Is there a good way to do this? Or a company that sells molds to make your own weight? My early morning boredom story (started this project about 7am).. I just dug out my stack of unassembled Intermountain cylindrical hoppers, and just realized they have no weight to them. I started mucking about in the workshop, and stumbled across my grandfather's old woodcarving knives.. (This house was left to me, and I think I have every tool known to man). So in my (lack of?) wisdom, i decided to make a mold out of a scrap piece of oak that was sitting around. It worked pretty well. I weighed one of my ready-to-run hoppers vs. the unassembled ones, and got a rough estimate of the weight needed. Proceeded to measure out the space inside and dug a channel in the wood. Next i lopped off a hunk of lead i had around (I am assuming he had it sitting around to make sinkers for fishing, but I can't find that mold anywhere), weighed it up and got it just about right. I then heated it up in the big cast iron...thing? that was with the lead. Looks like a big teaspoon with a little spout on the side, and poured it into the channel in the wood. It went in no problem, but had a little fire going on (pre-emptive strike on the smoke detectors, i had a window open and a fan blowing out just in case). So needless to say, It works. I made two of them so far, but decided to see if there was indeed a safer way to do this? I was looking around for a chunk of aluminum that I could sort of mill out with the drill press and my trusty dremel tool, but nothing to be found. Also wondering if anyone had used say, a piece of flat steel you can pick up at home depot. Wondering if it would weigh enough after it was cut and shaved down to fit inside various cars. Thanks for any help and pointing in the right direction. edit: Just in case someone is wondering, yes i had a fire estinguisher handy. Also, if I ever buy any more of these unassembled cars, someone smack me [ 31. May 2004, 14:56: Message edited by: Todd ]
There is a page on the NMRA site that may be able to help you : http://www.nmra.org/beginner/weight.html . The author there simply mashes up old fishing weights until they are flat and then cuts them to size. I have also seen weight sets sold (I don't know the name of the company). They usually come in a strip and break apart easy to get the desired weight. Yet a third option, and one that I employed in the younger days of N-scale, was to use molder's clay. Boxcars were a breeze using the clay as you can just fill the interior with the desired weight. For gondolas, I would fill a portion of the bottom and conceal the clay with a load. Happy railroading! Russ
Remember that you're dealing with poisons, though, if you work with lead. The solution I've come across is to use BB's (I buy the pint sized carton at Wal-Mart) secured in place with white glue. These have worked real well for hoppers so far, as they'll settle right down into the bays at the bottom. Cars with flat bottoms would probably also work by either making a little box of strip styrene or just carefully gluing them in. Lastly, I also used these for my first DODX flat car, built before Alan made his, as I used a piece of square styrene tube to make the center sill. Just filled it with weight and glued on end caps.
Speaking of weighting cars, I have just received some IHC 85' pass cars. I thought I would like interiors w/these, and ordered them. A little tedious to build, but anyway, these cars have no weight, and I began thinking of how I could add enough heft, and still use the interiors. I am tentatively thinking of placing a hardware, reinforcing bar under the interior floor, but don't know how high it will raise the interior casting. There might be enough room above the interior walls (much less desirable place to put weight), but at this point don't know how much room there is at the top. These cars weigh something like 3 1/2. w/interiors. So there is no way to get NMRA RP in these, but I need more weight than this. hmmm
I use a vise and just crush the lead to the desired thickness. A sledge hammer works for very large pieces. You can now use tin snips, a chisel, or even scissors to cut it to basic shape. After I get it close to size, I use vise grips for any fine tuning. Eagle is right, you are using a material that is poisonous. Try to use gloves as much as possible. I have many old wheel weights that I use for my lead supply. Fishing weights also work. More than likely, your LHS has lead that is easy to shape. There is also a "moldable" lead. It is very soft like solder. You could take a piece of steel and use a grinding wheel to rout out some sort of shape (groove) for a weight and then pour heated lead in the mold. Or clamp two pieces of steel together and drill a hole in the centerline at various depths and make rod shaped weights that will fit in the center sill. Or make one long rod and cut it to length when cooled.
Thanks for the hints and tips. I think I'll try the BB method first and see how that goes, as I have good sized box of them sitting here. Never even thought to use them. Figure I may as well use what I have on hand, instead of spending money that could be spend on more fun things, like trackage and such to finally get the layout built. As a side note, i was working close to the fan, and had a respirator on (I know the lead is poisonous), so should have been clear of any nasty poisons in the air.
i used the kind of lead weight that are used to true wheels. simple to cut and they even have a sticky tape on one side
Two different methods, which are similar or duplicates to what others here do. 1. Use the hammer & pliers method to mash chunks of lead to the right shape. It takes some time, but you can be amazingly accurate in the final product. 2. Go to the local sporting goods store where they sell reloading equipment & supplies. Buy some lead shot for loading shotgun shells. Get the smalles shot ( largest number) they have. It comes in 10 pound bags, and is fairly reasonable. The smaller shot packs in tighter so you get more weight in the same volume. This is important when weighing down a locomotive. You can use white glue or epoxy to cement it in place. Mark in Utah
todd, DO NOT USE LEAD!!! there is a much better alternative. it is tungsten alloy (malleable). specific weight is (if i remember correctly) 17 to 14...when compared to lead. (gold is like 16) also, it can be molded by hand...and is non-toxic. the easiest place to find it is in fishing outlets. it is used for additional weight to lures. please consider this as an alternative to weighting your cars. all you need is a small "postal" scale, and you're on your way
For cars with a lot of space inside I use pennies. 12 to an ounce I think. Just use hot glue to stick them together. It may not be a good idea to secure them to plastic underframes with hot glue but on metal underframes it works great (ex: MDC boxs). I also use 1/4 ounce wishing weights through a vice or with a few hammer hits and they work great. Plus they are very cheap, like 99¢ Canadian for 10... that's like 25¢ US !!!
Tomorrow I want to go to a gun shop and get some lead shot. My idea is like yours in that I want to have the shot be finer than BBs so it will fit into gondolas, hopper bays, etc. I am not sure if this will work, but I will post more this weekend. GATS show in San Antonio this weekend. [ 05. June 2004, 13:18: Message edited by: sapacif ]
What you want is "Bird Shot" (about .060" diameter I think. It isn't lead anymore though, at best you might find some pewter.
Another method that works when there is little or no room to add additional weight [as in the LL mallet] is to remove the original weights and make a mould of them. Then use the moulds to cast weight of a higher density such as tungsten. Powered Tungsten is available at some Golf stores where it is used to weight golf clubs. You will have to mix it with a binder in order to cast it in a mould.
There is a "Loon" brand moldable sinker tungsten material supposedly available at fishing supply (tackle) stores. A-Line makes a moldable lead putty I use (I just bought some before I found out about the Loon.) I also have some old type spacers, but no one sets type anymore, do they??
thank you inkaneer and thirdrail, (btw...its great to see you here thirdrail ) as i posted earlier.... tungsten is the way to go. i was incorrect about the specific weights though.... steel...just short of 8 cast iron...same as steel or less. platinum....around 21 gold...19 tungsten...19 lead....only 11 !!! so you can see, although lead is pretty heavy when compared to steel and iron...it is actually very light... and so, unless you can afford to use platinum or gold....tungsten is the best choice.
