I just checked several pieces left over from several sheets. Maximum thickness variation is maybe 0.011", and that was just in one spot where it may have been hit and dented.
It is available in different thicknesses also I believe. I used all 7/16" on this last layout. I think the propensity of Homasote to change dimensions is waaaaaaay overstated. The wood is a far worse offender than the Homasote.
Feel free to hate it if you like, but I love it.
Virginian, thanks for taking those measurements. 11 thousandth’s isn’t bad - cutting pine on my table saw will probably be as sloppy or worse.
Now I just have to track down the stuff…
Just need to spend some time making phone calls - hopefully tomorrow.
Cacole - very interesting way of cutting the stuff! Thanks!
CARRfan,
Sound Board is a brown, fiberous material made by Celotex Corporation. It comes in half-inch thick 4 x 8 foot sheets and is used primarily for sound deadening in apartment walls and as an insulator. It can be cut with any saw. A friend of mine used it for his layout top and hand-laid all of his track. It holds spikes very well.
I have built two HO scale layouts using sound board – one a 20x40 foot club layout and the other a home layout. I put down two layers on top of hollow core doors, fastened with industrial grade carpet adhesive. On the club layout we used cork roadbed and Atlas flex track fastened with plain sewing pins instead of nails. On my home layout I am using foam roadbed and Peco code 83 flex track fastened with clear latex caulking.
My friend’s home layout is on hollow core doors with one layer of sound board, cork roadbed, and hand-laid code 100 rail on redwood crossties glued in place with caulking.
We have had excellent results with sound board on all 3 layouts.
I’ve built a couple of 4X8s with homasote. I did find some variation in the thickness but the issue was quickly resolved with a sanding block to ease the transition from one sheet to the other.
Rick
Guys,
I bought my first piece of homasote with 1/8" dips and humps in it. I have rejected a dozen more with similar issues on shopping expeditions. We are talking a mostly flat piece with a narrow spot or hump in one section. I had to fix these humps by filling and sanding. Sanding homasote is right up there in my book with cleaning the catbox…I do try to avoid it (the catbox is inevitable, sanding homasote is not if you are careful with the selection of pieces). Take along a small straight edge on your shopping expedition… You might be surprised.
To find homasote try the big lumber yards/building supply dealers that the local contractors buy big dimensional lumber from, not the box stores. I have been able to locate it at these places…
I don’t know how many LHS’s stock it, but I do know that my LHS, Chuck’s Depot in Marion, Illinois keeps it in stock. The owner buys a pallet at a time, but has to drive to St. Louis to pick it up (about 1.5 hours one-way). He tried to get it through local lumber yards but they didn’t want to mess with it. He’s a firm believer in Homasote (as am I) and he wanted to make it readily available to his customers.
Also, I strongly second the suggestion to use a knife blade in a saber saw. As luck would have it, my LHS also keeps those in stock.
Jeff
HOMASOTE is pressed (laminated) cardboard. It used to be sold by the building industry for insulation. 40 years ago layouts with Homasote on top of sheets of ply were S.O.Proceedure.
MAIN problem when combining sheets was where they joined. Carboard absorbs moisture, and getting smooth transtitions - and keeping them - is fun. Sheets also varied in thickness one end to the other. Cutting can be done without dust, but planing cannot.
HOMASOTE has great sound deadening properties… it’s main virtue, now that costs have increased.
One potential problem with this is expansion and contraction due to humidity - there was an excellent piece in MR some years ago on Paul Larson’s Mineral Point & Northern, which was built with just this kind of roadbed, and he apparently had all kinds of trouble with handlaid track working itself out of gauge and developing kinks when the roadbed shifted.
I used sheet homasote laid on sheet plywood, and I haven’t had any problems with expansion or contraction, and it’s very easy to cut out the roadbed and elevate it on risers. The homasote’s sound-deadening qualities are as good as everyone here has suggested.
in the club I was in…
We bevel cut 8 foot lengths, so it has the ballast angle.
for curves, we edge sliced the lengths on alterating sides to get it to bend for the curves. We had a specilized manner to lay roadbed, pieces of 1x3 were slotted
on the end to accept lattice wood, about 1/4"x3/4" long pices of wood, and were dropped into the slots, this is what the homosote is laid on. Really good for maing curves and easements.
We used L-Girder benchwork.
Homosote works FINE.
really good for hand laying. I look at alterantive boards, sorry, no good.
Dont worry about thickness differences, ever see a perfect prototype track?
Thats why trucks have equalizers and springs.
well the prototype does…
[
One potential problem with this is expansion and contraction due to humidity - there was an excellent piece in MR some years ago on Paul Larson’s Mineral Point & Northern, which was built with just this kind of roadbed, and he apparently had all kinds of trouble with handlaid track working itself out of gauge and developing kinks when the roadbed shifted.
I used sheet homasote laid on sheet plywood, and I haven’t had any problems with expansion or contraction, and it’s very easy to cut out the roadbed and elevate it on risers. The homasote’s sound-deadening qualities are as good as everyone here has suggested.
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This is a big misconception with most people. Homasote does NOT have problems with humidity or moisture. It is the wood under the Homasote that is the problem. Wood absorbs moisture a lot more than Homasote. I’ve seen tests done where it was actually submerged in a tank of water and did not lose it’s shape at all. I sure can’t say the same about wood.
Where you have problems is when using it for ‘spline’ roadbed, with no subroadbed(plywood) under the homasote - you will have ‘sag’ problems for sure. Just remember:
The plywood moves at one rate, the homasote at another, and the poor track is hanging on for dear life!
Jim
I’m building a new layout and am using 3" high homasote splines for sub roadbed. At present i’m using 5 pieces of homasote glued with elmer’s moo glue and clamped until the glue sets. has anybody here had any experience with delamination, and what about securing the spline to the risers
CARRfan, You might try a plywood specialty shop or a real LUMBERYARD and not a home improvement store. HD and LOWES rarely have the hard to find stuff because it doesn’t sell that fast. The homasote product you will find at HD is used for expansion joints in concrete. It comes in 8’x4" strips.
I had good luck using a bandsaw to cut my strips with angled sides.Then cut your bending slots. It does not resaw worth a hoot, Bandsaw blade wandered like crazy and the peices tended to curl up as they came off the saw. I gave up and used it full thickness. Use the extra thickness for mainline ballast or cover it with scenery. A good coat of latex paint will help with water absorption if you think that might be a probem. You could paint both sides with a roller before you even start cutting. That way the bottom will be sealed too.
I got mine at Windsor plwood in Spokane WA, unfortunately about two years ago and I still have a partial sheet of the stuff.