Set them behind all of the scales, that way you can roll the car on and off the scales after making various changes, etc.
I'd suggest labeling the scales so they always go back into the same positions on the car for consistency.
I teach a High School Tech Design class where the students have built two Electrathon cars. We'd like to be able to accurately weigh them in our lab so that we can measure the effects of various modifications to reduce mass. Can anyone recommend a method or piece of equipment that would give us that capability without breaking the budget?
Here's a quick budget scale system:
Buy 3 bathroom scales (or 4 if your car is 4-wheeled)
Stack some wood so they are even in height with the scales. Set them behind all of the scales, that way you can roll the car on and off the scales after making various changes, etc.
I'd suggest labeling the scales so they always go back into the same positions on the car for consistency.