Hey guys… i’ve finally gotten back to work on my layout, and I’d been noticing some leveling problems. So I looked down, and like, the glue that I used to glue my foam to the plywood is like, expanding, and coming up…
I used LN for Projects, I think… it was a while ago; i can’t remember. But has anyone else had this problem? I mean… it gets kinda warm in the room because of its location in my house and kinda poor insulation, but its not THAT bad. Could that be a factor, though? Its not humidity… it just gets hotter and colder than the rest of our house, for whatever reason.
but is there anything I can do about this? Its causing problems with making engines banking weirdly, and I’m afraid they’ll topple over one of these times.
Reglue but use latex caulk instead of the Liquid Nails. Sorry but I cannot STAND Liquid Nails products, even when used for their originally intended purpose - the stuff just plain does not work well. As a roadbed and track gluing product - forget it. It dries hard and doesn’t seem to adhere well to foam insulation or foam roadbed. Try some plain cheap latex caulk - it sticks and doesn’t get as hard as a rock.
I’ve used latex based LN or similar stuff to attach track to cork roadbed, roadbed to foam, roadbed to plywood, foam to foam, foam to plywood, masonite to foam, masonite to plywood, etc, and have not seen the “expanding, and coming up” problem that you described. It worked fine even on the unheated garage layout with its temp and humidity swings. Sound like you used the wrong glue or have something else going on.
I had a problem sort of like that…I was using the WS foam roadbed… And I believe I was using LN adhesive. I would squirt down the centerline and just put the roadbed down, sliding from side to side to spread out and mash down the glue bead. Well later on down the road I had all sorts of problems. First of all I didn’t scrape the glue down to a very thin amount. Second, By doing the sliding/mashing technique, I had inadvertantly streched and compressed the roadbed. Causing all of the joints to either buckle real bad, or pull apart real bad. Curves were coming off the glue and twisting a little from the tension. I vowed off using the foam roadbed because of these problems. I personally prefer the cork roadbed. Other people have used the foam stuff and don’t have any problems though. Just make sure to scrape the glue down to almost nothing. Thats all I’ve got for ya.
Mike, you are correct. I didn’t mention that I also always spread out the bead of LM, with a scrap piece of wood or plastic, into a fairly thin flat layer. Much as you would do if you were laying tile or sheet vinyl on a house floor. Jim
hmmm… i think that may be the problem then. It was either LN or latex caulk, like… umm… ahhh whats that stuff called… with red labeling, all you guys use it here… maybe starts with an S?
anyway, I’m pretty sure what we did was squirt out lines all over the plywood, and then put the foam on top, and weighted it down for a few days. I’m almost 100% sure we didn’t scrape it down or spread it out or anything; I figured pressing the foam onto it would’ve taken care of that.
My past experience with LN products on my layout has been good but I will switch to caulk on the next layout.
When I laid my cork roadbed with LN, I did as you did: bead of LN, squish the roadbed into the bead to spread it. I must have used something to insure the cork laid flat, but don’t remember what it was. I didn’t have to sand the top of the cork. I haven’t had any trouble with the roadbed coming loose in five years in a climate-controlled room.
I’ve used caulk for some repairs and like it’s working characteristics much better.
I think you’ve identified the problem. Laying down a ‘bead’ of any kind of adhesive and then laying roadbed without leveling it is going to cause a number of problems.
I’ve used WS roadbed on my garage layout, which is on a base of 2" foam (Corning, the pink stuff), and I used Elmer’s Carpenter glue for the adhesive, but I made sure I leveled it out with a spatula before I laid the foam roadbed. That was 7 years ago and I’ve had no problem with uneven roadbed. And oboy, do I have temperature fluctuations! [:P]
So make sure you ‘level’ your adhesive before laying down the foam roadbed.
I had the same problem with past layouts. I was using elmers wood glue. The second time I put the glue down twice as thick thinking that the plywood soaked up most of it on the first try. It still had a tendancy to pop loose after several months. I just don’t think the glue was adhering very well to the foam. Anyway, my current layout does not have any adhesive attaching the foam to the plywood. The thickest foam I can get here is 3/4" thick, and I have two layers on most of the layout. I used dry wall screws to attach the foam to the plywood and so far it has worked out well. I sealed the screw holes in the foam with masking tape. A couple of times I hit a screw when trying to drill holes for wires, but so far, it has been the only problem. I have had it down now for about two years. Since you have already laid track, this may be a workable solution for you.
I hate to be the only nay-sayer here, but I’ve used latex caulk and the 2" pink foam board pulled up within a couple days. I had to scrap all the caulk off the plywood, and whatever was on the foamboard peeled right off. I’m building portable modules with 2" foam adhered to 1/4 birch plywood.
I switched to PL300, Foamboard Adhesive caulk and haven’t had an issue since. I work on the modules in the garage, so the modules have been exposed to the temperature extremes. So, while I know MR advocates latex caulk and obviously some of you have all had good experiences, I have not. Maybe it’s because I’m moving the modules around regularly.
Any how… that’s my [2c]
Maybe try a couple different methods mentioned above to see what works best for you…
For pink or blue foam to wood, I’d used yellow glue, which is what I’ve used twice now. The first time was on a grid frame with no plywood underneat - so it was just all the edges of 1x4’s that had glue on them, the foam was set on and weighted for 3-4 days. At times I started to come up too soon after crawling under and banged my head agaisnt he bottom of the foam and it never came loose. This time I had a layer of plywood underneath, it took more liek a week to dry since it was totally sealed in that situation, but it’s on there pretty good now.
Up on top, nothign but caulk to attach the roadbed to the foam, and the track to the roadbed. I wouldn’t use caulk to attach the foam to the wood though. ALthough using caulk to glue a palstic Tortoise switch motor to the foam worked out VERY well.