Build this low-cost scale to verify powerplant weight. By Paul Lamar Ti ict sedi ae weighs Fart ofthe problem is the scarey and cos of seas large cnnigh weigh nt egies, The cot of a 650 pount capa feed or pat tom sae sot the question for Cort homebuilders, And even 630 pounds isnt encugh for aig block Chevy VS witha pettus nor 3 63-pound R86 nineeyliner nl ar decided to tome up with ve Gos deve and procure tha anybody can soto weigh an engine. “the locas ubiquions device tha will wrk is the common suege doer “ing conn shot $0, Thee arava Bin anos any harare so, and they fv more than enough stength fo tie ie weigh of sone he ges Gr ad snonotive gene pach You cold eve te spings your garage door and calibrate them for use. Mo peopl nln negie inn sifu engin hoi. The sping sci eno ete sping (ot the Wea of the engine a asng an ot Ap tape mca or yrds, St abet sted length, Ofcourse is idea wil work sso Ifyou hang the nei fom he alte the hang es Shown inthe phos Calibrating the Spring ‘The spring must be calibrated in advance by adding weights and recording the inereased length of the spring, This can be done using the spring to support a large trash can or 55-gallon drum and, incremental filling of it with 5 gallons of water at atime while recording the spring stretch, Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon, Remember to consider the ‘weight ofthe container. 26 rues The idea: A calibrated garage door spring becomes a scale to weigh aircraft engines. Scaled up, itcould weight an entire alcrat. ‘The weight of the water in a tempo- rary transferring container can be checked on a bathroom scale. Don’t for- get to subtract the weight of the trans- ferring container itself. Fifty-pound trash bags of sand or gravel could also be used. The empty ‘weight of the trash can or trash bag plat- form holding the weights should also be recorded ‘Once either of these spring-calibrating procedures is carefully done, you never need {do it again. You now have a device that ean act as spring scale anytime you need it. Getting Specific Homes-Hally Industries in Los Angles CA (phone 562/728-3311) manufactures many suitable garage door springs. The part number I used is C028. It may be hard to find in stock at your hardware store but can be special ordered. I ‘ordered one at Home Depot. ‘Two or more softer springs can be used instead. ‘The C028 spring is intially 28 inches long with no load and will stretch another 18 inches before the safety restraint bottoms out, The safe. ty restraint consists of heavy ‘Jim Poo! plays inthe water before getting serious about calibrating Paul Lama's, spring scale,wires inside the spring coil that take the load when the spring reaches its maxi- ‘mum safe stretched length. If you want to ‘add an additional safety device you can use a slack external inch steel cable just Jong enough so the spring can stretch to maximum safe length, An engine bit- ‘ung.a conerete flor ftom 6 feet up could ruin your whole day. ‘The initial tension (defined as the load required to stretch the spring the first inch) of the spring [ used is about 2775 pounds, so the engine to be weighed ‘must weigh more than that. Anything less than that can be weighed on a bath- room scale. Other springs have les ii tial tension, It is necessary to measure Here's the complete setup for calibrating the spring scale: garage door spring, tape ‘measure, water supply, bathroom scale, total ‘weight container and transfer containers. "ROTOS PRO LAIAR AN CHAO. BOSST ‘and record the load required to stretch the spring this first inch as it varies from spring to spring, On my spring, the rate (the number of pounds needed to make it stretch the next inch) is about 15.32 pounds per inch, It is linear; if it takes 15.32 pounds to stretch it I inch, it will take two times 15,32 pounds to streich it 2 inches. This ‘umber should also be calculated from the calibration procedure to insure it is correct. I the rate is indeed 15.32 pounds per inch, every eighth of an inch stretch ‘would represent about 1.9 pounds of loa, ‘A Few Calculations ‘The maximam total load is therefore 18 inches times 15.32 pounds per inch or about 276 pounds plus the preload of 275 pounds or 551 pounds. IF that is till ‘ot enough, two springs can be used in parallel. The spring rate is doubled for ‘wo identical springs. In fact, several large springs could be used to weigh ‘most homebuilt airplanes. One of the unanticipated benefits of using this spring was discovered when I actempted to reinstall an 0-470 in a Cess- ‘na 182, [was able to move the engine up ‘and down by hand just enough to easily align the engine mount bolts. KP ‘Although attached to hangar rafters in this case, a short stif spring scale ‘could be hung from a standard engine hoist.