Caulking and tracks

[CFournier]

Somewhere in this forum I heard of using caulking to glue foam board, and to glue tracks and roadbed to foam. What type of caulking do you use? Is it the transparent caulking that we use around the bathtub? What brands do you recommend?
Chris

[orsonroy]

I use 100% silicone caulk to glue foam to foam, foam to wood, and cork to foam. I use 100% latex caulk to glue track to foam or track to caulk.

Brands don't matter; cheap & available do. Colors really don't matter either, but it won't hurt to get caulk in earthtones or black. Silicone caulk is cheapest in clear.

[rrinker]

The latex caulk I ue for my track and roadbed is an off-brand from Home Depot, not the DAP, I think it costs $1.99 a tube. It comes out white, but dries clear.
I would not use the silicon for track and roabed. For the foam panel stuff it should be ok. I know other peopel say they laid all their track with silicon caulk and had no problems ballasting, but I suspect issues with the long term adhesion of white glue and water for ballast to silicon. Plus silicon caulk STINKS - literally.

--Randy

[CFournier]

Thank you, I'm on my way to Home depot...
Chris

[WilmJunc]

This topic was dicussed at length on the "General" forum a week or two ago when nails vs. caulk was discussed. The concensus was: if you use caulk, use latex as you will be able to remove the track in the future.

[ARTHILL]

I second the idea of latex(CHEAP) caulk for roadbed and track. Easy and comes up (if you don't use too much) easy with a plastic putty knife. I weighted some for drying and used track nails for some. For track I knew I was going to have to move I just used the track nails through the bed into the sub bed.

[MisterBeasley]

I'm using Liquid Nails for Projects. It's cheap and light brown. When fully cured, it's very hard. It firms up pretty quickly, but even after a day or so it is relatively easy to remove in case you make a mistake. It's NOT stinky like silicone, so you won't get chased out of the house for using it.

I use it for foam-to-benchwork, roadbed-to-foam, and track-to-roadbed. I've made some hydrocal castings of rock walls, and I found that Liquid Nails for Projects will NOT stick to them very well at all. For that, I have a tube of silicone, and a clothespin for my nose.

[dehusman]

I have used clear latex adhesive caulk to attach cork roadbed to plywood with great success. Much easier than white glue. Put down a bead, use a putty knife to spread it out to a thin layer. put down the cork, let it dry. I have used puch pins on sharp curves and at the ends of cork strips, but on most curves and strights, no other restraint is required.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

When I've used liquid nails, I've found that it gets a "skin" rather quickly. Making it harder to smooth a bead into a flat layer to put cork down on. If it skins too much, you get the same problems as when you use hot-glue for cork - it cools/cures too quickly, leaving lumpy roadbed.

Rob