What kind of glue works best for attaching plastic tie flex track to cork roadbed? I want to ballast and need something that’s not water soluble and also dries quickly.
I used to use track nails. Try clear latex adhesive caulk. Works great, inexpensive and you can get it at Wlamart, Menards, Lowes or Home Depot.
Run a small bead of caulk along the center of your cork road bed and smooth with a putty knife. Does not take much. Set your track ties in the caulk. I usualy weight the track, until the caulk dries in a few hours. The clear caulk will be milky until it fully drys in about 24 hours.
JIM
Ditto on latex caulk. Next to DCC, this has to be the best ‘new’ thing I’ve found in over 30 years in the hobby. I’d also recommend it to fasten your cork down. Assuming you had everything cut and fit together (like around turnouts), you could prbably build an entire 4x8 layout, roadbed and track, in a single evening using caulk. It’s tacky enough to hold things in position immediately (I use push pins at edges and on curves just to be sure), but you can slide things around for an hour or so to get the alignment just right. By the next day, completely dry - more like 5-6 hours, this is why I like the clear stuff - it comes out of the tube white but dries clear. When it’s clear - you know it’s dry, if you can still see white, it’s not completely dry yet.
–Randy
Ditto me too, I just came back from HD with a 6 pack clear latex caulk!! Greatest invention since swiss cheese!!
One more vote for latex caulk. It also works on Homasote, cieling tiles and bare plywood, holds like spiderweb, seems impervious to high heat and dessication (as in my garage) and allows track to be lifted with a putty knife for changes or (in my case) salvage.
Also, one vote for the forums! If I hadn’t joined, I never would have learned about caulk.
Chuck
Latex caulk,…that’s the stuff!
By the way , as to latex caulk. I don’t know about you but I get tons of credit card offers in the mail and many of them include a “fake” plastic credit card. Save them! Don’t toss them! They are perfect for spreading out the caulk.
Dave Nelson
Dave! Thats genius!
Finally, a use for all the mail I get that’s addressed to “J. Unkmail”!
Ditto here on the clear caulk and fantastic idea for the credit card offers.
Regards
Great, now what do we do with the 4.6 trillion AOL Cd-roms sent out unsolicited to every home in the free world?
I have been challenged here … OK … you use all those AOL CD-Roms as … um … as … I know! As curve templates to enter the new Model Railroader layout design contest!
Dave Nelson
Well a CD is what, 4.5" in diameter - or is is 4.75"? If 4.75", a 1" = 1 foot drawing scale that’s a 28.5" radius curve.
–Randy
Another glue you might want to consider is acrylic “Tacky Glue” or “Weldbond.” I’ve used them both with good success. When dry they are pretty much unaffected by water used in ballasting. The glues look and feel just white glue when wet, but they adhere much better and remain somewhat flexible when dry. One great feature is that you can do any cleanup with water until they setup. Both dry clear too.
I used them on our last display layout that is now eleven years old and the glue is still holding. It has sat in vehicles where the temperature was anywhere from below zero to near 100 degrees without any affects.
Another good feature is that both are inexpensive and can be found in just about every craft store or craft department (like in Walmart). Just use pushpins to hold the track in place until the glue sets up.
Just another option to think about.
Jim
Those AOL CDs make good coasters, or furniture levelers. A couple drops of liquid cement, and you can stack them.
As for those fake credit cards, Dave, you’re my hero!! [:D]
Try “Loctite Powergrab” This stuff is amazing. You can get this from just about any hardware store. Dries in minutes and clear. This is what I use since I saw that commercial. I thought it would be worth the try and it’s a hit. All you do is spread it over the roadbed evenly with a plastic card or any size scrapper (Metal or plastic) and place the track down and press. No need for nails. 5 min tops and it will not move.
The only issue I had with the caulking is I failed to put an expansion joint on a siding that was about 4 feet long and the heat/humidity ( garage layout, N-scale ) caused the track to buckle a bit. This caused the ties to come off the roadbed, but the rail did not seperate from the ties, thankfully. I cut a new gap and will caulk back down soon. This was the only problem spot on my 15x17 layout.
I have yet to try it but they say the caulking will take paint, so I will use it to tack in portals and as a gap filler for my scenery. I wounder if it would work ok for planting trees?
This old dinosaur still uses track nails to hold hidden track in place - caulked track rumbles a lot more. I tried caulk on some track and it works well. I may use it on track that will be ballasted anyway - the ballasted track transmits sound so well, caulked track makes no difference there.