Ballast weight.

[Mooneyjock]

What do most builders use for ballast weight and what is a good source?
Thanks,

[Das Boot]

I use stick on weights for aluminum wheels. Lead free too.
https://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Weights...ps%2C93&sr=8-8

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What do most builders use for ballast weight and what is a good source?
Thanks,

Lead. Friends in the re-cycling industry.
















David

[Das Boot]

I’d like to live a while longer.

[rwtdiver]

I use stick on weights for aluminum wheels. Lead free too.
https://www.amazon.com/Wheel-Weights...ps%2C93&sr=8-8

Casey is right!

If you cannot mold and pour your own, these weights are great!

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"

[redboat219]

Rebars. Painted.

[type7]

Duck decoy weights. Not as cheap as they used to be but very handy shape and easy to find.

[goshawk823]

#7 birdshot in a slurry of epoxy.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

#7 birdshot in a slurry of epoxy.

Which pretty much paints you in a corner. I like the flexibility of bolting billets of lead into the hull and moving them around as required.

[redboat219]

If money is no problem, gold and silver.
USS Trout evacuated about 6.5 tons of gold from Corregidor during WW2.

https://corregidor.org/chs_trident/uss_trout.htm

[RCSubGuy]

I love the decoy weights. I use them extensively. For fine trim, self-adhesive balancing weights for car wheels. I've also done the lead shot/epoxy thing for bigger boats where you need some considerable weight to get close to the right trim.

Rebars. Painted.

Oh, heaben help us.. LOL.. They certainly work, but look pretty rough if you're into a clean install of your internals. Also, despite a good slathering of paint, eventually those things are going to rust, pool in the bottom of your hull and drip rust down the belly of your boat.

Not knocking it, as it certainly works and is very cheap, but its just not the way that I'd recommend someone go.


Bob

[Bob Gato]

Nope-I have two rebars down each side the hull of my Gato at the 5 and 7 o-clock positions -They're wire brushed, acid washed coated with epoxy and painted black old school Rustoleum since 2003 (they look kinda high tech in semi gloss black) I use them like external Tech Rails-The WTC/s are strapped to them with Velcro straps. Still no rust... in fact I now use rebar in my surface boats. (cant get lead in NY)

As for "molded in ballast"-I would like to hear from someone who has tried sand mix concrete or ultracal 30..I'd bet if you could cast some nice removable conformal shapes -then the epoxy and paint-BG

[wlambing]

I buy a box of self-adhesive (foam tape) wheel weights from NAPA. They come in strips with each 1/4 ounce segment marked for cutting. Expensive at almost $100 USD, but you can ballast out a bunch of boats with one box. Once you kill the tape (one time use), you can RTV them in place. IIRC it takes 3 whole strips to equal 1 pound. Each strip is about 1 foot long. One box is more than enough to ballast out a 1/48 scale OTW Oberon class, or similar. I have also used lead .36 caliber black powder pistol balls, smashed flat with a hammer, to trim out 1/96 scale modern nuke hulls. RTV'd in place.

[rwtdiver]

I have 15 3D Printed subs, and this is what works for me!



These are wheel weights from Amazon, and if I have an order to make with Bob at Nautilus I have hime throw in some of the weights that he sells.

So far, I have had no issues with them coming off.

Rob
"Firemen can stand the heat"

[goshawk823]

Which pretty much paints you in a corner. I like the flexibility of bolting billets of lead into the hull and moving them around as required.

Hi David. I used to lay it out in narrow bars on waxed paper until it hardened. I could break off pieces and add small pieces in areas of the hull where needed. Not nearly as clean as your method, but I didn’t have to cook anything in the kitchen to mold them. I like the idea of wheel weights like Rob is showing too.