I thought I'd pull this out into a new thread as it was buried off-topic in another one. We were discussing an item on my website about weighting freight cars - open hoppers in particular - where we need to fill odd, out-of-sight cavities like this: These are some of the relevant bits from the other thread: "If you still have the problem with weight, I've heard that soft, formable tungsten is (a) heavier and (b) more flexible to use as weight. It's sold in the fishing tackle departments of our Wal-Marts, so I suspect you may find it at a place where you buy fishing tackle. Just thought I'd pass that along..." "The weight is now adequate for my purposes, but in my searches for small shot (in the UK) I never came across tungsten, though several other lead substitutes cropped up. Mind you, now you said that I'm not certain that what I have is lead " (The shot I bought is not actually labelled with what it is made from) "I read some time ago on this board that tungsten can be bought at golf supply stores. It's used to weight clubs. It comes in a small container." Now, following the above comments I did a bit of searching and indeed found "Tungsten putty" in many fishing sites, by several manufacturers and in more than one 'type' (some claiming much greater densities). The common thing was that (judging by the pictures) they all came in small packs costing in the region of $5 to $10 a pack. No-one quoted a weight, and on my experience with buying shot I suspect these packs may be little more than an ounce or two. This would make it an expensive option . So: Has anyone used this stuff? What is it really like? Can it be got in 'bulk' amounts, which would presumably be a bit or even a lot cheaper?
This was the very first thought that crossed my mind as I read through this thread. It would indeed seem to be a costly option. Boxcab E50
