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Joe
Go to a scrapmetal merchant and ask to see the lead available.
If you can find some the correct width to fit the rectangle ( it's usually a rectangle shaped hole the lead weight fit into in a jig ) then buy it.
A small piece of lead will do many jigs.
If you can't find a piece the right width then buy a bit of sheet lead and fold it over as many times as necessary to fit the width and length of the rectangular hole in the jig.
Give it a couple of taps with a hammer to flatten it if necessary.
Once you have got the width and length right to fit the hole you just need to get the depth of the weight right.
Cut it about half an inch long which should be way too much weight for the jig but you'll have plenty to work with in the trimming and shaping of the weight.
You could put one small drop of super glue on the top of the weight and push it into the hole.
Not too much glue as you may have to pull the weight out if you take too much lead off when trimming the lead to get the sink rate correct.
Take too much lead off and your favorite jig will become a floater !
Fill the laundry tub up with water and drop the jig in and it should sink like a brick.
You can now trim the weight with tin snips ( I use a cheap pair of Weiss aviation snips from Supercheap ) and fine tune the jig by using a reasonably course file on teh weight to finish it off.
As your snipping and filing keep dropping the jig into the laundry tub until you get a sink rate that you are happy with the pull the weight out , let the jig dry and glue it back in using 3 or 4 drops of superglue.
Hope this helps.
Dr Z
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