Hi, I new to forum. My name is Ray. I model in N Scale. I have a questions about gluing cork road bed to foam. I tried using hot glue gun. It dried to fast for me to set the road bed. Switched to yellow glue. How long does it take to dry before I can take the pins out that are holding the road bed in place? Also, how many of you use yellow glue to glue down road bed? If there is a better choice, could you let me know. Thank you, Ray
Hi, Ray. Welcome to our hang-out.
Liquid glues will take longer if sandwiched between two layers. Some use silicone caulk if it is friendly to foam, others use PL300, spread thin, or Liquid Nails for Projects.
Don’t use silicone caulk, It will never come off the ties or foam it you want to relocate anything.
Use paintable latex adhesive caulk in clear, brown or grey.
Dave H.
dehusman,
You make a good point. Different products do different things. I’ve had excellent results with White Lightning brand silicone rubber all purpose sealant (the clear stuff). I’ve also used Liquid nails adhesive for projects and foamboard and you are correct about it, once you put it on, it’s there for life! That can be a good thing though if you are careful in it’s use.
The liquid nails and sealant both work real good. Thats what I use and I love it. Just lay down a bead of sealant or liquid nails, depending on how perminant you want it to be, where you want the tracks to go, spread it a little with a putty knife (you want it thin enough that it doesn’t squish up between the ties), lay your track or roadbed and throw a little weight on it to keep it in place until it dries. It dries slow enough that I can lay roadbed and track in the same sitting and yet it’s sticky enough that where it’s put it will generally stay. It dries pretty solid in a couple of hours generally but full curing might take a day or day and a half. If you use the sealant and make a mistake or want to change something later, just pull up on it gently and it comes right up without damagin the track or foam. You can even peel the silicone sealant right off the track and roadbed so that you can reuse them! I don’t know about the cork as I don’t use it. I don’t think it would.
Just make sure to get the stuff that doesn’t attack foam. [8D]
My preference is for an adhesive that is fairly smooth and easy to spread. Preferably with a setup time that provides several minutes for tweaking and adjustment. I have found that some of the caulks work quite well, but can be a little too stiff and not as easy to spread the bead. I ended up using the Liquid nails for projects. You only need a very fine layer of it, and it is easy to spread. The setup time allows some manipulation. If it dries and you need to move something, it is not hard to slide a putty knife into the join and get it to release. One tip, if your foa board had a plastic film, make sure you peel it off.
Hi Ray and welcome,
I have had very good results using Aileene’s Tacky Glue. You can find it at Walmart and Michaels. It is white glue that dries clear. I have used it gluing cork to WS foam risers. Put some pins or weights on it and is dry within about 2 hours. If you need to make a change it will come up with a putty knife pretty easy.
I’ll second the Aileene’s Tacky Glue. I like the fast tack type in the purple bottle.
ETA- If you carefully spread the glue along the top and sides of the roadbed, you can lay and pin the track, then add a light layer of ballast. That really speeds things up. This worked especially well for me using WS foam roadbed because of it’s dark color if any spots showed thru.
Want to thank everyone for the great ideas. It’s great to have the forum to turn to when you have questions. Thanks again, Ray
i use regular Elmers Glue for everything. This, for those out of the loop, is white glue. I understand that it takes a while, but its good for holding stuff to other stuff unless you pull out a spatula.
I use a hot glue gun. My glue gun has the option for “Low or High” temp. If you have a hot glue gun with these 2 options, make sure your gun is on low. It would not damage the foam. The trick is to lay the roadbed where desired, pin down in place and run a small bead of hot glue along the sides. Remember, 1 strip of cork at a time. If you try to do 1 whole complete piece of roadbed like this, the middle where it seperated would be loose. This is a very fast process to do when you have a lot of track to lay and have no time for adhesive glue to dry. It’s easy to mark the foam where you want your track. Just get a piece of track and turn it over so the rails are facing the foam and push down to make a imprint of the track in the foam. Get your roadbed and hot glue in palce. Done.
Latex caulk is the answer to your question. Stay away from silicone. It smells and is very hard to adjust if you want to move anything.