OK, they’re great for foam ‘sub-terrain’ stuff, but I recently watched (isn’t Tivo wonderful!) a ‘Workin on the Railroad’ episode (on DIY channel BTW) in which Master Model Railroader Miles Hale (sp?) used a hot glue gun for seemingly everything on the layout - Including track to WS foam roadbed, which had been hot glued to WS risers!
Struck me as a recipe for disaster, and I’ve certainly never seen anyone here pitching it as an option for tracklaying, but… Anyone tried it? Comments?,
I’ve used the hot glue for nearly everything, and in most applications it has worked pretty well for me. It’s great when you need it to “stick” now. Scenery building has been the most frequent place for the hot glue. As far as laying track, I like to take my time and use alignment tools and spikes, so the hot glue wouldn’t work for me there.
I used hot glue for a lot of difrrent things. Including cork subroad bed and the track. It makes track laying fast. With a dab of glue, glueing track every 4" or 5", this is for N-Scale. I have once needed to move some track after wards, a serated knife in a ‘sawing’ motion worked fine without any damage to track or cork. Scaping off the remains was fair easy too.
On the old HO layout I used hot melt to stick down plastic buildings. Worked fine, and one could pop them off to change the bulbs. I also used it for wire ties underneith. Pump a blob on the underside and sick the buss and feeder wires in it until it cooled a bit. I also made 1000s of tires fromhotmelt for a junk yard scene. I made a silicon mold and could cast a set from the mold every three min. Used 5 bags of them sticks. Painted them flat black with a spray can and airbushed them gray for weathering. They were good enough to make junk tire piles from. Fred
Firstly, yep, I’m talking about the ‘low-temp’ hot glue - The hot stuff does indeed melt foam (don’t ask
However, after posting the original msg, I decided to just try it and see - Squirted a thinnish bead down the middle of the track, ‘slid’ the ties into it, weighted it with Gatorade bottles laying on their sides and… Hey presto, worked great! - Didn’t distort the track the way I thought it might, and looks like it could indeed be disassembled using the above technique.
It did squish up and above a few ties, but I figure deft usage of the grinding wheel in te trusty Dremel will take care of that. Once the ballast goes in, no one’s going to know…
So, in conclusion, I reckon this could be added to the oft debated "how do I fix track down’ question.
I don’t know about all the other uses, but …
When our club was new we were using spline roadbed. We were getting about 10 linear feet a week done. Then wham, over one weekend a couple of people did an entire peninsula (about 60 feet worth). They had discovered hot glue. It seemd to work really good … for about three years. Then it sort of self destructed. The spline started falling apart. We had to go back and scrape the hot glue out and try to reglue, clamp, and screw the roadbed back into place. This was after there was track and some scenery on top of it. Not fun, not easy.
Hot glue was forbidden for roadbed from that point forward.
I’ve not used it in model railroading, but have done so in various other endeavors. I’ve also found that it ‘fades’ over time and loses its grip.
But I will admit it’s very convenient and handy, and I probably should think about using it for things that need to hold quickly, but don’t need to hold over time (e.g. the cardboard strips under hardshell scenery)
Another thing I found was using low temp sticks in a high temp gun makes the glue thinner and take longer to set. I use it that way for casting parts. Fred
I use it to make structure mock-ups when planning may layout, but would not use it for holding track or roadbed. I find that it works best when “blobbed” on, so I would worry about distorting things or not haveing them lay flat.
I use adhesive caulk to attach cork roadbed to foam, and track to roadbed. Can be undone with a putty knife if needed.
I am new to model railroading and i use hot glue for two things, one: glueing down my scenery, and two: burning the crap out of my fingers when i’m not careful[:)]
I will admit that I don’t know all there is to know about hot glue, but it seems to me that it is subject to “cold flow” if it is under a fairly heavy stress, as it would be in a curved spline. As far as that goes, the adhesive on Velcro will turn loose after a period of time under a heavy load.
There are many kinds of hot glues. The type you’ll find in the craft stores is not the proper kind to use for gluing wood. For wood, right kind is noted for wood use and is quite a bit more expensive than the craft store type - has an amber color and is made specifically for bonding wood.
The proper kind for gluing wood is generally available at better hardware stores or one that sells woodworking supplies.
And by the way, for those of you who have used hot glue and have needed to undo a glue joint, use an industrial solvent called Bestene. Squirt it on the joint and wait a few minutes, then wiggle the joint apart. You can get it at places like Home Depot.
Most of the pros and cons about hot glue have been covered, but unless I missed one, the biggest drawback I have about hot glue is the “strings” it sometimes leaves behind. These “strings” seem to go on forever, get onto things you don’t want them to, and you especially have to watch around track and clean it good if the glue string gets on it. Other than that, I use it only when I need a quick-set glue job, and yes, some of the ones I did four and five years ago are beginning to let go. I guess it’s just a discretionary tool to use-you either love it or hate it. Good luck on your layout.
I use it on subterrainian stuff like moutain supports.I also find it easier and quicker to make furnace filter trees with it instead of white glue. You can bend the filter material into more natural shapes with it.
I gave up on the “hot glue” theory years ago. In my judgment, nothing beats the
Liquid Nails Latex for projects" caulk, for paper to cardstock or wood, foamboard to foam, or laying cork roadbed.
L&MRR
