Home brew ballast.

[central.vermont]

So how many people have made there own? Recently I have started too make my own. I work in the construction of building roads and bridges. In this process there is a lot of drilling and blasting on site. One day while waiting to be loaded with some of the previously blasted ledge I was looking at the rock drilling rig and was noticing these little piles of dust being left behind and wondered if I screened it would it produce anything useful. So with a strange look from the boss and some snide remarks : I filled a small container with it. Once at home I dumped it into an old lasagna pan my wife gave me and baked it to get the moisture out before screening. The end result was some oversized stuff and dust, both of which will still be useful and the right sized stuff seen in the photo below. I like what I ended up with and so do my fellow local n-scalers.

So what do you all think of this? Fire away with your criticism and comments.  ;D Now what I need to do is find a supply of screen that I can use to mass produce this. I'll post more photos of the left over material and what I'm using to screen with later.

Thanks, Jon

[chuck geiger]

Nice scale salt and pepper. I am thinking about either Arizona Mineral and Rock or doing
this. Heat it up and drag a magnet through it and bam. (Me not Emeral)

[Mark5]

I did it when I was a kid. If picking it up off the street like I did  ;D be sure to pass a strong magnet over it to pick stuff that otherwise might be "attracted" to your locos.

[sirenwerks]

Looks great Jon. It's funny where you find what you need. I have a couple friends who are sculptors working in metal. I regularly collect spent black casting sand to use as coal loads in hoppers and gondolas and the small metal shavings from around the drill press, which make great scrap metal load filler.

Bryan B.

[central.vermont]

I did it when I was a kid. If picking it up off the street like I did  ;D be sure to pass a strong magnet over it to pick stuff that otherwise might be "attracted" to your locos.

Mark,
I actually did just that. Didn't find anything but wasn't really expecting to find anything either. I guess if I did it might just be something really small from the head of the drill possibly. Also I think once you glue everything down it shouldn't be a problem.

Jon

[Ian MacMillan]

Looks pretty good at a distance. But close up the quartz is too transparent instead of the "white" we see in larger form. But other than that not too bad!

[wm3798]

I like the price!

[central.vermont]

Yeah Lee, you can't beat the price!!

Ian, when you coming down to John's to get your camera? I'll make sure my sample is there when you do.
Jon

[up1950s]

It's what the real railroads use , what is local , cheep , and functional . Maybe while it is on a cookie sheet , sprat 1/2 gray , and 1'2 light gray , ... don't mix and respray , just spray whats facing up . When dry throughly mix as a single batch . That should reduce the transparency of quite a bit of it and give you even more colors . But it looks good to me as is .

[MichaelWinicki]

The texture is very good.

The coloring... What Ian said.

[Ian MacMillan]

Yeah Lee, you can't beat the price!!

Ian, when you coming down to John's to get your camera? I'll make sure my sample is there when you do.
Jon

We're on for this Tuesday right?

[MEC_FAN]

Ian, we'll be at my place this week.

[Ian MacMillan]

Aight. I'll be there

[Ian MacMillan]

I got a chance to see this in person last night, and it does look really good to the eye. I still do not like how it photographs, but it does look really nice in person.

[wm3798]

I wonder if a simple wash of a like-color flat acrylic wouldn't do the trick...  Sort of a weathering process.