No need to cut any wood or Homasote product. Go to 84 Lumber and purchase 10’ individual pieces of wood lattice. Works great. Only need to be cut to length. Use small wood glue blocks between the two strips of lattice. The riser cleats will be glued to the bottom of the lattice pieces just below one of the glue blocks. Put glue blocks every 8". My whole layout, the Oil Creek Rail Road ( 12’ x 30’) was constructed this way. Underlayment 5.2mm wood was glued to top of risers for sub-roadbed. Then Homabed used as roadbed on top of that.
For more information, e-mail me at OCRR@frontiernet.net.
Doctor ***
Editor and Publisher
Rochester Model Rails
Victor, NY
Hi cutting in New Zealand. As far as I can tell our pinex is the closest thing to homasote and our hardboard is similiar to masonite. As far as MDF/customwood is concerned, my present layout uses 9mm MDF for the subroadbed. Construction is cookie cutter style with support at 300mm spacing on the elevated area. Roadbed is 3mm closed cell foam glued to subroadbed and flex track is glued to the foam. All goes together really quickly. On this forum you will see that most people don’t like MDF and prefer plywood but if you compare the price of plywood with MDF (in NZ) you will see that MDF is worthy of consideration.
F.Y.I. The RONA LANSING HOME BUILDING CENTRE on Martingrove Rd. north of Highway 409 carries 4’ X 8’ sheets of Homasote in stock. The Price last Fall was $35.00 per sheet. They will make several cuts for free if you have the sizes for them. This would be fine if you just need a few pieces cut to a specific size.
NOTE. Martingrove Rd. Runs North/South and is the first major road East of Highway 27.
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Doctor ***, your e-mail address is not recognized by this forum; I can’t seem to send you a reply.
Using a bandsaw to cut Homasote is brilliant! Nearly any size saw should be adequate. I would recommend a 3/8" or 1/2" blade with a moderate tooth size (say 3 TPI) in a skip-tooth pattern for faster dust clearance and less heat buildup.
If you need to cut a lot of strips, it’s probably worth the time to rig a larger table for material support and a longer fence such as the aluminum angle mentioned previously would make long straight cuts easier.
When using a portable circular saw or a table or radial arm saw, a decent thin kerf blade (3/32" thick vs. 1/8") will reduce dust, conserve material, and allow the saw to cut with more power due to the reduced drag on the motor.
What goes around, comes around!
The first reference I found to Homasote spline construction was in the January 1955 issue of MR. Irv Winer had his splines cut by the building supply house where he bought it (for about 10% of the present price) I did the same when I used that construction technique in the 1960’s. 2-inch splines glued together with Elmer’s glue-all worked down to 24-inch radius. Unfortunately, that layout was abandoned (due to military orders) before I could reach any conclusions about longevity - but it sure was easy to spike into it.
A little trick for yards and junctions - continue outer splines along extreme edges, step the next splines down by the thickness of the flat material to be used, then cookie-cut a flat filler to support the turnouts and intermediate trackage. This eliminates edge-joints that can cause problems with spiking specialwork.
I have built two 0-Gauge layouts, the most recent one is 18’ X 33’. I use Homosote exclusively instead of plywood or other material. I can cut it easily in any configuration using a skil saw. It does create a little fluff, but no more difficult to clean up than sawdust. I find that over time it does not warp as long as it does not span too great an area without support - not nearly as bad as plywood. It is dense enough to hold nails or screws. It is also somewhat sound-deadening, although I still use cork roadbed on top of it. Homosote is a densified paper product whose main enemy is water. It comes in 8’ X 4’ sheets and I just bought some for $30 per sheet. In some parts of the country this comes under the name of (or maybe just a similar product) Upson Board.
I have been overall very happy with it.
Tom Duker
Mt. Angel, OR