weighing you rolling stock

[Eddystone]

I would like to know what you guys and galls are using to weigh your rolling stock, how acurate of a scale do you use? I was thinking of getting a inexpensive postage scale at one of the large office supply stores and was wondering if it would work for this. Almost forgot, I'm a HO scale modeler.
Thanx

[cacole]

A digital postage scale would probably be accurate enough for what you want to do, especially for the NMRA HO scale weight recommendations.

[fmilhaupt]

I've been using a 30+ year-old spring-operated postal scale for years with good results.

For weights, I've taken to using pennies, held in with silicone RTV caulk. The caulk is less expensive than ACC and is less prone to shearing away from the pennies.

[IRONROOSTER]

I use a diet scale that has a small bowl. It's handy for holding all the parts of a kit, then I add weights. You can calibrate your scale using pennies - 1 penny weighs 1/10 ounce. For weighting cars where possible I use pennies with white glue. I have some cast metal cows for my wooden stockcar.

Enjoy
Paul

[Doug Goulbourn]

I also use an old spring operated postal scale and find it accurate enough for HO. If a person wants to get one of the digital scales now available, I believe Micro-Mark carries them, although I imagine office supply stores have a wider selection.
I use automotive wheel weights that are 1/4 oz. each. These have the advantage of being self-sticking. These should be available at most auto parts stores in bulk or one might be able to talk to a tire shop and grab a quantity of used weights for free. Hope this helps a little.

Doug

[Anonymous]

I use shotgun shot for weighing down cars with white glue to affix it, as well as real cargo (full loads of coal), or lead bars that I cut and ma***o the appropriate shape. Goop works well to hold weights in place.

Mark in Utah

[jrbernier]

I used to use an old 'Weight Watchers' spring scale. I know use a digital scale(about $20) that has a tray. This is really nice as I can 'load up' a kit with Kadee's and metal wheels in the tray and see what the actual weight is. Then I can add weight to get to the NMRA suggested weight.
For weight, I have used old pennies or nuts/bolts and glued them in. I now use the stick on weights. The old 'glue the pennies' trick usually has glue failure after a few years. For old load type cars and flat cars I use Adair Shops materials. They are sort of expensive, but they will get weight into those types of cars. Here is the URL:
http://www.adairshops.com/

Jim Bernier

[AntonioFP45]

Am switching over to a digital kitchen scale. Going to check one out at the Super Wal-Mart.

[jfugate]

I too use pennies on the closed-top cars like boxcars, refers, and covered hoppers.

I use double-stick foam tape. The pennies go in fast this way, and they stay put. You can get an 18" roll of the stuff for $20 at OfficeMax -- which is enough to do perhaps 100 cars!

For open top cars I use lead sheet -- you can get it from A-Line / Protopower West in many thicknesses. I replace the metal weights in opentop cars with lead sheet, and I also stuff lead sheet into the nooks and crannies of the underframe until I get the car up to NMRA weight specs, more or less. I glue it in with silcone sealant since that seems to hold better and is not as brittle as ACC/superglue.

I use a simplified weight rule of 1 ounce per 10 scale feet of car length in HO. This gives you a slightly heavier car than the NMRA specs, but it's still pretty close. Also, my rule is if I get the car within 1/2 ounce of the target and am running out of places to stuff weight (like in open top cars), then that's close enough.

Or 1/2 ounce overweight is okay too -- mostly this applies to cars I purchase off ebay that are already finished and weathered, and in that case if the weight is only 1/2 oz over, I'd rather not tear the car up to adjust it.

[Anonymous]

I use fishing weights. I can get 4 ounces for 50 cents at Academy. If a penny is 1/10 ounce then 4 ounces is 400 pennies or $4. So if you can get the same price I do fishing weights are 1/8 the price of pennies. Plus, where are you going to get 400 pennies![:D] You can only get so close in 1/4 ounce increments though, so I always go a little over if I cant get it exactly. I attach them with CA though I will have to try caulk considering its cheaperand stronger

[JohnT14808]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate

I use double-stick foam tape. The pennies go in fast this way, and they stay put. You can get an 18" roll of the stuff for $20 at OfficeMax -- which is enough to do perhaps 100 cars!

$20 for 18 inches of double sided tape??? Boy, did they see you coming[:D][:D]!! But it is a good idea; one I hadn't considered. I too, use shotgun shot, or fishing weights. I also had some left over lead chuncks from one of my son's PineWood Derby assemblies, so I used those as well. I use a digital scale that I got at Michaels ( about $12?) to weigh the PineWood cars with. Very handy and quite accurate.

[IRONROOSTER]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

I use fishing weights. I can get 4 ounces for 50 cents at Academy. If a penny is 1/10 ounce then 4 ounces is 400 pennies or $4. So if you can get the same price I do fishing weights are 1/8 the price of pennies. Plus, where are you going to get 400 pennies![:D] You can only get so close in 1/4 ounce increments though, so I always go a little over if I cant get it exactly. I attach them with CA though I will have to try caulk considering its cheaperand stronger

Uh actually 4 ounces of pennies is 40 pennies or 40 cents (10 to the ounce times 4 ounces). I always seem to have pennies on hand. I have jars, a***rays, cans full of them.

Enjoy
Paul

[tigerstripe]

I bought a box of steel BB's for $4, I have used it to weigh over 100 cars and still have over half of it left. It is the best for hopper cars.

[Anonymous]

I use pennies and walthers goo in boxcars. A digital kitchen scale from walmart.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

I use fishing weights. I can get 4 ounces for 50 cents at Academy. If a penny is 1/10 ounce then 4 ounces is 400 pennies or $4. So if you can get the same price I do fishing weights are 1/8 the price of pennies. Plus, where are you going to get 400 pennies![:D] You can only get so close in 1/4 ounce increments though, so I always go a little over if I cant get it exactly. I attach them with CA though I will have to try caulk considering its cheaperand stronger

Uh actually 4 ounces of pennies is 40 pennies or 40 cents (10 to the ounce times 4 ounces). I always seem to have pennies on hand. I have jars, a***rays, cans full of them.

Enjoy
Paul

OH MY GOSH[:I] How could I make such an error! I never was good at math.

[Anonymous]

"IRONROOSTER" I just knew there had to be a mathematician out there.
The "HARVEN

[mondotrains]

Double-Stick tape, as mentioned above, is kind of expensive. $20.00 to fasten pennies to 100 cars implies 20 cents per car. That's a little expensive and I can tell you that I use Alene's Tacky Glue, which costs around 89 cents for a bottle and can probably do 100 cars or more. It is thick white glue that is great for fastening dissimilar materials like pennies and plastic. I simply put a small 1/4" blob on the freight car floor, lay the first penny on the blob, then add another blob on top of the first penny. I keep stacking them this way although most frieght cars only require 2 pennies on each end of the car, directly over the trucks. When I've finished stacking the few pennies, I put a strip of glue forming a criss-cross over the whole stack and down to the surface of the car. I can tell you that the cost for this process is next to nothing.

By the way, even those self-sticking lead weights that I tried before switching to pennies tend to fall off eventually....the sticky stuff dries out over time. Therefore, on the cars that have those weights, I go back and put a criss-cross of Alene's Tacky Glue over them to insure they don't come loose.

Hope this helps.
Mondo

[Anonymous]

My Athearn Boxcars vary in penny weights. Some need 8 while others need 14 to reach 4 ounces.

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JohnT14808
$20 for 18 inches of double sided tape??? Boy, did they see you coming[:D][:D]!! But it is a good idea; one I hadn't considered.

No, John ... that's an 18" DIAMETER ROLL of double-sided foam tape. It contains 72 yards of tape, or 216 feet.

At 6" of tape per car, that's 400+ cars, not the 100 cars I mentioned earlier, making it about 5 cents per car. I've had the roll for two years now, have done dozens of cars, and only made a dent in it. I think the convenience and speed of mounting the pennies this way is worth 5 cents per car.

[JohnT14808]

A good point, Joe. I was only kidding...I thought you actually meant an 18 foot roll of tape, but a roll 18 inches in diameter....that's a bargain!

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JohnT14808

A good point, Joe. I was only kidding...I thought you actually meant an 18 foot roll of tape, but a roll 18 inches in diameter....that's a bargain!

I thought you might be kidding, John, with all the smileys [:D][:D], but it did give me a chance to give some more details! [;)]

[1shado1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

QUOTE: Originally posted by IRONROOSTER

QUOTE: Originally posted by JPM335

I use fishing weights. I can get 4 ounces for 50 cents at Academy. If a penny is 1/10 ounce then 4 ounces is 400 pennies or $4. So if you can get the same price I do fishing weights are 1/8 the price of pennies. Plus, where are you going to get 400 pennies![:D] You can only get so close in 1/4 ounce increments though, so I always go a little over if I cant get it exactly. I attach them with CA though I will have to try caulk considering its cheaperand stronger

Uh actually 4 ounces of pennies is 40 pennies or 40 cents (10 to the ounce times 4 ounces). I always seem to have pennies on hand. I have jars, a***rays, cans full of them.

Enjoy
Paul

OH MY GOSH[:I] How could I make such an error! I never was good at math.

I guess that explains how you could make such an error. [:D]

Jeff