This is a great, sturdy product. More importantly, customer service was competent, well-informed, professional, helpful, patient, good at listening and kind on the phone. We bought this scale for a science project on Tensile Strength, where my daughter tested the resistance through to failure of different weaving patterns and commercial cording materials, including leather cording, silk threads, and many more. We did not know what scale to purchase and customer service identified this as what would fulfill our needs, especially being able to read the weight after the different test ropes break. The scale is made to last, the instructions are simple (should be read though!) and the scale is definitely portable. You need to make sure you read the top of the bottom weight marker, not its bottom! Overall, this is a great product, with some accuracy flaws (about a pound off or so) when you get to higher weights, we think. You want to be sure not to unscrew the bottom hook, which is to be used only for resetting the top marker back to zero "only when necessary". Since this was a science project, it would have been nice to have a similar scale that read in the metric system, but this was a great opportunity for my daughter to practice conversion from pounds to grams and kilograms and Newton and Pascals, so perhaps it is all as well! The scale is almost all metal save for the screw connected to the bottom hook, the weight markers, and coating around the top handle. The gradations are painted on the metal body, but are not fading away (owned and used for 1 month, left out when not in use). Overall, a product that delivered on its promise and will stick around our household for years, very very sturdy and taking very little space indeed!