How to Create a Letter Postage Scale

If you've ever needed to know the amount of postage to add to a letter, you probably wished you had a postage scale. Luckily, you can easily build a homemade postage scale that is surprisingly accurate and simple. We'll help you create your own postage scale so you can weigh envelopes at home and calculate your postage rate yourself!

Steps

(or item you are using instead of a ruler, see Things You'll Need section). Tie a knot near one end of the rubber band (leaving loops on either side of the knot) and attach it to the end of the ruler.
to help ensure that it does not slip or change position on the ruler. The rubber band must be flat on the surface of the ruler opposite the knot.
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onto the rubber band so that it will be able to hold onto a letter while hanging from the rubber band. A large paper clip is recommended.
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The table should have a sharp edge.
- If you don't have a table available, use anything that has a sharp edge and a flat and level surface that is at least the length of the ruler. A book on a table or small box or desk picture frame might suffice. Put this sharp-edged surface at the end of the table to be used instead of the table.
Gather 5 quarters and make a stack. This is one ounce! Place the stack of quarters on the rubber band that is wrapping the ruler. Be careful to make sure the quarters are perfectly balanced on the rubber band. If they lean off of the rubber band and touch the ruler, the scale will not be accurate. This is why a medium width rubber band is needed. A thin rubber band is tough to balance the quarters on.
Slowly inch the ruler off of the desk (or the surface with a sharp edge). The ruler should be perpendicular to the edge you are using. Any angle you use off of 90 degrees will reduce accuracy. You will find at some point that the ruler will begin to tilt and want to fall off. Go back and forth between it desiring to fall and it staying on. Try to get to the place where the end of the ruler slowly lifts off the table and begin to tilt down toward the quarters.
Make a very small and fine line to show at what point the ruler began to fall. Again, make sure that the ruler is still perpendicular to the edge it is tilting off of.
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Add more weight to the calibration. Add a second stack of 5 quarters so that 10 quarters are balanced. This is two ounces.
- You can also try to use tape to create a bundle of quarters and hang the bundle from the paper clip. Just be sure to use thin, light tape--like Scotch tape--and not much of it.
With marks at 1 ounce and 2 ounces, you can also make a mark at 1/2 ounce without much effort. Use a piece of paper and copy the marks you made on your ruler to the edge of a paper (copy the distance, in other words). Now, make a new mark on the ruler that exact distance away from the 1 ounce mark and heading away from the 2 ounce mark. You should now have three marks of exactly the same distance with 1 ounce in the middle, 2 ounces closest to the rubber band and 1/2 ounce closest to the middle of the ruler. Place 4 dimes and a nickel back on your scale (almost exactly 1/2 ounce!). Slide the scale to the new mark you made and see how close you are.
If the ruler doesn't fall off of the table when the stick is lined up to the 1 ounce mark, you're good with a single stamp! Over 1 ounce but under 2 ounces, add a 17 cent stamp. You can also tell the approximate weight by sliding the ruler slowly until it begins to tip off the table.
Weight Not Over Price
1 ounce $0.42
2 ounces $0.59
3 ounces $0.76
3.5 ounces $0.93
You may need to add additional postage if your letter is smaller than 3x5", larger than 6.125x11.5, over 3.5 OZ, or more than 1/4" thick.
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Tips

Get a postal rate guide, it will tell you all of the different things the postal service charges for, not just weight. They also go by size and thickness of the letter(if it is bigger than normal and thicker it will need to be hand sorted, therefore it costs more than machine sorting).
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If you want to measure your way to new scale marks, each mark you make that is equal distance is exactly double the weight of the previous marks made. I.e. 1/2 ounce doubles to 1 ounce. 1 ounce doubles to 2. Your next equally distant mark will be 4 ounces, next 8 ounces. Halfway in between 2 and 4, however, is NOT 3 ounces. The halfway mark between ounces (in weight, not distance!) is actually about 5/8 of the distance from the lower toward the higher weight.
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If you use a piece of wood, be sure to double check your scale at different times of the year. Humidity in the air can affect the weight and throw the scale off slightly.
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Warnings

This is only as accurate as you allow it to be. Take your time to build it right, and it should get you within a 10th of an ounce or less in accuracy.
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Things You'll Need

1 Rubber band (preferably medium width (2mm to 3mm...about the thickness of two quarters) and about 3 inches (7.6 cm) in length)
10 Quarters
Paper clip (bigger is better)
a little tape of any type you prefer
a wood or plastic ruler or some other item that is at least 1 foot (0.3 m) long and not cylindrical (don't want it to be able to roll around). It should be light weight but NOT flexible. Heavy object will make this difficult or impossible. The longer and lighter the item, the more accurate the measure!
a postal rate guide, for weight, size and thickness charges.