Conversion for Orotfon stylus gauge

If I'd been more careful with my first numbers the tea would be calmer. ;-) Yeah, OL threw out an Ortofon gauge with my tonearm too. I mean threw IN, they threw it IN, not OUT. What's the matter with me?

Holy moly. Talk about a tempest in a teapot ;~) I have a 0.1 gm electronic scale (not 0.01). I was just thinking of using the shure for very gross measurements, and then tighten it up w/the electronics. I found it in a box with my OL tonearm; perhaps it was a "throw in". I am aware of the technical differences btwn mass and force. I just "guessed" that the mN scale on the shure gauge was milli-newtons. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

John,
You're right of course, I got it backwards AND sideways.

One Newton would be displayed by most scales as approximately 102 grams. Of course that's true only on the surface of the Earth and it would vary slightly with one's altitude above or below the mean radius of the planet. In any event that's neither a cookie nor a cake, though it might be an apple.

Of course if Swampwalker is setting up his turntable on the moon or on Jupiter his results will be quite different. If he's setting it up on the space station he's out of luck altogether, unless he has a tonearm with a spring-loaded downforce adjustment!

In the MKS system the Newton is the unit of force. Using Sir Issac's law: F(force)= M(mass)xA(acceleration) a Newton equals a Kilogram x Meter/second squared. A Newton is not 100 grams or a cookie; perhaps cake?

1 gram = 100 Newtons, however...

Your cartridge is far too sensitive for the notoriously unreliable Ortofon.
You might as well use the old pennies-on-a-pencil balancing trick.

1. Go to ebay or saveonscales.com
2. Buy a digital scale accurate to .01g for < $50
3. Glue pieces of the Ortofon together to make a step that hangs off the edge of the scale and places the stylus near record height

IME that's the only way an Ortofon will ever contribute to accurate, repeatable VTF measurements.