Anyone want to guess this project??

[gde]

Anyone want to try and guess what this contraption is for? I built this for a customer. I will give you a "good" clue. It is for a metrology lab and those large stacks of steel plates (each overall block measures 12x12x11 and weighs over 400lbs) hang from the ends of the horizontal channel with the clevis in the center.

[s-on]

I don't know what it is but i bet Jimmy Hoffa has seen simular items

[MAC702]

I'm still trying to imagine the details, but does it support the calibration standards for large official weights of some kind?

[vicegrip]

testing for point of failure of something ??? if not I'm clueless

[Winger Ed.]

Quite interesting. I haven't seen anything like it before.

Whatever it does, I doubt if it would blow away, even in a Hurricane.

[MAC702]

Whatever it does, I doubt if it would blow away, even in a Hurricane.

It did remind me of the Wyoming Wind Sock:

http://wy.skywarn.net/photos/windsock.jpg

[gde]

Mac,
You're on the right track. Actually you are very close. I'll let a couple more guesses come in before I explain it.
I like the Wyoming Wind Sock. That is great!

A little more info:
Those "trees" standing upright near the beam hang side by side and are connected to the chains that are affixed to the beam itself. The "tree" are loaded down with 50lbs wieghts on each "branch" and weigh a total of 600lbs per tree. When all the weights are added together, including the plate stack, it is right around 1 ton.

[vicegrip]

a ballancer to adjust to the snatched load / a compensater/
NO ! it measures the force of a waterfall...

come on MAN ... only women tease to the point pain !

[Lyaec]

Looks like something we'd drag along behind the boat to clear out the weeds in the lake

[gde]

Well, since I was able to build it up this far, I figure it is a good time to pop the balloon. Nothing fancy about the contraption. What it is is a weight rack for instrumentation calibration. It is used in a metrology lab as indicated above. What the customer will do is he will "load" the beam with all the various weights, get an exact weight calculation, and then use THIS weight to calibrate scales for his customers. See, all the scales that come into his lab for calibration are "off" +/- a certain weight. He will calibrate these scales and get them accurate once again.
It may not look like much, but it took me nearly 20hrs of machining/drilling, cutting/welding, prepping/painting, and then assembling. Major chunk of time putting this thing together.
BTW, sorry I had a few of you guys thinking this was gonna be some cool type of thing. I just wanted to see if anyone knew what it was.