hello all, New here, and fairly new to model railroading.
I was wondering the best way to attach my cork trackbed to the pink insolation foam that i have installed over my plywood.
Thanks
Matt
I have had considerable luck with silicone cements or liquid nails. Both make a firm and strong attachment. The roadbed must be pinned in place until the cement solidifies (I usually wait about 24 hours). Although I have never tried it, I am told that plain old white glue or carpenter’s glue will work as well.
Jim
If you use the Liquid Nails, be sure to use the product that’s compatable with foam, not the regular Liquid nails. I don’t use foam myself but I’ve read that a lot of people use plain silicone caulk.
Oh,
[#welcome]
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve had good success using either Tacky Glue or Weldbond. Both are white glues that remain a little flexible after drying unlike normal white glue that dries hard and brittle. They clean up with water which makes them easy to work with. They’re found at just about every craft store, Walmart and some hobby and hardware stores. I’ve used them to attach roadbed to foam, wood, masonite, etc and they’ve held for years on portable layouts that see a lot of movement and varying temperatures.
Jim
Great! thank you all for your advice/help.
I use and have used adhesive caulk for all my roadbed (a 20x20 layout) and track. Works great and is easy to work with. I did not care for white glue or liquid-nails which I tried before going to the adhesive caulk. You can buy it at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or similar. Try it, You’ll like it.
Ron K.
Another vote for latex caulk. I have used it to stick just about everything in my subgrade, roadbed and track together. It even adheres to steel! (I have some hidden tangents laid in steel stud ‘rain gutters.’
When you start putting flex track or sectional track on top of your cork, latex caulk will secure that, too. I use grey caulk, so flaking ballast won’t expose odd-colored sub-layers.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Latex caulking compound, $3 a tube at Lowes or Home Depot. Sticks good, fills gaps. Or, try PL300 foamboard adhesive. Also $3 a tube. I have used both in the last few days. White glue (Elmers) has been used by others, put I think the caulklng compounds and PL300 have more tack, more gap filling ability, and need less clamping.
There are numerous reports of Liquid Nails eating foamboard. There are a lot of variations of Liquid Nails (for Projects, for Tub Surrounds, for Subflooring etc). None of the Liquid Nails tubes say “Foam Board Compatable”.
I’d be suspicious of solvent based stickems, lest they eat foamboard.
I use acrylic latex caulk, and I love it. It’s easy to use, and it’s tacky enough to hold the roadbed in place. If the roadbed is a little older and has lost some of its flexibility, I used T-pins or push pins to hold it in place. I’ve found 4 packs of it at Wal-Mart for less than 4 bucks a pack.
When using latex adhesive caulk, I take the bead of caulk from the caulking gun and then flatten it and widen it using those annoying “Your Name Here” credit cards that come in the junk mail. They are amazingly handy to have around including as shims, and I have a large enough supply now that I just use and toss rather than clean up a metal or plastic putty knife. You want to flatten the caulk or you’ll have an irregular surface for your roadbed.
Dave Nelson