Extra weight

I've seen poeple use lead beading, self adhesive lead strip that is used to stick to windows for that "Olde English" look. Most DIY stores would sell it, look on electricnose.co.uk as the guy there uses it. Djo

Usually advertised in Model Rail magazine.... They are produced as tiny beads if I remember correctly.....

Colin.

Try a fishing tackle shop go right down to microscopic sizes and up to a double Swan shot

-- Regards Gray Angling list owner snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com

Rob,

You might be looking for Liquid Lead which is lead in very small beads which you can pour into a cavity, then lock in place with a liquid adhesive like dilute PVA. I've seen it available in most good model railway shops.

Here's a picture of some being used to weight wagons with the stuff in the wagons to the front being covered in dilute PVA.

Available from many model outlets, or as fishing weights from fishing shops (though probably not lead these days).

BUT...[1] You shouldn't bother with the idea of filling the model with tiny round objects because of all the wasted space (air or glue gaps). Doesn't matter how small the balls are, the proportion of gaps stays the same. You should use solid material, you can use a less dense material in solid form (eg. brass) which will be heavier in total volume than lead in spheres.

The heaviest material easily available will be solid lead, easily worked from strip, available from either metal scrap merchants, or possibly from builders merchants (leaded window lights, lead flashing, etc).

You can fold sheet lead into required shapes, squeeze in a vice, hammer, etc until its the shape required.

Maths to show the spheres are a waste of space: Fill a space with a collection of equal radius spheres. There are two obvious packing structures - cubic (where the spheres touch four others in any plane and are stacked equally above) and hexagonal (where the layers are shifted so the second row sit in the hollows of the first).

Doing a few simple sums; for the cubic packing, r=radius of sphere: Volume of cube holding sphere = length * height * width = 2r * 2r * 2r Volume of sphere = 4/3 Pi r*r*r So, percentage of volume filled with lead = ( (4/3 pi) / 8 ) * 100 ~ 52%

For Hex packing the sums are a tad harder, the percentage volume filled with lead ~ 74%

An experiment in filling a cubic space with spherical balls randomly (pour them in, count how many used, measure the volume of the space) achieved a percentage fill of only 42%.

Lead has a density of about 11.9g/cm-cubed, brass is around 8.5g/cm-cubed. For cubic packing, the effective density of the lead spheres is 52%, or

So, for all cases, unless one achieves perfect hex packing (which one cannot unless the volume is infinite, there are edge effects which reduce the volume filled even more), solid brass is heavier than lead balls.

- Nigel

=>Mornin all =>I remember a while back, someone talking about lead beads or something, to =>add to a locos weight, small enough to get into small places as well. Anyone =>know where to get such a thing? Home Depot, RadioShack?? =>Thanks in advance =>Rob

Bird shot from a gun shop will do nicely. Real trick is to glue it in place without slopping glue where it's not wanted, etc. And if it falls out, it might kill your little birdies. :-)

Wolf Kirchmeir ................................. If you didn't want to go to Chicago, why did you get on this train? (Garrison Keillor)

Hi Bob.

Home Depot?

Sounds like you're in the States.

Try radio Controlled model aircraft dealers.

Best wishes.

Hi Nigel.

Yes we hear you, and have seen the calculations before:-)))

I don't dobt your are right but the advantage of Liquid lead, as it is usually called, it that you can pour it into small areas and through small holes or gaps to fill spaces that you can't get solids into.

Wells that's the reason I use it, anyway.

Seasons greetings, all

We have Home Depot in Canada too.

Don't forget, if you're handling any kind of lead, it's poisonous. Wash hands well immediately after, or use disposable gloves. Same goes for white metal, which contains lead.

For weighting goods wagons I use the 1/4oz (7g) lead weights sold in strips with adhesive tape. I stick a couple inside or under a wagon.

I use air gun pellets, hammer them flat and you can form them to shape with pliers to fitr specific spaces. As I model British N I can leave one un-crushed to serve as a vacuum brake reservoir on a goods wagon. Probably not the cheapest option but I have found a box of 500 lasts a long time. I think araldite is an isulator if you need to glue them into a loco body - Remember though do wash your hands after messing with lead, it is a nasty poison

"Rob" wrote

I tend to use lead flashing - the stuff used to seal roofs. Generally offcuts are available free wherever a roof has been re-done. It's generally about 1/16" thick lead sheeting, and can be cut (fairly) easily with household scissors (just don't let the rottweiller see you) and can easily be shaped to fit inside locos.

John.

Thanks a lot everyone..... I think its time to brace the xmas crowds and head out to Wal marts fishing dept.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@notigg.not.no contains these words:

And as I wash my hands after building white metal kits, I reflect that the water I'm washing in and the water I drink has arrived in the house through a lead pipe...

Small spaces ?? You mean the gaps in a typical 2mm scale scratchbuilt small loco mechanism ??

I don't doubt liquid lead easy to use, but if you need weight its not particularly efficient.

(Lots of :-) and Christmas Greetings)

- Nigel

Old house in a soft water area?

Yup, .177 lead shot fitted great in the tender of the terrier, along with the z digitrax chip. It cuts well with an exacto as well which I didnt expect. Thanks again all.....

The message from "Mark W" contains these words:

Old house, shared supply, medium hardness (AFAIK). Every house I've lived in has had the same...

There's a lot of fuss about lead that has led to hysteria. Whilst lead the heavy metal is poisonous if it gets in you, it can generally only really do that through oxides, so it's lead that's gone white or red which is actually dangerous (which reminds me, I've got a roll of now white lead sitting in the front yard from when I re-did the chimney!)

The lead in water pipes is not particularly hazardous (no more hazardous than the chemical cocktail deliberately put in the water these days), as theoretically they are sealed with no and with regularly moving water, and so oxides shouldn't be able to build up. Theoretically.

But anyway, it's never done me any harm, and I've lived in a house with lead pipes for most of my life

Ronnie

--

Lead is a fantastic material to work with (I do a lot of building weatherproofing work with it). Shame it's poisonous, but you can't have it all!

Ronnie

--