Laying roadbed

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Billy

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Has anyone ever used a hot glue gun to affix roadbed to plywood? Looking for suggestions as to what product to use. My track centers are traced (carbon paper) to the plywood so I would rather not use anything white to cover up the lines. Something clear would work nicely......

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Billy
 
Just use some clear latex caulk. Thats what I use. I also use the caulk for attaching the track to the roadbed as well.
 


I used a hot glue gun for attaching the cork to ply. I took n
half the cork and laid a 6 to 10 inch bead on one side and followed the centerline. The glue hardens quickly so a longer bead was unworkable for me. The otherside is easier to lay as you butt it to what is down. Stagger joints. The centerline of the cork is now your centerline for the track.
 
Billy said:
Has anyone ever used a hot glue gun to affix roadbed to plywood?
Click to expand...
Not in the sense you are talking about, but the club I belonged to attempted to do an entire section of spline roadbed with hot glue. We had been making about 10 feet a day with normal wood glue and clamps. With hot glue we finished the last 50-60 feet in about 2 hours. It worked really great ... for about three years then it all let go. Talk about a mess.

I am now gun shy of hot glue for any permanent construction project.
 
I use track nails from atlas. If you need to make a change you can pull the nails and move it around.
Steve
 
flyboy34 said:
Motley, do you know if the laytex caulk is compatible with foam board?
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Yes it sure is compatible with foam.

No need for track nails. And if you want to pull up the track, just use a thin spatula under the track, it comes off easy enough. As long as you don't use too much caulk. Only a thin layer is needed.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Not in the sense you are talking about, but the club I belonged to attempted to do an entire section of spline roadbed with hot glue. We had been making about 10 feet a day with normal wood glue and clamps. With hot glue we finished the last 50-60 feet in about 2 hours. It worked really great ... for about three years then it all let go. Talk about a mess.

I am now gun shy of hot glue for any permanent construction project.
Click to expand...

I started my layout over 10 years ago, and I used the Hot glue and spline method that I saw in one of Alan Keller's videos. I've had spline in place for most of the layout since then and have experienced only one failure, and that is in an area that has been "knocked" around some, which is the gate into the layout. Its currently a wedge shape and I may have to redesign that entrance. But that is the only failure we've had on mine. Everything else is still in place and still strongly anchored. Your club could have been using the wrong type of hot glue, the guns may not have been able to generate enough heat, etc. The secret to this method of construction is the glue has to be heated to where it is thinner than syrup, but not by much, so it will penetrate the wood surface for a strong bond.
 
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Cjcrescent said:
I started my layout over 10 years ago, and I used the Hot glue and spline method that I saw in one of Alan Keller's videos. I've had spline in place for most of the layout since then and have experienced only one failure, and that is in an area that has been "knocked" around some, which is the gate into the layout. Its currently a wedge shape and I may have to redesign that entrance. But that is the only failure we've had on mine. Everything else is still in place and still strongly anchored. Your club could have been using the wrong type of hot glue, the guns may not have been able to generate enough heat, etc. The secret to this method of construction is the glue has to be heated to where it is thinner than syrup, but not by much, so it will penetrate the wood surface for a strong bond.
Click to expand...

But doesn't the hot glue set up too fast?
 


Carey is right. Hot glue needs to be really hot. The hotter the glue, the easier it penetrates the porous wood. You need a good glue gun for that. Some glue guns come with different heat settings. My father used to have an industrial hot melt glue gun. It used 1" diameter sticks of glue that were 4" long. It was pneumatically fed and had a foot pedal to feed the glue. The glue came out so hot if it touched you you were blistered. It could feed a stcick completely through the gun in about 15 seconds. When you stuck two pieces of wood together they weren't coming apart. If you did manage to separate them there would be one board that gave in and failed. The other board would have the glue and shrapnel from the other board stuck to it.
 
I went totally against the grain here. I loose laid the track, holding it in place with pins every so often, then laid the road beneath it. It was a little awkward granted, but meant that I didn't have to worry about center lines as such and could use white glue which gave me time to move the roadbed so it was centered beneath the track itself.
 
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