OK, I carefully cut the rails, soldered the joints, added so many feeders I’m considering farming, applied an awesome paint job to add the rusty rail effect, cut the drainage ditches, glued down the cork roadbed, sanded it for a perfect fit…
Then I glued down my track and made a MAJOR mistake. I carefully avoided gluing the points but managed to glue the heel of two switches.
I have been trying for weeks now to power wa***he affected area with a syringe and hot water and also tried an alcohol rinse. No good. The switches are soldered into large track sections so removal for cleaning is not practical.
Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can fix this?
White glue is water soluable. If your efforts to soften it with water or alcohol have failed to free things up, it may not be standard white glue. Look at the label on the glue container to determine what solvents are recommended for clean-up. If it is safe to use around plastics, use the recommended solvent sparingly. If water is the recommended solvent, your turnouts aren’t glued shut. You have a different problem with your turnouts other than glue.
If water is the recommended solvent, and it isn’t working, your only recourse may be to remove the turnouts. If you want to try to save the turnouts, cut the tracks on each leg of the turnout several inches from the turnout. Repair the turnout and re-install using short sections of track to fill the gaps. If you don’t want to save the turnout, cut the turnout near the ends that join to the other tracks. Now you can carefully cut the track ends back until you can install a new turnout. You will still be able to solder the rail joiners, but I wouldn’t solder those on the turnouts themselves.
Try laying a couple layers of paper towel or washcloth (something that holds water) over the area and soak it then let it sit and keep it wet. Even yellow carpenters glue, you should be able to at least soften enough to peel it off. If THAT fails then I agree with dgwinup… You have another problem…
It is standard Elmers white glue. The water and alcohol soften it and free things up, but only while wet. Once it re-dries, the works get all gummed up again.
Just surfing the website, they recommend “soap and water”. Soap being a whetting agent for our ballast, may help here as well. Will let you know in a week.
Well, two unfortunate lessons.
Elmers glue works great for mounting track, roadbed, ballast, foam…
Heed the experts advice, don’t get glue around any of the moving parts of a switch!
Okay, I understand better. Even though the glue softens up, unless it is fully removed, it will re-harden and the problem continues.
You need something that will wick up the glue while it is soft. Jeff suggested paper towels or washcloths. That may be your best bet, but it will probably take multiple soakings to get enough glue up to allow the turnouts to operate properly.
Rather than removing the turnouts, I would certainly try Jeff’s idea several times and see if there is any improvement. Maybe one of those bulb syringes that are used to suck mucus out of babies noses would help. Most drugstores will have them and I don’t think they are very expensive. A lot cheaper than replacing a turnout!
Hope this works for you. Keep us informed of your progress.
I use caulk because it comes up easier. A heat gun will also work, but the balance between softening glue and melting ties is small. A hair dryer might work, but I use a paint stripping gun. It will work. It will also probably ruin some ties.
We ran into the same problem when ballasting the turnouts on our club layout. Using water to resolubilize the glue, we then used a dental pick to get under the moving parts and scrape out the wetted glue. The water softens the glue in just a few minutes, until it is a sticky consistency. Then the dental pick is used to carefully remove the glue from the problem area. To keep any glue we missed from re-setting, we add a little light machine oil (3-in-One) to the moving parts. Works great. You can get dental picks at trains shows or hobby shops. There are a variety of shapes and sizes, and they are not too expensive.
After the glue is dissolved, and what remains is started to set up, thrown the turnouts a couple times. This prevents the glue from locking them up tight.
I been a week or so now. Several hot water / soap flushes with a syringecleaned up most of the mess. The trick it seems is 3-in-1 oil. A little dab with a q-tip and all is working well.
Just a bit more wiring and finally, the freight will flow…