Does gallium weigh as much as lead?
One pound of gallium weighs the same as one pound of lead. However, one pound of gallium will take up more space than one pound of lead. And your gallium will melt at 85 degrees or so, so it may be messier than lead.
It depends. One gram of gallium weighs the same as one gram of lead. One mole of gallium weighs 69.72 grams, one mole of lead weighs 207.2 grams. So what you really want to know is which metal is more dense.
Greg
banjobenne1 Does gallium weigh as much as lead?
Can you go to your local bait and tackle shop and buy gallium fishing weights?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mr B & O It depends. One gram of gallium weighs the same as one gram of lead. One mole of gallium weighs 69.72 grams, one mole of lead weighs 207.2 grams. So what you really want to know is which metal is more dense. Greg banjobenne1 Does gallium weigh as much as lead?
xboxtravis7992 Unless you want to give depleted uranium weights a try or something outlandish like that. :P
Unless you want to give depleted uranium weights a try or something outlandish like that. :P
Tungsten is denser than uranium. Depleted or not. So is gold.
Gold is very easy to work, a definite plus. Tungsten is very difficult to work, a minus.
I'd go with gold.
That said, if you're the kind of guy who's always trying to save a buck, I'd go with lead.
Ed
Lead is about twice as dense as Gallium. Gallium also has a very low melting temperature, which is why its NOT recommended to be placed in locos as weight. If your motor heats up even a little it could be detrimental.
Charles
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
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Considering certain other problems with gallium, including its behavior with aluminum and other metals and alloys, I fail to see what point there could be in using it in combination with some denser material actually suitable for locomotive weights, for what I presume would be some sort of formable weight like dental amalgam.
Gallium in europa est.
Germanium in europa est.
Gallium et germanium in europa sunt.
Desculpa me por favor. No me podia ayudar.
banjobenne1Does gallium weigh as much as lead?
No.
A cubic inch of gallium has less weight than a cubic inch of lead. The very first response in this thread was the correct answer.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Jim Fitzgerald's N Scale Cotton Brute set drawbar pull records - weight was depleted uranium.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
DSchmitt Jim Fitzgerald's N Scale Cotton Brute set drawbar pull records - weight was depleted uranium.
Given the weight of lead compare to most other metals, the ease with which it can be re-shaped, and its relatively low cost, why would you bother using anything else for weight in your locomotives or rolling stock?I asked at a local tire outlet if they had any used wheel balancing weights that I could buy, and got 10 or 12lbs of them for free.It turned out that they weren't all lead (some appeared to be zinc and others were steel, but there were lots of lead ones.
There's a thread HERE showing how to cast your own lead weights.
Wayne
I bought sheet lead off of Amazon in 3 thicknesses: 1/64, 1/32, 1/16. Quite a bit of it, actually.
I recommend that approach. I just cut out my pieces and stack them up.
Tungsten is available (so is fake tungsten, so be careful) in shapes and powder. You, practically speaking, CAN'T shape it, so you glue it in.
I use lead shot from a diving bag to make weights (for whatever reason, it was cheaper to get a 5lb diving bag than 5lbs of lead shot). The lead shot is easy to melt and form without taking up much space compared to other metals, so as long as it's handled carefully, it's a very useful metal.
As others have said, gallium has too low of a melting temperature and density to be useful on railroads, unless you're modeling a hot metal facility that needs liquid metal to look good.
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Darth Santa Fe ...unless you're modeling a hot metal facility that needs liquid metal to look good.
...unless you're modeling a hot metal facility that needs liquid metal to look good.
Hmm...
I've saved out a whole pile of mercury light switches, from Olden Tymes. Since I already made a "silver" penny, maybe I've got a use for it/them.
PS: Gallium melts at 85.57F. So, not only might a motor in a locomotive cause it to melt, so might Florida or Texas.
7j43kI bought sheet lead off of Amazon in 3 thicknesses: 1/64, 1/32, 1/16. Quite a bit of it, actually. I recommend that approach.
I used to pound fishing weights flat, then I bought the sheet lead like you described. An old paper cutter from a thrift store cut it into sections that fit in HO cars easily.
I also recommend this approach.
Paper cutter is an excellent choice. Scissors work well, too.
Tinsnips are NOT necessary.
doctorwayneGiven the weight of lead compare to most other metals, the ease with which it can be re-shaped, and its relatively low cost, why would you bother using anything else for weight in your locomotives or rolling stock?
This is one of the sensible nuclear coolants, like NaK without the reactivity... if you overlook that l'il business about polonium-210.
I still dimly remember books from the '50s that advocated Cerro-Bend (melts in boiling water!) and Woods metal from sprinkler activation for homemade weights...
For the sake of one more whack at the equine: the use of gallium anywhere in weights would be solely as an alloying agent with lead to decrease melting point. Let me stick all the nerd stuff in a reference link that only the interested would need to peruse.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02663678
You can get 5 pounds of lead for the price of one pound of Cerrobend. And it's 25% heavier.
I would reserve it for special purposes, like filling an irregular void. Speaking of which, compared to lead shot, it has no voids. That can wipe out lead's higher density.
I'll stick with lead, everything else here seems complicated and costly for me.
Maybe 25 years ago I made the mistake of saying at a supply house, "I'll take a piece of the sheet lead, cut me a'' (I do not remember the exact size I asked for) but let's say it was maybe 4' x 6' maybe 8'. I bearly could lift it on to the truck let alone get it up to the second floor of the shop. This is the only piece of lead I bought besides 2 or 3 pre-package what 1'' x 12'' strips which IIRC had painted ends (yellow or green) to identify the thickness. Well I did buy a gallon can of Fishing sinkers at an Auction cheap because nobody wanted them.
No lie, right now I have close to 2000+ lbs of lead in sheets, ingots, window weights and CI pipe joints. Wayback when the scrap yard was giving .08 a lb. I figured it was not worth it to take in, so I stock piled it.
The below picture shows Bowser caboose floor weights and Stewart slope sheets cut and punched, ready to install.
PC101and Stewart slope sheets cut and punched, ready to install.
I used the supplied steel slope sheet weights on my Stewart U-channel hoppers, but used a utility knife to cut sheet lead into ones that fit atop the slope sheets and into the hopper bays. The regular Stewart hoppers, when empty, are rather light, so the extra weight helps to keep them tracking well. Loaded, each car tips the scales at 9oz.
MisterBeasley Can you go to your local bait and tackle shop and buy gallium fishing weights?
Well you can't go to your local bait and tackle shop and buy depleted uranium fishing weights either, so I guess by your logic lead is more dense than depleted uranium.
PC101No lie, right now I have close to 2000+ lbs of lead in sheets, ingots, window weights and CI pipe joints. Wayback when the scrap yard was giving .08 a lb. I figured it was not worth it to take in, so I stock piled it.
A few years ago there was internet rumors (lies) that sheet lead was going to be "outlawed", so I bought a lifetime supply.
Your stash however, puts mine to shame, and I never stamped any specialized shapes.
Great work!
If gallium is liquid at fairly low temperatures I wonder if it could be used to represent molten steel filling a mold or slag being dumped from a slag car.
Getting the right color might be difficult.
mvlandsw If gallium is liquid at fairly low temperatures I wonder if it could be used to represent molten steel filling a mold or slag being dumped from a slag car. Getting the right color might be difficult.
I mentioned earlier in this topic that gallium melts around 86F. So I guess it depends on what temperature you keep your layout at.
I also mentioned in an earlier post the possibility of using mercury, which melts at -40F. So it's liquid at all normal room termperatures, and would be a better choice. I see you can get it from Amazon.
Just looked, you can buy gallium on Amazon. $575 for a kilogram
Lastspikemike One assumes this is firmly tongue in cheek. Mercury is basically highly poisonous and deserves the highest level of respect if you have to make use of it. I thought we were in the business of simulating reality here...
One assumes this is firmly tongue in cheek. Mercury is basically highly poisonous and deserves the highest level of respect if you have to make use of it.
I thought we were in the business of simulating reality here...
I thought by now everyone knew that you could only coat mercury on a copper penny one time, in your entire life--the second time, you die a horrible death. And the third time is even worse.
Here is a presentation concerning mercury:
https://app.croneri.co.uk/feature-articles/mercury-and-its-compounds-safe-handling-and-dealing-spillages#:~:text=Avoid%20inhaling%20mercury%20vapor%20and%20use%20suitable%20gloves,data%20sheet%20%28MSDS%29%20for%20mercury%20before%20using%20it.
Summing up: Do not heat up your mercury. Do not ingest your mercury. Do not spill/lose track of your mercury. When you're tired of playing with it, dispose of it properly (look it up).
LastspikemikeMercury is basically highly poisonous
The dangerous forms of mercury are the ones that are bioavailable -- not the metallic element in liquid phase. Ethyl- and methylmercury are particularly ghastly in that respect: in fact more dangerous than the depleted uranium that was being bandied about a few posts ago.
But rubbing a little mercury on a coin isn't going to poison you, any more than amalgam in your teeth will. Even, I suspect, after the lovely shiny coin turns green with age...
Having said that... using mercury in adequate quantities to simulate metal pours? At Lionel O-27 level of fidelity since the stuff in bottle cars or slag dumps isn't silvery-colored? That's like... well, like using unplated DU weights in locomotives because you want contest winners. "Basically" risk out of proportion to reason, indeed. Gallium will ruin most metallic stuff it touches, both irreversibly and with no practical way to get it out or stop it once it starts...
(if you want the slag experience, make an appropriately viscous silicone fluid, dye it with the right combination of UV-fluorescent dyes to show color and dimming when illuminated with different combinations of intensity and wavelength, and provide hidden UV illumination for 'dumping time'.)
Overmod...(if you want the slag experience, make an appropriately viscous silicone fluid, dye it with the right combination of UV-fluorescent dyes to show color and dimming when illuminated with different combinations of intensity and wavelength, and provide hidden UV illumination for 'dumping time'.)
Good advice, Overmod, but in my opinion, such animation is still just another version of Lionel's "giraffe car".
I've seen plenty of slag-dumping (and a couple smaller spills of steel and iron) in my time in the steel industry....I think sound might also be a requirement for more realism. (Another reason why I don't use, or need, DCC.)