I am still hgaving problems with glue "balling" when i aply it to my ballast on my layout. but after they FINALLY soaked in, the drops added soaked through and spread out. SO I was wondering, is it logical to spray the ballast down with water or something of that sort to make the glue soak when i apply the glue (with an eyedropper)?
Pat, I always spray the ballast with water with a drop of dishwashing detergent added. I use a hand sprayer, as used for many things around the home and garden. This soaks the ballast, so when the dilute mix of glue is added with a dropper, it spreads through the ballast quickly without 'balling'
Pat, I used to use water with dishwashing detergent with either a sprayer or eye dropper. Lately, I have had better luck using Isopropol alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and an eyedropper for ballast. I use the 70% alcohol and mix it 50-50 with water. I take the eye dropper and wet between the rails first, they come back and wet outside the rails. When I come back with the diluted glue, no problems at all. Dutchman
Pat, Here's some helpful hints. </font> Get an empty bottle of "spray" hairspray, if your wife uses it all the better get her a new bottle and use the old one. CVS et al sell them cheap. Don't use any thing else. The 'spray' is too heavy in most of the other bottles. fill it with 99% water and then add dish detergent, any brand. Next spray that over the area that is layed out with ballast. When it is SOAKING and I mean SOAKING wet. Apply a 50/50 mix of white glue and water right out of the Elmer's bottle.</font> That should solve your problems. The reason it is puddleing(sp?) is because you are not wetting the ballast enough before you apply the glue. Hope this helps.
I put a 1/3 of Elmer's Glue a bit less than a 1/3 of water and the rest is Rubbing Alcohol. I put it all together in a spare Elmer's Glue bottle and mix it well. Then I slowly allow the mixture to drip out of the bottle and onto the dry ballast. (Nice thing about using the Elmer's bottle is you can control the rate of flow.) The alcohol will allow the glue to mix right into the ballast all in one step.
Gumbytrain, First of all Welcome to TRAINBOARD Now here's my query: I want to be sure that I am reading your post correctly, you do not wet down the ballast. Just apply your formula and it wicks its way into the ballast. You do not get any puddling. If that is correct, I'm going to have to try it.
Thanks, but I've been reading this board for close to two years. I just rarely post so my account was deleted. Anyway, I do not wet the ballast. Currently I'm using real limestone HO ballast and I will take my bottle of mixture and slowly dribble it out on the area that needs glue. They key is to hold it about 1/2 inch or less above the ballast. That way when the droplet falls it will not make little craters. I've been doing this in N with no problems. Now I'm in HO and I'm ballasting right now with this technique. It works very well for me. Also, you may want to put down a small pile of ballast someplace to act as an experiment zone. Add the mixture and see how it flows. If it doesn't flow in, add more rubbing alcohol. Hope this works for you if you try it.
Usually, when I ballast, I have had great success with 70% rubbing alcohol, straight from the bottle. I use an eyedropper to apply the alcohol, then the same eyedropper to apply either thinned white glue or lately, I've taken to using Woodland Scenics scenery glue. It dries nice a flat. Jeff Augsburg & Concord R.R. (a fictional shortline in Central Illinois) http://www.pegnsean.net/~revnjeff
I have been using this method described in the following article. There is a link on this p[age to the article and it has worked for me very well. I had the same problems ballasting but this has made it easier for me. http://users2.ev1.net/~pvanvliet/index.html The link worked last week but when I just tried it it did not. Sorry. The main thrust of the article said to wet the ballast down with rubbing alcohol and then dribble a mixture of 50/50 white glue and water with a drop or two of dish washing detergent. The alcohol breaks the tension of the ballast so the glue mixture readily wicks its way into the ballast. I use a craft glue called SoBo because it never gets hard like elmers does. Also if any changes need to be made later it is very easy to take the track up. [ 08. May 2003, 00:52: Message edited by: leghome ]
