particle board vs plywood

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

I learned the hard way! I live in Bakersfield CA and built all my elevated track with ¼" OSB and used 10" to 12" spacing for supports. My layout is in the garage and wasn’t insulated, the garage would go from mid 30s winter to 108° in the summer. The wide temperature swing dinged the OSB and my Atlas Flex track after about 5 years. The OSB warped badly even though I used ¾" x 4" pine glued and screwed for suports. I had the grage insulated in the early 2000s and now the temperature only varies a few degrees, upper 60s winter to mid 80s summer. Before I had the garage insulated I replaced the OSB with ¼" plywood and that ended my problems until last summer. I was having a problem with derailing in a tunnel and found a section of OSB I missed that had continued to warp more than 10 years after the garage was insulated. It was near a grade transition and supported with a solid piece of tapered pine and it still warped. OSB definitely wouldn’t be my choise at triple the savings.

Mel

22

1/4" may be your problem here. That’s far too thin to be decent subroadbed, even with supports 12" and closer. 1/4" materials are suitable for fascias and backdrops, for subroadbed 1/2" is the practical minimum if using wood, either ply or OSB.

Or was that a typo? I don’t think they make OSB in less than 1/2", particle board, yes.

–Randy

23

LION used no Plywood, OSB board only on a late addition helix 9that board was scrap recoverd from a shipping crate.

LION used CELOTEX for the deck of him, and on 16" centers at that. (Think Light-weight Homosote). It is more stable than Homosote, Lighter, and easier to cut. It does not sag as the heavier Homosote would. Altogether LION recommends Celotex as the PURRFECT product.

Ah But. There is allways a but is there not. While the Celotex Company is alive and well, this signature product is no longer made, a victim it would appear of the advent of fire codes. It would be the equivalent of using paper mache for walls and ceilings. Inspectors will not allow the stuff in structures, but it works perfectly on the railroad.

My Grandparents had a similar, even softer product for the walls and ceilings of their cottage in Conneticut, but that was of course before fire codes were applied to the world.

2’x4’ accustic ceiling pannels look like a good option, but you must be very careful with them as they will break easily. LION has had good luck with foam of all kinds, him even uses foam for the track supports. Him also used 2" thick fiberglass roofing insulation, the kind with tar paper on both sides. Very light, very stable, easy to cut, but you will have to take a bath after touching the stuff: You do not want to have fiberglass particles in your fur.

The bottom level of track was a late addition, at the moment I am not sure what I made it out of.

To the left of that is a ramop made of Celotex. The third level is mostly Celotex, but there is a snip of Homosote to the left.

The fourth level is Celotex, and the top level is 3/4" foam built on a frame of tis own than then placed above the rest. You can see that it is only supported at the ends, but it does have supports built into the mini-table.

The pink foam on the bottom level is going to be the Cortlan

24

It’s actually 5/16" OSB, not too many uses especially anything structural. Pallet coverings, crates and my use to encase insulation for crawl space additions to help keep vermin from making themselves home in the R30 insulation. Far cheaper than 3/8: plywood. Use it where local codes will allow and have adequate ventilation.

25

You can also look for used plywood or go open grid and fill with foam or scenary. Also, keep in mind that the added supports only make it more complicated when will come the time to add wires and turnouts. Frankly, lumber will probably be at the bottom of the list of expensive items. The savings are likely to be minimal in the grand scheme of things… Simon

26

I think this may be referring to MDF (medium density fiberboard), another similar product that is higher quality stuff than particle board, heavy, and won’t save you the money OSB will.

27

Randy, you guys are correct the OSB I used was 5/16". I had used the 5/16" OSB ever since it was made available without any problems until I moved to into the Bakersfield heat. I didn’t go into detail about how I used the thin OSB, but I used 1" x 3" stiffeners glued and screwed under the OSB between the 1" x 4" support columns. There was so much pressure from the OSB warping it actually cracked several of the 1" x 4" support columns.

I recently built a 4’ x 8’ x ¾" plywood layout for an 8 year old grandson and used ¼" plywood for the elevated roadbed. I used 1" x 6" pine taper cut length wise for continuous support under the ¼" plywood using 1" Kerf cuts at the curves. That worked out very good and was well worth the extra effort. It made the grade transitions super easy and the elevated roadbed strong enough to take any kind of abuse from an 8 year old boy.

I used the Kerf cut method to repair the bad OSB section inside my mountain as an experiment and it worked out so good that I’m hooked on it. I used Elmer’s Carpenter glue to glue the 1" pine taper cut to the plywood and a couple of screws to hold it in place.

I feathered the plywood to a paper thin edge with my belt sander. Best grade transition I’ve ever made in my almost 70 years of model railroading.

Mel

28

Guys:

I visited a club that was using 1/4 plywood, two layers of 1 inch foam, and another layer of plywood, laminated together with construction adhesive.

Anyone try anything like this???

If it a good idea, I would think tha 5/16 OSB could be used insteaad of plywood.

Then you could lay track any way you have grown to like.

Would be easy to cut into for lakes, streams, etc.

As I haven’t done this I have no knowledge of the results.

Dave

29

If you accidentally spill water on particle-board, it is toast (warped to be exact). I use 1/2" plywood and I am a happy camper.

30

Seal

The use of paint to seal particle board/waferboard/plywood- will help eliminate delamanation/warping/swelling.

I have shadow duck and goose decoys I made from Luan over 30 years ago that are like new (not counting pellet holes) when I made them I sealed the wood with latex flat enamel, paying attention to the cut edges.

When I used plywood for boat building/repair- I would coat the plywood with fiberglass resin mixed 15cc of hardner to one gallon of waxless resin and roll it into the wood with a low knap roller. When dry it seals the wood completely. If you are going to apply cloth or stitch-mat it eliminates sanding, and use on much less resin when applying the mat/cloth.

Unless I was planning to run my train in the swimming pool I probably wouldn’t use the resin.

herrinchoker

31

I didn’t read all the posts in detail so sorry if someone mentioned this before. I used particle board once and the weight made it almost impossible. I can’t remember the thickness as it was 30 years ago, but after horsing it around I decided I would use plywood from that point on. My other thought is that with all the water soluble materials we use, it would sure seem that it wouldn’t hold up too well over the long haul.

32

I 'm a belgian and use plywood and would probably never use particle board-OSB because i’ts not stable in the time and need many supports because of his a lack of rigidity.

Also no OSB because Belgian is really a humidity land by itself, rain is often our week end friend!

Many people say to use birch plywood for is quality; this is true but it exit cheaper plywood.

For my Maclau River in Nscale I use 3/4" plywood from benchwork to roadbed; quite sturdy for Nscale, but I never regret it.

I use the plywood which serve to build commercial box for big machine like motors or mechanical devices, it’s a pine based plywood, he is also used in the home construction as a base work, even if OSB take his place everywhere.

This plywood is quiet cheap, just check the panels before to buy them because of the pine construction it could wrap. I have already seen this kind of plywood on MR projects; it’s a quite white rough plywood.

I cut all the benchwork pieces in full lenght of 13cm by 244cm, this the base of all my benchwork. (13cm because it’s the heigh necessary to protect a Tortoise).

After cut I let it dry in the train room (nearby), at the same temperature during 15 days or more, this give a relative stable product.

For roadbed I cut in a another panel but I use now unalite, 5mm thickness and make spline for the roadbed, track floooooow so much better.

Just my use from 35 years ( from an idea of my late lord…)

33

I think it’s worth pointing out, as others have, that particle board and OSB are not the same thing, so it isn’t really accurate to use them both in the same sentence as they don’t have the same characteristics, at least not in the US - I can’t speak for Belgium.

I lived in southern Indiana where summers are so humid it feels like you could cut the air with a knife - major humid. I had OSB on my layout in my garage, which was not a controlled environment, and my benchwork was stable and the track surface did not warp or deform noticably.

34

Hello Rio Grande,

Yes we have the two products here in my small country and both suffer from the humidity if not protected.

It exist here a OSB covered whith a green paint garanted against humidity and used in bathroom construction, but the price is close to my plywood.

Second, if you use OSB as roadbed, a long S piece whith a small width, you have a really breakable piece of wood in your hand; plywood is sure more sturdy and need less supports in any case.

All these reasons push me to say use plywood.

35

Particle board,the stuff that looks like sawdust pressed together, Is unsuitable for layout work. Water will destroy it,cause it to swell,cause it to crumble,and it has little linear strength. Its used as underlayment for floors where no water is present,and because it has no voids that will depress and show. Oriented strand board is much better, but it is hard to drive nails into and is weak horizontally. I’d use 5/8 plywood for roadbed and yards minimum. BILL in Idaho