Cutters

I use Xuron track cutters or, if one isn’t available, simple diagonal cutters.  Orient the blades so you get the straight cut on the good side and you should be able to, cut them quickly and easily.

cutting lead

You can cut thin lead with tin shears or thicker lead with a hacksaw. It's soft enough that a chisel and hammer works well too. ...DaveB

Cut/Snap

I find they usually snap off quite nicely if you bend them back and forth on the separation line, then just slice the paper/sticky backing with a sharp knife. But otherwise standard cutters as mentioned above.

One quarter of the WIDTH off,

One quarter of the WIDTH off, that’s a lot of cutting for multiple cars. Might be easier to cast them using your weights as a source.

Know any black powder shooters or fishermen that make their own bullets or weights? You could fashion plaster molds from plastic or balsa masters...

  "Know any black powder

I've cast lead in wooden molds, it's low enough melting temp that it doesn't burn the wood too much . For larger wooden molds there are things that can be painted onto the wood to protect it. One big caution is to make sure the mold is dry as pouring lead into a wet mold can cause steam explosion! Probably best to do any lead casting  outside to avoid the fumes . Probably better to forget casting and just buy some weights :> ) .....DaveB

If purchased recently they

If purchased recently they may be bismuth. Lead has been out for wheel weights for the most part for a while now.

If so, it has a very low melting point if you were to cast as mentioned above.

You might search for Joe Fugate’s comments

on car weights.  I forget where it was but he came up with a less toxic element that had a higher specific gravity.  He mixed it with a binding medium and molded it to fit.  It was a very good idea.

Nick 

zinc micron powder .......

Turns out they are newer than I thought and are zinc micron powder in epoxy .  These are MUCH harder than lead.  With zinc being about half the specific gravity of lead I guess that is why they don't fit (need twice the volume for the same weight). 

Rail nippers wont touch these and they are too thick for side cutters.   A hack saw works but there are just too many to go this route, plus the epoxy makes it even harder.   Too small of a project to try the Sawz All - though it worked wonder on the flat bar stock for the gons.

I have gobs of true lead, I smelt my own dive weights up to 17 lbs, but I really don't want to go that route. 

@ Nick I guess that will be Plan B and I'll keep an eye out for a Plan C while I'm at it

Steve

See Running Extra

See the November 2019 Running Extra:
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/running-extra/2019-11/publishers-welcome

MRH Store: https://store.mrhmag.com/store/p203/RE2019-11.html

Yes, it's $2.99, but if you use the monthly coupon code, you will save 60 cents, making it $2.39 for the issue.

I use a mixture of tungsten powder and Portland Cement to get a powder you can mix with water and pour into any nook-or-cranny to add extra weight.

Solid tungsten is 1.8x the density of lead (that's right it's heavier), but in powder form there's a lot of air in between the granules, so it's probably closer to 1.0x the weight of solid lead in powder form.

Plus when you mix it 1 part cement to 2 parts tungsten powder, that brings it down in density even more, but it'still going to be heavier than those zinc powder weights. And you can mix it with water and literally *pour* it into any nook and cranny on your rolling stock!

Frankly, I was surprised to hear you got lead stick on tire weights because many states have banned lead tire weights. Now that you say they're just zinc powder in epoxy, that makes a lot more sense.

Tungsten putty

Where space is tight, I'd use tungsten putty.  It's sold for pinewood derby cars.  Tungsten weighs 1.74 times as much as the same volume of lead and because it's putty, it will conform to fill whatever space you have.

It's too pricey for boxcars, but filling in spaces under flatcars and empty hoppers is worth it.

Not as useful as it sounds

I've tried tungsten putty, but it's not as useful as it sounds if you need to get it to conform to a lot of tiny odd spaces. It's very sticky and very thick, think trying to form stiff cold tar.

It was my frustration with tungsten putty that led me to develop my tungsten powder mix.

My tungsten powder mix is about the same density as cerrobend low-melting point metal, but it's a lot more convenient -- and a lot less toxic.

Cerrobend and many other affordable low-melting point metals contain cadmium, which is nasty stuff if you happen to ingest any of it (such as from filings).

Thanks Joe...

now I remember why I was saving all those burned out light bulbs too!!!

Nick

97 dollars a pound

searched for tungsten powder, available from Wyoming, ouch, that doubles the cost of a car

Rose's Metal

Doesn't have cadmium at melts at 208 degrees.

https://www.rotometals.com/roto208f-low-melt-fusible-bismuth-based-alloy-ingot-roses-metal/

Thanks all.

The stick on weights where a Craigslist purchase that were supposed to be real lead. FYI lead has a Specific Gravity (SP) of 11.3. I got these for about 55 cents an ounce

Thanks Joe for that. Tungsten has a SP of 19.3, the same as gold (and why they use it to fake gold bars). At $5 to $10 an ounce it might as well be gold to me. I need about 5 oz a car to get them close to weight.

I did find some Bismuth Shot. It has a SP of about 9 and its better at $1 an ounce in bulk. A little better but I would still need something cheaper.

I called a friend who reloads and he pointed me to graphite coated shot. It's supposed to be real lead just with a thin coating of graphite. I'm not sure how much a coating of graphite makes compared to just lead but he swears by it as it flies true unlike anything other than basic lead - and it's reasonably available. You can get 25 pounds for about $65 (16 cents an ounce) but who needs 400 ounces to weight cars! I found a smaller amount for a little more per ounce but the cheapest so far. I will give that a try.

BTW I found this old (2013) MRH thread on car weights that was an interesting read

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/freight-car-weighting-ho-12194663

I've tried tungsten putty,

Interesting timing.  In the most recent "Cody's Office" video he demos the use of the putty on a freight car.  He doesn't appear to have the problems you describe.  My experience is more like Cody's.  It's definitely not modeling clay, but it's not like cold hard tar either.  Maybe you got a bad/old batch?  This stuff has survived on the market as a solution for pinewood derby cars too long for it to be as useless as you describe.  Surely your modeling skills are at least equal to those of a cub scout. 

There is still the issue of cost to overcome.

Cutting stick on lead weights

Hi Gang:

The other option for "cutting" lead weights is to use an arbor press to squeeze them to size. I've made nice cubes of lead from fishing weights. Another source of lead is the lead foil from dentist X-ray film. If you know any target shooters ask them if you can dig the lead bullets out of their back stop. ( I have a half gallon of each. )

Carl.

Here's the chart from my Rolling Stock book

Here's the chart showing the density and cost-per-oz analysis I did for my Make it run like a Dream Rolling Stock book. You can get fairly affordable tungsten powder made for golfers -- they use it to pour down their club handle to add mass to their swing.

If you want cheap, try steel wheel weights ... available on Amazon, for example. With some bolt cutters, you ought to be able to trim them to size with a bit of effort. They're certainly cheap.

If you want the cheapest lead you can buy, you can buy all manner of lead sheets on Amazon, and you can cut them to shape with scissors.

Micro-Mark sells actual stick on lead weights, but they're pricey, running $11 for about 12oz of weights -- and that's before shipping.

Steve, perhaps as another option

Steve, perhaps as another option, is fishing weight. There are a couple of ranch/farm supply stores here that have a pretty extensive fishing display. In the weight section they carry this rolled lead.

It's 3/16 dia, cut what you need, shape to fit, glue it in place.

In small quantities,

plumbing solder will also suffice for weighting cars, for those who might have such a material kicking around the shop.  I have an old roll salvaged from my Dad's basement, my old roll (pre no-lead plumbing), as well as a roll of the new equivalent.  The latter is lighter, the old stuff is densest.  Any of these could also be melted and poured into a plaster mold.

Blair

a good source for lead is

a good source for lead is roto metals out of san leandro, ca. and yes they ship.

roto metals.com

@ packrat

I did use them.  4 pounds of #7.5 shot since this will be used just for my bulkhead flat car "fleet".  I thought I had finished them all up but wound up ordering "just one more"

@ 2tracks where is here and what was the source... just in case others are looking

Steve

Nickel-plated lead shot

It looks like the better option to avoid "lead rot" is nickel-plated lead shot:

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Nickel-Plated-Lead-Shot/products/519/

Looks like #9 would be the best, it's the tiniest ball size ... 0.082" ... that will fit better in nooks and crannies. And since it's copper and double-nickel plated, no worries about lead rot!

At $50 for 11 pounds plus $15 shipping, that works out to be about 37 cents per ounce -- compared to the other inexpensive lead method -- lead sheet at 55 cents per ounce.

Here again is my rolling stock weighting chart from my Run like a Dream ROLLING STOCK book:

Pennies

I use pennies, they're lead-free, and cheaper than buying weights. Plus, I avoid having to run them through Coinstar and then buying weights for my trains- they just go into a jar on the railroad.

I actually have an elongated gondola I picked up at a train show a few years ago that's completely full of pennies. It's probably 5x NMRA weight, so it has to go behind the locomotives. It's for train shows, along with a car carrying pencils, ping-pong balls, and some other goofy stuff.

For cars that I'm weighting to spec, I usually try to get 90-95% of the parts on the scale, and measure out pennies to go slightly over NMRA weight, so that I end up at 1.1-1.2x NMRA. Depending on who you ask, the correct weight is somewhere between slightly over NMRA to anywhere as high as 2x NMRA, with the median being 1.5x.