As I recall, Hooper's told me they used solid lead pigs, which were epoxied into place. You would have to have them roughly the shape of the area being filled...as to width. A little late now, but one place to get the lead is to collect used lead weights from tire shops, then melt them down. Requires some sort of smelter, heat source and molds. Cheap if you can get the lead for free or not much money, and are handy with other things, such that you can build that smelter. I hear those old 20# lp gas bottles (pre-OPD), inverted, with the bottom cut out and valve removed and fitted with a threaded pipe, makes a good smelting vat. In my 25th anniversary edition of "Cruising in Seraffyn, the Pardey's wrote that they had bar tenders save the "lead" tops from wine bottles and melted those down for use as ballast on Talisen. I never knew those wine bottle tops were made of lead. Is that right???? But you already have your lead, so you either melt it down into the shape you want, or go with it as is. You might be able to use something like cup cake pans and set them over the grate on a gas or charcoal grill cranked up to high. Fill the holes with your shot, melt them down and either go with them as is, or add shot to bring them up to level. Once these pigs (pucks) are set into place, you could then pour shot into the surrounding area to fill all the voids. If the keel void is wide enough, you might be able to use cake pans instead of cup cakes, or any other metal shape that will take the heat and allow you to extract it from the mold. If you were to melt it down, you have be be extremely careful, with a Capital C, with melted lead. It is extremely dangerous. You can pour the epoxy in place, then pour the shot into it. It will sink to the bottom and fill it. Keep adding shot until the displaced epoxy is level to the top of the shot. I've made several counterweights for my windvane setups like that, BUT, again, do not make too much of a mass of epoxy, or it will cook it, damaging the surrounding glass keel in the process. Howard (sick enough to think this would be a fun project to be in on) On 2/10/06 7:06 PM, "Brian Ripley" <brian_ripley@yahoo.com> wrote:

That is correct for one sphere, but a bunch of spheres piled on eachother will allow room for even less resin. At any rate your CG will be lower with lead shot than steel shot. I wonder if it would be better to put the resin in first and let the lead shot sink into it?

Brian M15 #421

----- Original Message ---- From: htmills@bright.net To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 4:17:54 PM Subject: RE: M_Boats: Re: Epoxy pricing & sources

Out of curiosity, I compared the volume of a sphere to that of a cube (that circumscribes the sphere) and the difference is even greater than I expected. The sphere fills up just over half of the cube (52%). Of course, those interstices would be filled w/ resin, but since the density of resin is so much less than lead....

Tod M17 #408 BuscaBrisas <=== sporting factory-installed lead ballast, thankfully.

-----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces+htmills=bright.net@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces+htmills=bright.net@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Brian Gilbert Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 2:43 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: Re: Epoxy pricing & sources

I hope I don't offend.... I know this is semi-commercial, but I've used these guys several times, they do a great job. Have you ever heard of Raka? The sell a 1 1/2 gallon epoxy kit for $87. It's a tiny company, but the folks there are very helpful and friendly, they ship quick, and it's a good product- certainly as good as West. The resin is a very low-blush formula. But be warned, it does get really hot if mixed in quantity, like more than three "pumps" worth... ALWAYS BUY THE PUMPS!

www.raka.com

I've no connection with them, just passing along info.

Oh, and installing lead... you might get a slightly lower CG if you had some solid blocks or fist-sized chunks of lead that could be bedded in a mix of shot and epoxy. But then again, I'm only an armchair ballast-installer

Best BG