Feet

Start here because it is quick, but do not expect it to settle much.

Four of the five feet are 1/2-20 UNF with a 2 inch stem: the 2 inch rubber, the 2.9 inch polyurethane, the 2-1/4 inch captured ball and the 2-3/8 inch stainless captured ball. They screw into the same hole, which means that on most platforms all four are candidates and the decision has to be made on other grounds.

The exception is the 3-1/4 inch polyurethane foot at 3/4-16 UNF, listed for 10K load cells. The bigger thread goes with the bigger load cell, which goes with the heavier scale, so this one tends to select itself: if your load cell takes 3/4-16, this is the foot, and if it does not, this is not.

The stem length matters less than people expect but is worth checking: all five have a 2 inch stem, so none of them changes the deck height relative to the others. Swapping between them does not require re-shimming the installation.

If the thread on your platform is neither 1/2-20 nor 3/4-16, that is a machining question rather than a catalog one, and we would rather cut one than have you force a mismatched thread into a load cell.

Once thread is out of the way, this is what separates the range, and the two answers suit genuinely different installations.

Polyurethane rubber feet, the 2 inch, 2.9 inch and 3-1/4 inch, grip the floor and damp vibration. They suit benches, portable platforms and anything that must not creep when it is loaded from one side. On a bench scale near a conveyor, the damping is doing real work: it helps the reading settle rather than hunt.

Captured ball feet, the 2-1/4 inch and 2-3/8 inch, are the opposite specification. The ball sits in a cup so the foot can pivot, which lets the platform find its own attitude on a floor that is not flat. That matters because a rigid four-point platform on an uneven floor does not distribute load evenly; it bridges, and one corner takes more than its share. Since each corner has a load cell under it, an unevenly loaded platform is an unevenly weighing platform.

The rule of thumb: a floor you would call flat, and a scale that gets nudged, wants polyurethane. An older concrete floor, or any installation where the platform rocks, wants a captured ball. If a new scale reads differently depending where on the deck the load sits, and the load cells are healthy, the feet and the floor are the first thing to look at.

This question removes four of the five options in a single step, so it is worth asking early.

On a legal-for-trade scale, every component in the load path forms part of what is approved and sealed. The load cell, the mounting, the instrument and the feet are inspected as a system, not as a collection of parts each of which happens to be adequate. Substituting a foot on a sealed scale is not a maintenance decision; it is a change to an approved installation.

The 2-3/8 inch stainless captured ball foot at $55 is the NTEP certified option here, and it is the one to specify when the weight will be the basis of a commercial transaction. It is also stainless throughout, which is why it doubles as the washdown answer.

For internal process weighing, inventory, batching or checkweighing, certification is not required and the choice reverts to grip against float and to material. That is where the cheaper polyurethane feet are entirely appropriate and the certified foot is money spent on paperwork you do not need.

If a certified scale is being repaired rather than specified, the safe sequence is to fit the certified part and then have the installation resealed by a weights and measures inspector.

Material matters more at the floor than people expect, because the floor is where the water ends up.

In a washdown area, a plated or painted steel stem is the part that will corrode first. It sits in standing water, it is the last thing anybody cleans, and once the stem corrodes into the platform's threaded boss, replacing it stops being a five-minute job. The 2-3/8 inch stainless foot is the only fully stainless option in this range.

Polyurethane is chemically tolerant and copes with a wet floor perfectly well as a contact surface, so in a damp but not caustic environment the constraint is the stem rather than the pad.

For a wet installation, confirm the material of the 2-1/4 inch foot with us before ordering.

One more environmental note that has nothing to do with corrosion: polyurethane hardens and takes a set over years, particularly in heat. A bench scale whose feet have gone hard and glassy has lost the damping it was bought for, and new feet are the cheapest fix available.

This is the shortest answer on the page and the one most often ignored.

Replace feet as a set. A new polyurethane foot is fractionally taller than one that has been carrying a scale for five years, because the old ones have compressed and taken a set. Fitting one new foot to a four-foot platform therefore lifts that corner, and the load redistributes across the other three, which is precisely the condition that makes a scale read differently depending on where the load sits.

The cost argument is not close either. At $15 to $55 each, a full set is a small fraction of the time it takes to chase a cornering error that was self-inflicted.

Then level the platform. Most feet in this range adjust on their thread, which is what the 2 inch stem is for. Level the deck, then check that every foot is genuinely carrying: a foot that is merely close to the floor is a foot doing nothing, and on a four-point scale that turns it into a three-point one.

Finally, recalibrate. Anything that changes the load path changes what the load cells feel, and feet are in the load path.