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The term "white glue" is very common in the hobby. I'd assume most use Elmers Glue...it's what I use. I see some in the store that is Elmers, but it says "School Glue" on the bottle, is that regular Elmers with just a different label? Also, what ever happened to the big bottles? All I see are the small bottles of it in Wal-Mart. ....I just ran out tonight. Needing some more and would like a big bottle.
Anyway, when you guys use "white glue"....what do you use?
White glue, school glue all the same to me. Used to see it in quart gallon bottles. Try a Home Center like Home Depot or Menard's or even a School/Teacher supply store if you can find one. If not, the Elmer's Carpenter glue works even better for a lot of jobs.
I buy Elmers glue in gals. from either Home Depot or Lowes. Lately at my Home Depot they have changed over to their brand which is quite expensive. I pay $11.00 a gal at Lowes. I bought a pint plastic bottle at DollarTree & I refill it w/a small funnel out of the gal. jug. I use about 2 or 3 gals almost every year. The reason I don't use the Elmers carpenter glue is it's more expensive & it dries to fast. It shouldn't be used to glue down plastic buildings to wood or foam(carp. glue) because you will never be able to remove them. W/reg. Elmers you can pop up a bldg. w/a screwdriver to move it.
I bought a bottle of school glue from Walmart recently, seems just like white glue only thinned out a bit more and flows a bit better than the lepage wood glue I last used....
wood glue is a different beast than school or white glue. it is incredibly strong on porous surfaces and (very important in the MRR universe) doesn't dry clear.
School glue is slightly thinned down Elmer's glue. Elmer's glue is latex based so if you're allergic to latex, watch out. Elmer's glue can be thinned with water. (the trick to ballasting is to lay the ballast, thin some elmer's glue with water, then pour it onto the ballast. After letting the ballast soak up the mixture, pour some rubbing alcohol onto the ballast which will evaporate taking the water with it and acts as an accelerant to dry the glue.) Mixing Elmer's glue with alcohol doesn't work. I don't know why.
After the glue dries, theres no residue, no visible glue, and the ballast is stuck there with no visible means of sticking (creates a very good illusion of free-flowing ballast) If you need to dig it up for any reason, the ballast can be scraped off.
I mix Elmer's with isopropyl alcohol all the time. If you are using RUBBING alcohol, the oil in it may be causing your problems. My entire layout is ballasted with iso-thinned elmer's. The fumes can be pretty heady.....but it does dry a lot faster.
