'Stick-on' balancing weights

[Prop Nut]

Needing some stick-on weights, recently, an internet search threw up some that are 4 x 5gms and 4 x 10gms on an adhesive backing, which most model retailers price at around £4 for three strips. Postage can be quite eye-watering as, by definition, weights are weighty! (A well-known online model shop charges £3.50 for 3-5 day delivery). However, I found an Ebay supplier marketing the identical item as motorcycle/car wheel weights (though he also includes model aircraft in the body of his listing) at £5.69 for ten strips, with free First Class postage, a saving of around two-thirds! I ordered one day and received them the next. His Ebay member ID is budgettyres, or you can search for 'stick on wheel weights'.

[Ian Jones]

Aha, could be handy, I'm after a church roof's worth.

 

(no it's not me putting up the crime figures )

[Del Wheatley]

Or you could pop along to the local car tyre fitter because stick on weights are used to balance alloy car wheels,they range from 2g right up to in exess of 30g.

[Alan Cantwell]

i went to the local tyre place too, 50 strips for a tenner, mind you, i also had 300quids worth of tires!!! bit i have bought them before, he says he buys them by the pallet load

[Stephen Grigg]

Same here get them from tyre depots.

[RichieW]

Or, go to a local double glazing fitter and get some lead flashin waste for free.

 

Add a bit of cw and, voila.

 

Ian if u need some still when ur around next, let me know I've got a fair bit .

 

Rich

[Phil May]

Tyre depot for me to.

Slip a lad a couple of Her Majesty's finest and come away with a pocket full.

I do tend to wick a bit of cyano as a back up to the adhesive tape, never had one fall off, yet.

 

Phil

[Reno Racer]

As piece of mind I also drill through and then screw the weights onto my planes. I've had a few come loose before when just using the sticky backed foam, particulary if any fuel gets near the adhesive.

 

Better safe than tail heavy and sorry mid flight.

[Paul Adams]

I melt mine down into a circular mold (two bits of mdf which I clamped in a vice and drilled into along the joint line). Then with the same drill, I drill into the model (somewhere not structural), then a bit of epoxy, glue them in flush with the surface. A bit of trim then goes over the hole to hide the end.

 

 

 

[Malcolm Fisher]

I've balanced many a glider by drilling into the nose block then melting enough lead to do the job and pouring it in at just above melting point. There's a bit of scorhing but the weight never comes out.

Malcolm

[Bob Cotsford]

Good luck on melting modern wheel weights, most of them are steel these days

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 06/01/2012 21:01:21

[GrahamC]

If you need a lot of weight, say to balance a war bird check out diving weights on eBay.

Funy how sometimes modelers can be helped by other hobbies.

Now diving weights are heavy and are only any good for those who are looking for a lot of weight, but I have a club mate who needs about a kilo on the front of his fairly large hurricane, and I reckon a 1kg lead weight for about ?7 is one of the easiest ways of fixing that kind of mass at the front of a plane. A few chunky cable ties should fix it easily given the shape.

Also real lead shot is surprisingly cheap when bought for diving purposes if you want to melt it to make your own shapes.

It is odd that lead is readily available to divers but not modellers. I reckon that the reason that we are not allowed to buy real lead from the model suppliers has to do with model equipment being classed as toys by the powers that be. Either that or they reckon we can't be trusted not to put it in our mouths!

Edited By GrahamC on 06/01/2012 23:20:00

Edited By GrahamC on 06/01/2012 23:32:52

[PlaneMike]

Working repairing full-size propellers, we use 'lead wool' stuffed up the bore for balance.

Not the most convenient for models, it needs to be compressed firmly or else little pieces drop keep coming off, however Occupational Health and Safety told us at work never to touch it with bare hands, and always wash-up after. Never had it in a model since and

now just use the steel stick-on weights mentioned. As for melting, the fumes are toxic too.

 

Fishing sinkers come cheap in all sizes, and we used to play with them as kids! My liver

probably needs all the help it can get.

[Del Wheatley]

For those that want to melt a bit down budget brands of air rifle pellets are cheap and easily available on the high street.

i've just weighed half a tin of .22 caliber and it's 10 oz,so for about 6 quid you should get about a pound of lead in small easy melted peices.

Edited By Del Wheatley on 07/01/2012 01:57:51

[Dave Bran]

Posted by Del Wheatley on 07/01/2012 01:30:28:

For those that want to melt a bit down budget brands of air rifle pellets are cheap and easily available on the high street.

i've just weighed half a tin of .22 caliber and it's 10 oz,so for about 6 quid you should get about a pound of lead in small easy melted peices.

Edited By Del Wheatley on 07/01/2012 01:57:51

and if it doesn't work, you can always shoot yourself...........................

 

I have a nice large stock of remeltable to any shape/size lead piping, from my house, removed 1981 and still plenty stashed away down the bottom of the garden!

[Dave Bran]

BTW, if filling a nose, much easier to make pellets by dropping into water (and safely keeping your distance of course), then using epoxy to hold in place.

 

Just dug an old recently inherited gliders pelleted ballast out of a nose to motorise it, been there OK 40 years plus ....held in by plasticine!!

[David Tweddle]

Posted by Reno Racer on 06/01/2012 19:57:24:

As piece of mind I also drill through and then screw the weights onto my planes.

The reason being that in use they are secured by centrifugal force exerting on the weight, forcing it towards the inside of the wheel rim.

A 30 gram weight held on by the flimsy tape supplied will give when subjected to a high G turn.

They are fit for the intended purpose of use as wheel balance weights, but in time the elements will weaken the tape...

Do you feel lucky...

David

[ben goodfellow 1]

i repair /weld alloy wheels on a regular basis them sticky weights do take some getting off , my grinder usaly does the trick though....

[Ade Eades (Eadsie)]

I use the balance weights you get when you buy a home ceiling fan, they are quite weighty and sticky-back, i have a few in my flight bag now (i'm an electrician so fit a few) they feel like lead. great for my small sokhoi bird.