Elevator counter balance lead fix.

[Rivethead]

While building my elevators I trimmed both my lead weights instead of leaving one whole to compensate for the trim tab. It always bothered me that I did that and I knew that one day I would have to fix my error. Well today was that day and I came across a very cool way of making the repair. Some lead had been lost from the kerf of the saw blade I'd used so the scrap piece left over was a bit light. One of my hanger neighbors had some lead shot and gave me a hand full, more than enough to make up the weight. I wanted to cast a piece to glue and bolt back into place but what to use as a mold to pour the melted lead into was a bit of a show stopper. I'm a result kind of guy and don't like waiting around for plaster to dry out. I found a recipe online for foundry sand though and decided that I could do this easily and quickly. Jimmy likes that! The full recipe is 100 mesh or finer Silica sand, very fine dry Ball milled clay, Pennzoil 2 stroke motor oil and Isopropinal alcohol. Not needing to do very fine work I decided to use fine 80 mesh Silica sand bought bulk from a tropical fish store and 2 stroke motor oil only to make an abbreviated kind of casting sand (I'll add clay if I ever use the sand again though). I mixed the sand and oil together till the sand would press together and hold shape then got a tin container and filled that with the sand/oil mix then pressed an extra deep impression in the sand with the scrap piece of lead from the counter weight. Now it was time to melt all the lead together, I used a 1.5" steel pipe cap as a crucible and from that poured the lead into the impression. The sand worked perfectly without so much as a wisp of smoke. The repair piece is now glued in place using E-6000 glue tomorrow I'll add a counter sunk bolt and lock nut to the fix and can finish the elevator tip with no worrys.