113 in place with screws 137 mounting height adjustable specimen holder 133 on tower 109 and mounting girth adjustable specimen holder 133 on tower 109 the connecting mechanism can be a spring mechanism and the spring mechanism can be constant load the couplers can be flexible referring now to fig6 method 550 for using an apparatus for measuring characteristics of materials can include but is not limited to including the steps of fixing 551 a sample at the base of the apparatus the apparatus including main tower 109 attached to base plate 113 a main measurement head 104 connected to the main tower 109 by a constant load spring mechanism 107 the main measurement head including a drive motor a load cell shaft coupled with drive motor 103 and a sensor drive shaft within a drive shaft housing 135 via a coupler 117 the load cell shaft including a load cell a sensor 121 configured to attach by attachment mechanism 115 b to the sensor drive shaft a vessel holding a sample the sensor configured to measure characteristics of the sample and the motor the sensor configured to supply the measured characteristics to the load cell the load cell configured to supply the measured characteristics to a computer attaching 553 the sensor to the attachment mechanism and the load cell.