Hey guys,
Many of you may already have this figured out but I've been looking for a good weight to add to my rolling stock to make them weigh and roll like I want. I played around with many different things until yesterday a light went off.
I was at my buddies tire shop getting my prerunner tires rotated and he took off a strip of small 1/4oz perfectly square strip of balance weights and tossed them aside. I asked it he mind if I took them and he said you can not only have those but all these too......he had a huge tub of them!
They are perfect. Perfectly square, flat, and usually come with sticky already on the back. Better yet you can get as many as you want from the tire store for free!(used ones of course) They are also easy to hack up to make smaller with a Dremel. I took about 50 of them in strips of about 8 since we have a lot of rolling stock.
Have them on a couple of passenger cars and they work awesome! Just wanted to pass the idea along.Mike
Hi, Mike.
Thanks for the heads up but I'm afraid you are several years behind on this. They have been sold as such and used for many years.
https://ppw-aline.com/collections/stick-on-lead-steel-weights
You are right in your excitement about them as they are great and easy to use. much better than pennies, large nuts and bird shot in most cases. The cost is minimal and they stay put!
Thanks for letting us know about your find though!
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works
5150WS6They are also easy to hack up to make smaller with a Dremel.
I wouldn't do this with the lead or lead alloy ones, because of the lead dust created. Lead is a cumulative poison because it stays in the body.
Personally, I only use non-lead weights, usually pennies.
Paul
Free is great. Pennies are 10 cents per ounce, ok where they fit unseen. But I may get some of the fancy ones ($1.42 per ounce) for some situations.
BTW, lead is about 144% of steel specific weight (weight per given volume).
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
IRONROOSTER I wouldn't do this with the lead or lead alloy ones, because of the lead dust created. Lead is a cumulative poison because it stays in the body. Paul
There's a how-to HERE on casting your own weights, which is useful where "stock" shapes and sizes won't work.
Wayne
Printer's leads and slugs work quite well too, but.... nobody runs a letterpress any more, and most producers are long gone the way of the buggy whip. Linotype also works... same problem.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I've used them for years, the ones I have now I got from Micro-Mark. The perfectly square 1/4" ones are nice because two fit together in the vestibule of a heavyweight (no pun intended) passenger car, and you can stack two more on top - and two more, if you don't mind blocking the windows of the vestibule doors. Leaves the rest of the car open for the interior seating, tables, people, etc.
BTW I find holding using pliers to hold the strip of weights where I want to bend it, and then using another pliers in the other hand to bend them at the crease between weights, usually breaks of the weights cleanly without needing a Dremel or other cutting tool.
Hello all,
5150WS6...you can get as many as you want from the tire store for free!(used ones of course)[.]
I believe that most of the responders are focused on the issue of using lead for weights.
When I read the OP's post the focus seems to be on how this material is FREE and available at your local tire shop. With their permission.
I agree with the safety aspects of handling lead; wear gloves, if cutting- -be aware of airborne particulates and realize the negative, cumulative, effects of lead poisoning.
The name of the corporation that owns my railroad is "The Consolidated Materials Group."
The goal statement is, "To manufacture items for the railroad by using found materials."
I would consider that used lead tire weights would align with this statement.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
I have been buying lead weights from EBay for a few years now. Cheap and free shipping.
Free ones are even better, if you can find some and find a dealer that will let you have them. Most around here sell them to a recycler.
Tire weights are indeed great for car weighting. I've found not all the sticky tapes are created equal, so I use a blob of latex caulk to stick 'em in for good.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
IF you can find a tire shop that will give you the used weights for free, GREAT!!! However, most of the shops around here want the recycling money so no freebies. Looks like the average e-bay price for the stick-on lead weights is around $2.00 per ounce. If you compare pennies at $0.10 per ounce, you'd be hard pressed to find any weighting material anywhere near as cheap! Thus, I just use pennies.
Hornblower
I needed weight in my Red Caboose coil cars. I used 3/8" nuts attached with epoxy onto their supplied weights.
For things like box cars that have plenty of room, I just look around for whatever is handy that has some heft. This tends to be flat washers. Since I'm an electrician, I suppose I could save all the little knockouts. Not exactly a priority, though.
For special cases where I'm trying to cram as much weight in as possible (such as locomotives), I bought sheet lead on Amazon in three thicknesses: 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64. Mine is a foot wide and three feet long. I cut it to size. And attach with epoxy.
Ed
I once had a box of machine tool cutter inserts a friend who ran a machine shop gave me, they were quite dense for the size, but getting them to stick to a car is difficult - they've spent their useful life being bathed in cutting fluid and getting them truly clean is hard. Plus they are made of various specialty metals and CA seems to work, but not forever - most of them lasted a few years and now the weight rattles around int he car. Some I will be able to open up and fix but others it will likely damage the car to get into it. Encapsulating them in caulk would probably work. However, it's not a practical material, it's hard to obtain as in many cases they can be reground and reused - and new they are not cheap, so not tooo many shops would give something like this away.
I've since gone on to pennies. Can't beat the price and at least on enclosed house cares, who cares if you have to cover the entire floor to get enough weight because individual pennies don't add much? Before I assemble a kit I toss the parts, trucks, wheels, and couplers on my scale. Add however many pennies it takes to get it up to proer weight, and go. I usually make short stacks of pennies with CA and then glue the stacks to the car floor as evenly balanced as possible - if it takes 4 stacks usually one ahead ond one behind each bolster on the centerline.
Shot is good for open hoppers that you want to run empty - you can fill in behind the slope sheets and between hopper bays where no one can see unless they turn the car over and look - you can get well over NMRA weight that way as there is lots of hidden space under there. A lot of the club owned cars have shot inside the hopper - fine if the car always runs with a load, but take the load out and that partial load of shot coated in glue looks nothing like coal, even when painted black.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I thought wheel balancing weights were being made of something other than lead to avoid polluting the roadside with all the ones that fall off.
SouthPennI have been buying lead weights from EBay for a few years now. Cheap and free shipping.
Yup,that's where I buy mine.. I'm not overly concerned about the lead because I don't handle pounds of it eight hours a day five or six days a week.. I do wash my hands throughly with soap and hot water after I finish my project.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Lead wire works good for filling the underside nooks and crannies of gons, flats & hoppers. It snips off easy and so too can be crushed and shaped with a stout pair of lineman's pliers or a bench vise.
Lead wire is used when setting piston to head clearance & for sealing valve cover strong-back lock-nuts on heavy industrial reciprocating gas compressors. Safety First when handling lead and do not sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal.
Regards, Peter