My Plan B for the elevator counterweight solution arrived in the mail yesterday. Bob had suggested that I drill a hole in the elevator rib and expose the inside of the 1/2in .049 tubing that forms the elevator tip and put in some lead shot. Good idea, but there would be too much air between the shot. In other words it wouldn’t be heavy enough. Rob Taylor suggested using 1/4in lead wire that is used for fishing, but I ran the numbers and it still wouldn’t be enough weight. The idea kept rattling around in my head for months…there had to be a way. I looked up the tubing spec and the ID for .049 is .409. I then thought that 3/8ths lead wire just may be the ticket. I ordered three feet of pure lead wire and I cut a piece that was about 15in long and weighed it…10.8oz. Perfect! I took an elevator and drilled a 3/8ths hole in the end, then smoothed it out with a small carbide burr. The lead wire is very soft and will easily form around the bend in the tip. Just to make sure it went in I shaped the nose of the lead wire so it wouldn’t catch and coated it with par-al-ketone. That gave it corrosion protection and a bit of lubrication. It worked great! I got it in about 2/3rds of the way by hand and used a hammer to tap it in the rest of the way.
