MetaChat - Anyone know anything about Doctor's weigh scales?

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17 November 2005

Anyone know anything about Doctor's weigh scales? →[More:]This may sound ridiculous but there's someone on CL selling a doctor's scale. You know the big ones you step on and move the metal sliders to find out your weight.

For some reason, I think they're interesting and wouldn't mind owning one. He's asking $70, including delivery to my house; I assume they normally sell for high hundreds, but I dunno.

Anyway, I'm curious if anyone knows if these things ever go out of whack or if they need to be calibrated annually or anything like that or do they just work forever or what?

Am I nuts for wanting such a thing in my apartment?

post by: dobbs at: 17:31 | 7 comments

The guy just wrote me back with the brand: DETECTO DOCTOR'S SCALE BROOKLYN ,NEW YORK U.S.A., if that makes any difference.

posted by dobbs 17 November | 17:34

The lowest price I could find for a Detecto is $194, so $70 bucks including delivery sounds like a pretty good deal.

And no, you're not crazy for wanting one. I think it'd be pretty neat-o, actually.

I dunno about calibration, but I figure once it's all set, it stays that way.

posted by Specklet 17 November | 17:48

FWIW, you should be able to calibrate it yourself - they sell calibration weights (I don't know the price), and you plunk them on the scale, set it to read the correct weight, and turn a little knobby till the bar is balanced.

posted by muddgirl 17 November | 18:01

I wonder if a 5 pound bag of flour would be okay as a calibration weight.

posted by Specklet 17 November | 18:04

Yeah, what muddgirl said. Just about any scale can be calibrated, just the methods are different. A quick and dirty way to get calibration weights is to use weights from a weight lifting set, they should be close enough for home use.

posted by eekacat 17 November | 18:06

That's a much better idea than flour.

Flour. What was I thinking. Chuh!

posted by Specklet 17 November | 18:50

Thanks, all. I'm gonna tell him to bring it on over.

posted by dobbs 17 November | 18:55

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