I saw some ballast spreader tools made by Proses, do these work well?
Any of the commercial ballast spreaders more or less work, but you sill have to invest a fair amount of effort to dress the ballast with a brush before gluing. None of the tools work that great around turnouts.
For my money, this is the only ballast spreader that’s worth having.
Just spoon it on and use a foam brush, works great and goes fast once you get the hang of it.
I’ll go even cheaper (unless you’re bringing those spoons home for free from the office coffee pot)[;)]. I tried several and found the best for me was one of those fake credit cards you get in the mail with various offers. Fold it in half. Nose it into your bulk ballast to load, then tap as you go, similar to using the spoon. The card holds a little more and directs things more squarely down the centerline. Then dress as recommended. I use a soft ~1" broad artist’s brush, as the soft bristles tend to avoid flinging ballast grains every which way.
Good suggestion. I also use those fake “your name here” credit cards (and the similar “membership” cards from various organizations once they expire) as a throw-away spatula to spread adhesive caulk when tracklaying, as a disposable pallet for mixing paints or holding cements which I then apply with a toothpick.
Those which are perfectly flat (i.e. no raised letters or numbers) I also have used as a shim under cork subroadbed. There are many uses for them and I save them all.
For bulldozing the ballast between ties and making the ballast even with the tops of the ties I use an old piece of cork roadbed since it has just the right combination of rigidity and flexibility.
Dave Nelson
I’ve used an HO MLR5008 Ballast Spreader for many years. It does well laying the basic ballast on the track evenly. Then as mentioned above I also use a 1” wide artist brush to contour the ballast, the fine hair brush does a very good job without over spreading or flipping the ballast where you don’t want it.
The cap/nozzle can be adjusted for proper ballast flow or to only lay ballast on one side of the track at a time. The small felt brush on the spreader needs to be replaced after several hours of use.
As Father Time takes his toll on me using a spoon is very tough to accomplish, the spreader takes care of shaky hands.
Like rrebell, I’m a spoon and foam brush guy.
Same here
Rich
I had a large layout to ballast and discovered how much better the foam brush was when testing different ideas.Still use the finger meathod outside the rails as it is faster.
I’d think a spoon to be too slow and not very precise either. I use a paper cup: holds more and can be squeezed to get precise application where needed. For spreading and arranging the ballast, a soft 1/2" or 3/4" brush works well - the handle should be almost parallel to the roadbed, to avoid having the bristles flick ballast all over landscape.
To clean excess ballast off the tops of the ties, lay the brush handle across the rails, then, while loosely holding it by the ferrule, move the brush along the rails, rapidly tapping the handle using the fingers of your free hand.
Wayne
Along the lines of the folded credit card that dave Nelson suggests, I use a laboratory spatula as shown in the foreground of this photo:
I was fortunate enough to find some being disposed of at work but maybe you could look for something similar on Amazon or ebay. Lab scoop or scoopula.
With the pointed end it is easy to control the placement and all I have to do is lightly tap the tool to shake a controlled amount of ballast in place. It holds a fairly generous dose of material.
Good luck, Ed
You just need my Mad Spoon Skillz.
I like the widgets these monks are using.
Through trial and error I’ve decided on using a spoon to spread the ballast being carefull not to get too much between the rails. I groom the area between the rails first using my forefinger and then a foam brush cut to the proper size.
An old credit card is usefull in grooming the area where the ballast meets the layout.
Bob
Guess I gotta go back to school, Rob. [;)]
You certainly do get good results, though.
Wayne
Rob: Brillant on using the sppon. I also do that. I also use a cheap 1/2" brush from HD to spread the ballast along the track. Ballasting is quite easy once you get into a groove.
I use a small paper cup - less refills than a spoon. And a cheap foam brush. I had one of the MLR tools once and it was way more trouble than it was worth, it was hard to open and close since the ballast grains get caught in the moving parts. Plus the shoulder still needed some cleaning and shaping. I found it easier just to sprinkle the ballast on with a small cup and then gently brush it to shape and to clean off the tie tops.
–Randy
Read articles about various techniques to ballast track and derived a method that would work for me and maybe others in the hobby. The spoon method becomes awkward when reaching for trackwork that is further away from the edge of my layout.
The gadget in the photos is what I’m calling the “KwikDisp” which is made up basically of a Medicine Dispenser (available at pharmacies), AAA batteries & Holder(with wires ), a Microswitch (momentary) and a Micromotor (3 V, 1500rpm). Note: The Micromotor shaft has an eccentric and is used in cell phones and other portable electronic devices.
The concept is to make the dispenser vibrate, and when tilted downward, causes the ballast particles to move slowly towards the tip. Because of a small lip at the end of the dispenser, small amounts collect there before dropping onto the trackbed.
Assembly: The motor and dispenser are bonded with CA. Motor needs a tight bond with the dispenser so as to transmit the vibrations efficiently. Miniature screws (#2) hold the modified pc board and battery holder. Microswitch is pc board mounted and wired as shown.
Perceived advantages:
I like your idea! [bow]
You can see the lab spatulas that I use in the photo of my earlier response. I’m thinking I can hollow out the handle where you see the cross-bracing and put the batteries there. I have some cheap, rechargeable camera batteries that would fit right in there!
In my employment we used lots of vibratory feeders of many shapes and sizes to transport powdered metals. Makes me wonder (slap hand to forehead) why I didn’t think of that!
Good Show!
Regards, Ed
The biggest problem isn’t what you use to spread it with (I use an old Dremel cut off disc container) but how you get the ballast off the ties. I take a long strip of blue painter’s tape and run it between the rails, press it down gently with my fingertip and pull it up at an angle. The excess ballast comes off and leaves the rest slightly below the ties. It reduced the clean up by ninety per cent, which really helps when you about 300 feet of track