Good evening
The most common mistake made with drywall compound by an amateur is they try to put to much on at one time. You can put a liberal amount on applying it to the wall as you are going along but the trick of it all is, you have to pull it tight, almost like trying to wipe it all the way off with the blade of the mud knife before you move on to do some more.
You don't even need to worry about what it looks like pulling it tight that way, because it will just get smoother on the next coat. The stuff is made to build in layers on it's own. It just gets smoother and smoother and builds on its own as you go along that way.
Applied correctly like that. The stuff sets up and is no longer green, ready for another coat after you get around the room. Wax on-Wax off, they call it.
Just got back from mudding a basement in St Cloud last week. Blaine and I dont have to sand our mud jobs. Just need to scrape the boogers out of the corners before paint. There might be two three spots that need a schmooze of Fast & Final after paint which is no big deal.
The heck with sanding anymore. If you need to sand you didn't go around the room with the final imperfections pulled tight feather skim coat with the baby blue mud. The job wasn't done yet.
And it's not too good of an idea to try to save $10 per gallon on cheap paint. The more expensive quality paint self levels itself to the wall making the lower voidz go away. Always remember what your Dad always told you, "You get what you pay for".
TF
It also helps to use flat or eggshell paint.
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
SeeYou190 ATLANTIC CENTRAL Not every drywall joint has the tapered edge, yet still a professional maked the joints disappear. I have been doing drywall for only about a year on my house, and I am finally able to make a non-tapered joint disappear! I feather out about 12" away from the tape, and then texture. My straight edge shows a "hump of about 1/16" across 24", which will appear flat. I used to try to make drywall flat, which is a fool's errand. Someone finally explained to me that no drywall is flat, it is just a series of invisible humps and valleys. It takes practice, and I think I use 2-3 times as much joint compound as a professional would need to. -Kevin
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Not every drywall joint has the tapered edge, yet still a professional maked the joints disappear.
I have been doing drywall for only about a year on my house, and I am finally able to make a non-tapered joint disappear!
I feather out about 12" away from the tape, and then texture. My straight edge shows a "hump of about 1/16" across 24", which will appear flat.
I used to try to make drywall flat, which is a fool's errand. Someone finally explained to me that no drywall is flat, it is just a series of invisible humps and valleys.
It takes practice, and I think I use 2-3 times as much joint compound as a professional would need to.
-Kevin
You got it, and with practice you get better and faster.
But up here nobody textures walls........
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRALNot every drywall joint has the tapered edge, yet still a professional maked the joints disappear.
Living the dream.
doctorwayne lifeontheranch ...Another vote for 1/8" (actually 3mm) tempered hardboard. Inexpensive, facilitates small radii, excellent painting surface, good rigidity.... Tempered hardboard is no more flexible than regular hardboard. The "tempering" is to the surface, to make it more resistant to damage - I learned that from a local lumber yard, and used tempered hardboard on four of my workbenches. Three have stood up exceptionally well, while the one in my garage takes quite a beating, and couple of areas of the top will eventually need replacing. Wayne
lifeontheranch ...Another vote for 1/8" (actually 3mm) tempered hardboard. Inexpensive, facilitates small radii, excellent painting surface, good rigidity....
Tempered hardboard is no more flexible than regular hardboard. The "tempering" is to the surface, to make it more resistant to damage - I learned that from a local lumber yard, and used tempered hardboard on four of my workbenches. Three have stood up exceptionally well, while the one in my garage takes quite a beating, and couple of areas of the top will eventually need replacing.
Wayne
I am aware of that. Mentioned tempered because the tempered side is an ideal surface for painting. The backside or untempered hardboard not so much.
Alan
Freelancing the LK&O Railroad
lifeontheranch...Another vote for 1/8" (actually 3mm) tempered hardboard. Inexpensive, facilitates small radii, excellent painting surface, good rigidity....
hbgatsf ROBERT PETRICK 1/8" hardboard masonite. Smooth and continuous. Inside curves and outside curves. No visible joints. No visible fasteners or screwheads (even those in fancy cupped washers). Is your profession drywall work? It sure looks like a pro did that! What is the trick to getting the seams so good? I beleive drywall actually has a slight bevel to the edges to give some room for tape and mud, but obviously hardboard does not. Rick
ROBERT PETRICK 1/8" hardboard masonite. Smooth and continuous. Inside curves and outside curves. No visible joints. No visible fasteners or screwheads (even those in fancy cupped washers).
1/8" hardboard masonite. Smooth and continuous. Inside curves and outside curves. No visible joints. No visible fasteners or screwheads (even those in fancy cupped washers).
Is your profession drywall work? It sure looks like a pro did that!
What is the trick to getting the seams so good? I beleive drywall actually has a slight bevel to the edges to give some room for tape and mud, but obviously hardboard does not.
Rick
Not trying to answer for Robert, and yes he did a beautiful job, but mainly it takes patience and the right tools and materials. And doing drywall is part of my professional skill set. Not every drywall joint has the tapered edge, yet still a professional maked the joints disappear.
That said, as I mentioned above, I'm a professional carpenter and I really don't like working with Masonite, but, if that is the look you are going for, especially with the curves, than that is what youhave to do.
.
Another vote for 1/8" (actually 3mm) tempered hardboard. Inexpensive, facilitates small radii, excellent painting surface, good rigidity. Attached with countersunk 3/4" drywall screws which are mudded over. Joints lapped with short piece of hardboard glued in place on backside. Joints vee-ed out slightly, filled with construction adhesive and then mudded just like sheetrock. No visible fasteners. Backside markings show screw positions if I ever need to cut the fascia.
hbgatsf York1 One thing I've done that I learned from Lion in ND. He showed me how to make all electrical connections behind the fascia. That way my bad old body doesn't have to work under the layout. When you do that the distance from the track to the bus is longer, so do you need to step up the size of the feeder wire? Rick
York1 One thing I've done that I learned from Lion in ND. He showed me how to make all electrical connections behind the fascia. That way my bad old body doesn't have to work under the layout.
One thing I've done that I learned from Lion in ND. He showed me how to make all electrical connections behind the fascia. That way my bad old body doesn't have to work under the layout.
When you do that the distance from the track to the bus is longer, so do you need to step up the size of the feeder wire?
Rick, my layout is small, and there is not any section wider than 3½ feet. No feeder wire is more than a couple feet long.
I used bell wire which is solid AWG 20. I had a lot of that wire on hand.
My cheap little meter showed no change in power at any part of the track, so I never worried about it.
ROBERT PETRICK1/8" hardboard masonite. Smooth and continuous. Inside curves and outside curves. No visible joints. No visible fasteners or screwheads (even those in fancy cupped washers). No kerfs cut into the backside.
Robert, I have never before seen overall pictures of a layout room where EVERYTHING is so amazingly neat, tidy, and beautifully constructed.
Thanks for the follow up Ed. Im past the stage that determines the final shape of the edge of the fascia.
Everyone who showed their fascias have great ideas, and fantastic layouts.
Since my layout is framed with 6 inch plywood, I already have what's needed to attach carpet to. Dan
Southgate 2A question, though. Did you put the carpet in after all the messy work of scenery and such was done, or were you able to keep up with it?
I had about half the scenery done when I was inspired to apply the carpet material. It was no trouble to align the straight-cut bottom edge and leave a few inches at the scenery contour and trim it after the cement cured with a utility knife.
Here is one of the larger areas I had to cover:
IMG_8425_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
IMG_8441_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
And here I really left a lot of material to be trimmed but the utility knife slices this stuff beautifully. The material is much thinner than actual carpet, but that's the name they give it.
IMG_8436_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
Toward the left in the above photo you can see the original fascia that I was covering. It was trimmed with vinyl J channel such as they sell for Melamine panels. That dark green wall pater was tough as nails, too. It had a nice texture to it as well, but I like the fabric so much better.
Some of my controls are mounted in Lexan blank wall covers.
car_stop by Edmund, on Flickr
There's lots of options out there, of course. The fabric works well for me.
Digi_pocket by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
All of these pictures show great work on the layouts.
That means I have visible screws in the Masonite because I still remove certain panels when I'm working on electrical projects in the layout.
This is under a removed fascia section: I can sit in my chair and work on wiring. Once I'm through, I can put the fascia back on with a couple of screws.
Dang!!!
You are an incredible Craftsman Robert and that's all I can say about that. It's all just so neat
Hats off to you!
1/8" hardboard masonite. Smooth and continuous. Inside curves and outside curves. No visible joints. No visible fasteners or screwheads (even those in fancy cupped washers). No kerfs cut into the backside.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
I have a section of hidden track. Since it is in an area that is not in a direct line of sight I was thinking about using some clear material for facsia in that spot, and putting it on a hinge.
Has anyone done something like that and if so what material did you use?
Southgate 2 Well, I wouldn't have commented about my preference of 1/8 masonite, I think it's been pretty well driven home. But when I saw Ed's carpeted fascia, WOW! I could see that in my layout room! A question, though. Did you put the carpet in after all the messy work of scenery and such was done, or were you able to keep up with it? Dan
Well, I wouldn't have commented about my preference of 1/8 masonite, I think it's been pretty well driven home. But when I saw Ed's carpeted fascia, WOW! I could see that in my layout room!
A question, though. Did you put the carpet in after all the messy work of scenery and such was done, or were you able to keep up with it? Dan
Wouldn't you need something to attach that carpet to? I'd do the harboard/Masonite thing and then you can always jazz it up later if you need to. Personally, I'd like to get my layout with track and scenery down so carpet, while posh, is behind a whole host of other things; a basic fascia for is needful for sure.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
ATLANTIC CENTRAL I like Kevin's idea, we use lots of that material in the construction work I do. <SNIP> The PVC will do that as as well as Masonite does.
I only have two inside corners on my layout plan, and a 6" piece of PVC notched out at 45 degrees will do fine for me. I have never been happy with my curved fascias. This is not something I am good at.
BigDaddyAt Lowes I'm seeing the 5/8 pvc in 4x8 is $80? 1 Adam 12
I use nominal 1 by 4 and 1 by 6 PVC boards for my fascia. The sketch shows a cross section of my planned construction method.
LastspikemikeHardboard can be curved quite tightly if you kerf the backside....
1/8" hardboard can be easily curved, without need of kerfing, down to at least an 8" radius, as on this corner of my layout...
This one is somewhat broader....
...but was used because the aisleway here is fairly tight, and the smooth curves eliminate any chance of snagged clothing...
...another narrow aisle, but, as the sole operator, plenty wide enough for me...
I also used 1/8" hardboard to cove all 10 corners of my oddly-shaped layout room, both inside corners...
...and outside corners, too...
The gaps are there to allow installation of a partial second level of the layout, now in place.
Here's a sketch of the arrangement of materials for the coved corners...
The red line represents the drywall tape, and the green is the drywall mud.
When using 1/8 inch hardboard how small can you get a radius before cutting kerfs or wetting it? When you do need to wet it are you talking about soaking it or a spritz?
At Lowes I'm seeing the 5/8 pvc in 4x8 is $80? 1 Adam 12
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Thanks everyone. I think I'll go with the hardboard.
SeeYou190 Lakeshore Sub Wow Kevin. You still have a functioning Troller power pack!!!. I think I have more than a dozen Troller Transpak 2.5 units ready to go. -Kevin
Lakeshore Sub Wow Kevin. You still have a functioning Troller power pack!!!.
I think I have more than a dozen Troller Transpak 2.5 units ready to go.
There is a blast from the past! I used to have dual throttle Troller back in the 80's. I don't know what happened it in all the many moves I've made. But not wanting to be stuck controlling a train from a stationary power pack, I got a Star Tec Hogger with a tethered throttle. It's the only decent DC power pack I have anymore.
I'm starting a new layout. I used beadboard plywood on the last layout. I like Kevin's idea, we use lots of that material in the construction work I do.
But not using Masonite, I have never liked working with it.
I was considering some curved edges, but not sure at this point. The PVC will do that as as well as Masonite does.
I concur
Masonite, ...As there is no substitute.
We get it fresh up here as it's manufactured in Bemidji Minnesota. I do hear it called Bemidji board quite frequently up here.