As I get deeper and deeper into my loco restoration phase, I find that it is pro ably a good idea to paint the old lead form weights found in many engines. The reason for this is that I find the need to handle them frequently as I figure out things like the best routing for light wiring, balancing the fore and aft of a model, etc. What I do is to use an inexpensive can of flat black spray paint, found usually at your friendly Walmart, paint each weight on all sides completely, and then I feel more comfortable with handling them. I also do this with smaller car weights. Where I believe it comes in handy as well, is where the flat black does not reflect the LED or bulb light into other undesired areas of the engine interior. If I make any cuts to the existing weight in the rebuild process, I respray the entire weight to re-seal it’s surface. Hope this helps- and keeps others safe! Cedarwoodron
Unless your chewing on the weights and never wash your hands the lead is probably the least of your worries. As a big truck and heavy machine mechanic for almost forty years I deal with a lot worse stuff than lead every day. I was working on vehicles when asbestos was still used in brakes, clutches, gaskets and other parts. Read the can of brake clean. You probably have worse stuff in the water you drink. Paint if you want. It will probably be the paint that does you more harm then the lead.
Pete
Was gonna say the same thing. Lead isn’t absorbed through the body, you have to ingest it, in fairly large amounts in order for it to build up to dangerous levels in the body. So, don’t lick the weights, and wash your hands after messing with them and you’ll be fine. Only reason I paint them is to make them disappear on the models.
It would seem to me that at that same Wallyworld you could buy 100 disposable gloves in a box, good for 50 pairs for 50 loco uses.
That, along with washing hands thoroughly after “playing” would about totally mitigate your exposure to zero. You might stand a better chance of breathing it in then.
Gloves may be a little impractical though, if you are a sloppy solderer and melt them onto your fingers!
Lead is nasty if you have a buildup in your system form lots of ingestion, but I think you have little to worry about. You might have eaten more lead based paint in your very young youth than you will get exposed to in your adult life. You now know better than to chew on it!
ANd people wonder why Locomotives are labeled in CA to say “this item is known to the State of California to contain cancer causing agents” or whatever the phrase is.
[8-|]
I doubt that weights in model locos are lead, more likely to be white metal castings. Lead is soft, white metal is brittle/hard.
Some of my older locomotives – and by that I mean 30+ years old and some of the brass - have genuine lead for the weights. And I have used sheet lead to replace the sheet steel weights in what would otherwise be underweighted cars. While simple precautions such as washing of hands, not eating while modeling (back in the day they also recommended against smoking while handling lead) probably offer good protection, just to be safe I do paint my lead weights. I use acrylic paint, brushed on fairly thick. Encasing the lead in duct tape would be another alternative if you have the space (for freight car sheet weights the lead just drops in and there is no space to spare).
It is true we handle worse stuff, sometimes without even being aware of it, but that is no reason not to take precautions about lead.
Dave Nelson
As all note, handling lead in the engine weight removal, transfer or work is a true non-issue. Some older weight metals are a form of white metal with a lower melting point, (Woods, Rose, Lipowitz, etc.), alloys which also contain cadmium. Again, no big deal here unless you are smelting hundred pound lots daily or constantly machining or casting the stuff. Much ado about nothing, of course. Painting the metal to make it visually disappear is the only reason to paint it that makes sense.
Richard
As others have already noted, you run the greater risk with the Toluene, Xylene, and Naphtha found in the spray paint fumes than handling the lead itself.
Tom
The LION does use lead weights. Printer’s slugs. A dab of silicone and drop it into place. Printers have been handling these slugs for centuries with no ill effects. Same with lead type.
Lead in children is a problem, because children put everything into their mouths. The look out the window and chew the woodwork which may have lead paint on it, even if it was repainted recently with lead free paint, the previous tenants (from back in the 40s and 50s were not so fastidious about the lead. It may still be there.
There was a man who went fishing down by the ocean. During the night, the tide came in, and he got a little tuna in his Mercury.
ROAR
I don’t know the specific chemical composition of these engine weights, but most of the swap meet specials I have could be as new as 10 years old or as old as 40, as is the case with a Mantua 0-4-0 shifter I got last year. I wear a mask when spraying paint; I make sure that there is adequate ventilation when working with solvents and paints, so why not be a bit more careful with that I presume to be lead pieces. I can drill them with a standard steel drill bit, cut them with a gent’s saw, and while they MAY be another compund, they seem enough like lead to me to take a bit of precaution. The added effect of painting them to avoid secondary reflection of headlight LEDs back into the shell is an aside, but when you are over 50, natural caution is a more usual reaction in working around different materials, tools and such. That’s all the point I was trying to make. Cedarwoodron
Cedarwoodron.
I do hear what you are saying. Being in my mid fifties all the silly things I did in my youth are catching up to me very quickly. One of my first jobs was making and repairing industrial batteries for lift trucks and other equipment. One of the biggest weighed over six tons and was 48 volts at 1000 amp hour. The company had to give us respiratory tests every month and skin/ blood tests every six months. Lead must be ingested to do any harm but the acid fumes was the real killer. Even our respirators did little to nothing to stem the tide of acid fume ingestion. After two years I was terminated when I developed Asthma. Besides the office workers the two years I worked there was the longest anyone lasted at that job. Most quit or got terminated after a few months.
If the job don’t kill us then the kids will.
Be safe and have fun.
Pete
Just a wee correction: lead does not have to be INGESTED, which mean taken in through the gastro-intestinal tract. It can also be inhaled.
As others have said, I wouldn’t lick the stuff, and if you’re sanding or filing it, or heating it (as with a soldering iron – because some solder does contain lead), it’s a good idea to wear a mask, but just handling it won’t cause trouble.