Am I too impatient w/ballast??

[Anonymous]

Last night put the ballast down on my first layout.  Used woodland scenics fine gray and medium gray ballast, wetted it w/ soap and water, then applied scenic cement per directions.  It hasn't set up yet 14 hrs later.  How long should I give it?  Could I have gotten the ballast too wet to begin with?  The layout is in a heated garage, we have had 6 days of cool misty rain.

[secondhandmodeler]

Mine took a couple of days to harden.  The same amount of time for my muddy roads to dry. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

That's why I no longer use the scenic cement. I now use a 50/50 mix of white glue and water. It hardens overnight.

[MisterBeasley]

Yeah, I've had it take as long as 3 days in wet weather.

I too use a mix of white glue and water - about 1 part glue, 3 parts water.  I use straight isopropyl alchohol to wet things before applying the glue.  I put both the glue and alcohol on with pipettes (LHS eyedroppers for hobbyists) and I don't spray anything.

It's a tedious process.  Kind of a Zen thing, though.  I usually only do a few feet at a time, as I finish up the scenery in that part of the layout.  That way it's not an overwhelming task to do hundreds of feet of track all at once.

[loathar]

Usually a good 24 hours. Even longer in rainy weather. (Sucks! Don't it?)

[larak]

the same for diluted matte medium.

 

[jacon12]

Lets see.. have an ingrown toenail cut out, do 50 feet of ballast.. which is more fun for me.  Gee, that's a close call awright. 

Anyway, you probably are a bit impatient.  I do mine exactly like Mr. B does it.

Jarrell

[Free-mo Tim]

Yeah, I've had it take as long as 3 days in wet weather.

I too use a mix of white glue and water - about 1 part glue, 3 parts water.  I use straight isopropyl alchohol to wet things before applying the glue.  I put both the glue and alcohol on with pipettes (LHS eyedroppers for hobbyists) and I don't spray anything.

It's a tedious process.  Kind of a Zen thing, though.  I usually only do a few feet at a time, as I finish up the scenery in that part of the layout.  That way it's not an overwhelming task to do hundreds of feet of track all at once.

 

I was in a hurry to get my freight yard ballasted in July. (It was committed to go to Detroit as part of a modular display.)  The 20 ft yard (up to 8 tracks wide) was ballasted in 48 hours.

Similar water based techniques as others have shared were used. I decided to "help" the evaporation along a little. A small (desk sized) fan was used to help dry all the moisture. I was able to complete a 5 ft section and be ready to transport it in less than 7 hours;  give the fan all the credit!! It was only used after ALL the layers were well soaked with adhesive (matte medium is my chosen "tool"). Hope this helps someone!

Regards from Ohio,

Tim 

 

[pavalons]

Now that I'm working on my third layout I guess I took the easy way out to avoid the tedious frustration of ballasting. I used Kato Unitrack for all the mainline. With the right weathering it looks just as good as your average ballast job, IMO.