I have used cookie cutter and long strips when laying out Homasote. Both work well. One other tip to using the product (adding to other comments here):
Homasote sheets vary in thickness from sheet to sheet and within a sheet. Try to "cherry pick" the most even sheets that you can find when making your initial purchase. I usually ask for four sheets (the lumber yard brings them over from another shed via forklift) and use a straight edge to pick the most consistent, hump, bump and dip free, piece in the batch. This avoids the dreaded sanding of the homasote after it has been glued down. While it generally accepted that one will have to sand a little bit, a little of this activity goes a long way as the dust generated by the process is nasty.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I cut most of my homasote in the garage, I rigged up a shop vac with square funnels I made out of aluminum and it's portable and it collects most all of the dust. LOL my garage looks more like a woodworking shop I bought new equipment just before I retired, but a couple of my machines the jointer and the planer are used, they are industrial with 220 volt motors as well as my table saw. They are not portable at all. LOL I keep the garage clean, probably the cleanest room in the house.
I did seal the door between the garage and the train room cause one door leads right into the train room, the other door leads to my paint shop. Don't want no dust in either room.
I have used the kerf cut method for bending both homasote and plywood subroadbed. Unless I know in advance which direction I will be bending the material, I alternate the kerf cuts on either side -- don't go too deep if you do this -- and that way I do not have to know in advance which direction I want to bend the subroadbed. Homasote does tend to break rather than bend so you have to understand the limits of the material.
To make my kerf cuts, by the way I 1) do my work OUTSIDE. Homasote is just so incredibly dusty to saw. 2) I use saw blades meant for cutting metal. It is slow cutting, and the blade gets hotter than blazes, no pun intended, but that is the thinnest kerf around, and the edges of the homasote are cut clean, like sliced cheese, rather than rough and ragged. A slightly wider kerf is useful for plywood.
I mark my track centerlines on the subroadbed BEFORE I kerf-cut and bend the material.
A good example on a commercial basis is homa-bed, the prefab homasote roadbed that uses kerf cuts to make it fairly flexible. No you cannot get it down to 15 inch radius curves but even cork roadbed rebels a bit at that.
Dave Nelson
RangeroverI'll be darned...I'm 65 years old and still learning. I too want to say thanks, I never knew this would work with homasote. I guess I did my layout the hard way. I plan on putting another addition on my layout and I will definitely be using the kerf method. I used to say I'm stuck in my old ways of doing things, wrong again. I tried it last night so much easier and better! Thank you to the OP for starting this thread! My original post, post #2: 1/2" homasote ain't gonna bend on the flat no matter how many relief cuts you make. I've used homasote since the late 50's. The only way you're gonna get it to go around curves is to cut the curves with a band saw or possibly a jig saw. I use the band saw.
I'll be darned...I'm 65 years old and still learning. I too want to say thanks, I never knew this would work with homasote. I guess I did my layout the hard way. I plan on putting another addition on my layout and I will definitely be using the kerf method. I used to say I'm stuck in my old ways of doing things, wrong again. I tried it last night so much easier and better! Thank you to the OP for starting this thread!
My original post, post #2:
1/2" homasote ain't gonna bend on the flat no matter how many relief cuts you make. I've used homasote since the late 50's. The only way you're gonna get it to go around curves is to cut the curves with a band saw or possibly a jig saw. I use the band saw.
A few little tips, Start off with a brand new fine tooth saw blade like the ones used for cutting plywood. I picked up a couple of 122 tooth blades at Lowes this morning for $8.95 each. Don't buy real good one's because they are going to be junk when our done so I got the cheap ones and will just throw them away when I'm finished.The biggest thing cut this stuff out doors if it at all possible. I have a huge workshop out back, if I had to do this in my basement there was no way I could have done it. Get yourself a 1"x 4"x 8' pine board so have a carrying board to transport the homasote roadbed to the train room. It will snap as soon as look at it. Trust me there is a pile of it in my shop.One last this is I know some people say there is no need to paint the homasote because they have dry basements etc. but I can see where painting it can help keep the dust down some what.
You aint just whistling Dixie, since I realised my mistake thanks to the other two posters I have since layed down about 80' of roadbed
Horizontal bending strips of homasote (as for track roadbed) is slicker than wet soap. All one's got to do is to cut slots on the inside-curve side, perhaps three-fourths of the way through. The width and frequency of the cuts is dependent upon the radius.
Mark
When we still used Homasote (ages ago, foam is so much easier and less messy), For 2" wide road bed, holding it vertically, we cut a kerf every 1 1/2" to 2", about a 1/4" to 1/2" from the center line, then flipped it over and repeated the cuts on the other side, resulting in alternate kerfs every inch or so. We used a blade with a 1/8" thickness, the kerf has to be wide enough to allow for compression.. We were able to bend it like flex track.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
I used the California Roadbed curvable style on my layout. I laid radii as tight as 16" with no problem. You have to make the kerf cuts at least 1/2" to 5/8" apart (the closer the kerfs are spaced the tighter the radius you can make) and as deep as you can (with about 1/8" material left before you'd go thru). Make sure the kerfs follow the inside of the curve so in effect they compress. You have to use two pieces...one on either side of the track centerline. You can't do the entire width of the roadbed on a curve. It is fragile to handle. You have to support it well because it cannot support itself ala cantaliever.
hth
-G-
I started cutting and laying the homasote roadbed last night and well lets just say Friday the 13th came early. After a few pieces just snappingin two simply by picking them up without fully supporting them and after burning out the on/off switch on my table saw I finally had three 8' lengths of roadbed ready to be glued down. Now just to clarify I am using it on the flat ala Howard Zane's method with releif cuts 3/4 of the way through every inch to inch and a half as opposed to laying on endge like I have seen others do. So I start off on a very mild curve around 32" radius and this stuff is snapping like nobody's business. Can this be because the homasote is old? I looked like a fresh pallet in HD so I'm not suspecting that but one never knows.Does anyone have any tricks or secerete old school methods of bending this stuff. I realise now it's probably best suited for extremely large railroads with large sweeping curves but that aint happen anytime soon.
Thanks for any advice.