Source for lead weight
 

I am wondering where to get lead weight (s) for the nose of my BUSA Sopwith Pup. I will need 1/2 - 1 lb, and I wold like to do it in 1 - 2 pieces . Not the little "stick ons"

Any help appreciated.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

get fishing lead weights. I'll melt them down into whatever size & shape I need.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

YOu might try a dive shop they have some serious led weights.
or a tire shop ask for used tire weights they have taken off tires.

Larry S

RE: Source for lead weight
 

I have several 25 pound bags of lead shot from my reloading days, I make up custom molds from tin foil then just melt and poor. Most any gun shop has it in stock. You can also melt down wheel weights, I used to get it at my local tire shop for free.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Visit your local tire shop and see if you can talk them out of a bunch of used wheelweights. Then melt them down skim off the steel clips and cast them into appropriately sized and shaped weights.

Tas

RE: Source for lead weight
 

I used to keep some sheet lead, used for roof flashing , for use as cushions in by vise jaws. I found that the 1/8" sheets were great for making custom lead weights for the planes. When I ran short, I went to the roofing supply to buy another strip and got the shock of my life. a 4" x 4ft, x 1/8" thick lead sheet was going to cost me close to $50. Iwent back to my scrap bin and dug out the old wheel weights, fishing sinkers and clipping from my first lead sheet. Some 28 year back, I was building a balsa kit of the spirit of America America's cups first winner. I needed about 15 lbs of lead balast for it and I had been saving up for years. I found that I could use an old cast iron skillet, about 6" in diameter and my torch and make pan cakes of lead what ever thickness I needed and then use some old sheet metal shears to cut it to size. All of the melting done outside with a good breeze to carry the fumes away and disperse them.

I've still got the boat kit, with the hull framed up and a couple courses of sheeting laid down. I haven't touched it in some 28 yeasr now other than to move it from NY to Mich, to NY to Ca, and then again in CA. . Man, it seems like yesterday.

Don

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Hwere is something I've heard of that might work for you and would be permanent. Mix some BBs with epoxy. Then you just pour the mix where you need the weight, and the best part is it will not move.
Good luck with however you fix it.
Alan

RE: Source for lead weight
 

This is what I do too. anyplace that does tire work from a big tire shop to a local gas station will always have a bucket full of those lead weights that they need to dispose of regularly. They are always happy to let you take a few handfulls.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

I use the self adhesive strips of lead weight made for balancing alloy wheels. They're marked in 5 gram and 10 gram segments (probably marked in ounces where you come from) and as the name suggests are self adhesive. No lead fumes or dangerous molten metal required.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

try the chick hobby shop, hobby lobby. It's called caming. Used in making stained glass projects.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

I also find that using lead shot and epoxy works best and is easiest to use. There is no heat involved and it is easy to fit into odd shaped areas. If necessary, you can even make balsa molds or partitions to contain the mixture anywhere you want it using scrap balsa. On the cheap, if no great amount of weight is required, even sand or small rocks and epoxy works well.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

This plane had three pounds of lead shot and epoxy mixed up and I flowed it into the inside of the cowl ring. It held like iron welded to the cowl!!
I have also made up weight boxes but not out of balsa, I used light ply because of the weight going into them can break the wood and leave you tail heavy when it falls out. On a hard landing even the ply can break apart.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Try McMaster, you can order sheets in several thickness, width and length. I use 1/16 and 1/32 sheets to form inside the cowl to add weight. It works great and can be reused on multiple planes.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#lead/=3hmm9s

Jeff

RE: Source for lead weight
 

contact your local plumber.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Hey Greybeard. Is that you in the pic? If it is,you're not nearly as ugly as I pictured !!! Oh, & where is the rest of the beard ??? I had to look for awhile to find you. That beautiful plane sure does outshine you ..

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Man, unless the guy has been retired for 20 years and still has a lot of inventory from when he was young, he isn't going to have any. Idon't think they have used cast iron with lead and jute seals since the 60's. Maybe for some repairs, but since the late 60's, PVC has been the drain of choice. Back in 1980, we were renting half of an old house that had been converted to a duplex in Rhinebeck Ny when I was in Poughkeepsie for a year long temp. Within 2 days of moving in, the kitchen drain pulgged up. Being mr fixit , i started taking inventory of what I had to work with in the way of tools, and went down in the basement to get a look at what was comming out of the wall. Back up stairs and call the landlord and tell him that he had a problem. "couldn't be, I put draino down it before you moved in. After some arm twisting, he agreed to send the plumber. I watched the poor sucker and though he was earning every penny he was getting and then some. The drain was a moving history of plumbing, (the house was about 150 years old). PVC from the sink to the wall. It looked like copper coming through the floor into some gavanized pipe for 10 feet or so. That dumped into some castiron with lead seals, then into a notch in the dirt heading to the wall. There was a section of actuallead pipe, collapsed and dented, that was tied into a ceramic tiles going out of the house. I'm glad I wasn't paying the tab. The plumber was there for over 10 hours replacing all the way fromthe sink to the foundation and tieing back in all the feeds.

Garage sales are a good place to pick up old spools of solder. Shoot for the solid core vs the acid orrossin core. You can wind it around motor mounts and the likes for temp instlations untilyou find the balance you want. IT usually will be a 1lb or 2 lb spool with abut 3 inches used offthe end. I'll use itto solder together sheet lead to fit a nitch, then epoxy theslug in place.That gives you a lothigher density than you will getwith theepoxy/lead shot, or especially BB and epoxy.

You could always use the weight of choice for Cal Poly's Aero 101 glider day,rolls of pennys.Ithink the rules require at least$1.00 worth of pennys for a load in their contest.We fly from a field that we built for Cal Poly,and clean up the next couple weeksusually yields 5 or6 bucks worth of pennys. Ithink $12 was the upper limit a couple years back. Copper, or Copper/zink like the newer pennys is a fairly dense material and would make good weights,not as good a lead, but OK.

Don

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Go to your local sporting goods store and get duck decoy weights. They come in one foot strips and are about 3/4inch wide and are pretty cheap....Brian

RE: Source for lead weight
 

It is true my beard is gray and I wear one most the time but the handle was a hunting accident, nothing I chose but was given by one of my best friends. He died but the name stuck for a while, well, the one he stuck me with, it isn't the complete name but I can't print the rest!!;) It had something to do with a group of guys and a lot of beer though. :eek: I only use it in his memory. Nothing to do with age or wisdom, just beer.
It was a duck hunting trip when I got stuck with it too. Decoy anchor weight is just a strip of very soft lead so it can be twisted around the neck or anchor of the decoy, they are pretty high dollar too but would work great, it shapes very well and can be hammered into some odd shapes.
The epoxy and shot or shot melted and poored into a custom shaped foil form is still my choices. When I installed a 40cc gasser in that plane I tried to remove some of that lead/epoxy mix and it really stuck in that glass cowl very well. I had to use a heat gun and hand held pry to remove it.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

This is my choice too. Go to a gun shop. I bought a 20 pound bag of shotgun pellets 25 years ago. Still have about 8 pounds left. Mix with epoxy and pour where you want it to live.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

For the people who are using lead shot bought 20+ years ago: It is no longer cheap.

Cabelas gets $24.99 for 5 pounds of Hornaday lead buck shot and $50.99 for 11 pounds of Ballistic Products nickel plated lead shot

50 pounds, $79.99 http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/...t_magnum_8.htm
50 pounds of "reclaimed" shot, $66.99 http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/...ot_reclaim.htm

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Lead shot and epoxy is a good way to go. But if you want some serious weight, try .50 caliber percussion pistol ammo. Don't know what it costs these days but I have a bunch from long ago.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

20 years ago it was almost the same price at Cabelas and Big Five, even smaller gun shops. These places are selling to low volume users and not real hand loaders. Gun clubs, the better ones at least, sell to high volume users at a much cheaper price. 6 years ago I bought 300 pounds at $13.00 per 25 pound bag. People buying buck only load up a few rounds, there are only 9 pellets in a load, kind of special stuff. BP shot is special stuff for waterfowl hunters, non toxic, it's cheaper to just buy your duck loads then to hand load. Hevy Shot cost even more!!
Tire shops would be the best place to pick up your lead if they will give it to you. Today they sell it and make a pretty good bit of money for it. I'm still holding a couple hundred pounds of lead shot so I think I am OK for a few more modeling years. Brass BBs are too big and too light.

RE: Source for lead weight
 

Hi Jlrskymaster.

Have you considered a larger/heavier engine for your Pup? A small moki radial just might do the trick for weight and power. Just manage your power level closely so that you dont over-stress the airframe.

Just an idea for your consideration....

Carlos G