I have read most all the posts on ballasting and still have a few questions.
When using N scale ballast, is a thinner glue to water mix adviseable?
Is white glue better mixed with water or alcohol? Or both?
Is adding detergent necessary when using only alcohol to pre wet the ballast?
Bruce, I use a very thin, milky, glue mixture anyway, even with the beach sand I use. It will penetrate that much more easily. However, my first experiment with applying glue to WS nutshell brown stuff I wanted to try was an unmitigated mess. I didn’t know to pre-wet the ballast with an alcohol mix first, and you can easily imagine what happened when I dribbled my glue solution over my painstakingly groomed nutshell grains. AAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!! [8o|]
I may go a bit light on the glue, but honestly, my ballast of beach sand is knuckle rap hard. My rails doen’t budge…period. I don’t even make my glue run out the bottom of the ballast as I keep reading. I just make sure the grains look wet right to the outer edges, and then begin to add the glue in slow dribbles until I think it has worked most of the way down. Next day, it’ll be hard and clunky.
I typically mix one half cup of glue with about three cups of water, and I add two drops of dish detergent. If I am sure I’ll have some left, and want to store it air-tight for a while, I also place two clean small pebbles in the container so I can do the rattle-can shake.
Crandell
Bruce,
I use a 4:1 mix of water to glue plus a few drops of liquid detergent to enhance the spreading capabilities. That mix follows a spray with rubbing alcohol as a wetting agent.
Rich
Have you tried Future floor polish? Very cheap and no mixing needed.
David B
I mix glue with alcohol. I have a small sprayer to pre-wet the ballast with 70% alcohol, the glue and alcohol mixture I dribble on with a mustard jar. Around here, we have hard water so the soap in the water method has never worked for me, it just puddles up. Glue with alcohol worked pretty well, I was initially skippign the prewetting since it soaked right in, but with pre-wetting witht he alcohol spritz it soaks in even better.
–Randy
Bruce,
Dilute white glue will work and yes, I think the alcohol helps. Having said that, I’ve changed my methods in the past year to something slightly different. I’ve found that life is much easier if I use pre-mixed matte medium from Scenic Express: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EX0020
Nothing wrong with the white glue I just think the product above is easier. N scale ballast is very powdery and easily disturbed so you have to be careful. I start by taking a fine mister bottle of water and a splash of alcohol and moisten the ballast, starting about 12" up and then working in closer.
Next, instead of using a dropper or glue bottle to apply the adhesive, as I did in the past I now apply the matte medium with a mister bottle as that is less prone to disturbing the ballast.
Lance
Layout construction, design, and track plan books:
Lance,
Any specific type or brand of “mister bottle”?
My experience with spraying on a glue mix is that the coverage is spotty, sometimes the glue mix comes out in little globs, sometimes the sprayer clogs up.
Your point about not disturbing the ballast cannot be emphasized enough. There is nothing more disheartening than a perfectly groomed ballast laid down dry, then having it move around and run when the wetting agent or the glue mix is applied.
Rich
I use a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water with a few drops of dish detergent for my N scale ballast. I dispense it from an old white glue bottle. It’s thin enough that I don’t have to squeeze the bottle to get it out; it just dribbles out. Any mixture from 2:1 to 4:1 will work. The trick with that fine N scale ballast is to prepare it for the glue. I use wet water in a mister–not a sprayer. This gives very fine particles of water whereas a sprayer gives droplets which will disturb the dry ballast. My mister is an old body spray bottle that I got when my wife had used the contents. The scent left in the bottle doesn’t hurt either! I first spray it up in the air and let if fall on the ballast like rain. Once the ballast is wet I spray the mist directly onto the ballast. The ballast needs to be thoroughly soaked before you can apply the glue. Apparently alcohol does a better job of penetrating the ballast but the smell bothers me so I have to stick with water. Once the ballast is thoroughly wet, then I can dribble on the glue. Another thing that works to apply the glue is a syringe, but they need refilling frequently. A lot of people use a mix of water and matte medium instead of white glue. They feel that it isn’t rock hard like white glue when dry so it cuts down on noise. I can’t comment on that since I’ve never used it.
Rich, I USED to use the regular spray bottles from the housewares dept. and found that big drops would come out, making pit holes in the scenery. One day, I bought a flower mister from the gardening dept. Result: MUCH finer mist. And I don’t spray the adhesive, it get all over everything. I use those plastic condiment bottles (the kind you find at Mom and Pop burger joints). I also use Crandell’s tip about putting some stones (although I use large fishing weights) to mix the glue with the rattle can effect. After a while, the glue DOES separate and settle to the bottom of the bottle. And I now use Randy’s tip about mixing alcohol with the glue, too. It took a while to get the right mixture. Too little alcohol, and it’s a syrupy goo.
I got a small spray bottle for the pre-wetting at Michael’s craft store - it has a very fine and not too powerful spray unlike those big trigger bottles, so it doesn;t blow the ballast around.
I mix the glue and alcohol about 50/50, maybe 60/40 alcohol. I suspect it takes several days to dry all the way - before the dropper bottle I had tried it just mixing it in a paper cup. 2 days later I could still pour it out, it wasn’t hardened.
–Randy
I use cheap hairspray (pump) with an eyedropper. It dries hard and is quick and easy. No mixing etc. with glue.
Dennis