This sounds like a real dumb question but im getting ready to ballast my layout. My layout room also has my furnace in it (natural gas furnace). Ive always used 70% Isopropyl alcohol to break the surface tension on my past layout. Ive never tried wet water. Question is does the wet water work as well as the isopropyl alcohol and is using the isopropyl alcohol near the furnace dangerous. I know it is flammable so im assuming it might not be good to use on my layout due to the furnace location. I know the fumes are strong and linger for a while.
Isopropyl is OK next to the furnace in warm weather. It evaporates quickly and disappears after a day or so. Watch that you have good ventilation when you use it.
I've had real good luck with wet water in a spray bottle in HO, followed by diluted white glue. Just a few drops of detergent in a quart of water is usuially good enough.
I've never used alcohol doing ballast...I use it for a wide variety of other things in MRRing. I've been using the wet water method for...um, 30+ years and have had great results. I typically add...eh...a few cc's of dish detergent to a standard size spray bottle, and cut white glue about 50% with water. Then spray, stream, and spray.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
I use alcohol straight out of the bottle, applied with a pipette. It's the least messy, gives me the best application and dries faster than wet water.
I doubt that there would be any issues. The flame in a gas furnace is completely contained, and that's the only point where the heat would be sufficient to light anything. Ventilation is always a good idea, regardless.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
LION might be old fashioned, but him uses GRAVITY!
Works great on 1:1 scale too.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
MisterBeasley I use alcohol straight out of the bottle, applied with a pipette. It's the least messy, gives me the best application and dries faster than wet water. I doubt that there would be any issues. The flame in a gas furnace is completely contained, and that's the only point where the heat would be sufficient to light anything. Ventilation is always a good idea, regardless.
That may be true with rubbing alcohol, but you have to be much more careful with stuff like denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, and the like. That contained flame on a gas furnace can easily ignite concentrated fumes.
I do use isopropyl alcohol to prep my ballast for the water/glue mix as it really increases the absorption rate.
Rich
Alton Junction
There is no problem using the alcohol for the ballasting anywhere near a furnace. The amount you are using is minimal, and it would take an awfully high temp to ignite it. Assuming you are not using an open flame within a few feet of it, you should be fine.
Remember, there are lots of other fluids we use in our modeling that are flammable as well - i.e. glues, oils, greases, paints, etc. As with the alcohol, as long as they are a few feet away from an open flame, you are OK.
One caveat........ When you are using an airbrush or spray can of petroleum based paints, those fumes can spread all over the place - which amounts to a fire hazard as well as a health hazard.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Using rubbing alcohol for ballast should not be a problem. At our HO scale club, we've ballasted with it for quite some time near propane heaters, both wall mounted ones and the type that clamp to the top of a propane bottle.
I have always used wet water and will continue too. I don't care for the smell of the alcohol and I am real particular about my ballasting so I go very slow and I am N Scale also and use Highball real rock ballast. Wet water approach gives me better working time when doing the final gluing and this approach has not ever given me trouble with the glue seeping all through the ballast. I always spray the wet water with a very fine setting on the bottle so as not to move the ballast and soak it twice in the section (about four feet long), that I am going to work on. My base (furniture grade plywood), is always painted with two coats of my earth color to completely seal the wood and I always use Midwest cork roadbed yellow glued down. Maybe it takes longer to dry but when it is done using 3 parts glue to 1 part water it is rock hard and done. I have used this method for years with no failure. Please note that I hate ballasting but it is also one of the most important things for the layout and I put quality before speed on this job. Doug
BroadwayLion LION might be old fashioned, but him uses GRAVITY! Works great on 1:1 scale too. ROAR
For the majority of us, this is a very bad idea.
There are reasons why we glue this stuff down which I won't bother to go into.
White glue and water is inexpensive, so what is the argument against gluing ballast?
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Geared SteamWhite glue and water is inexpensive, so what is the argument against gluing ballast?
LION runs a dynamic railroad. Him has no scruples (we will cover that later) about moving or removing tracks. Just brush the ballast aside and adjust the tracks. New switch: No problem. Move a switch to the other end of a platform, no problem.
Besides LION uses cat litter for ballast: him thought the water might not be a good ides. Also is fact track is laid directly on Celotex, which could swell and do nasty things when it gets wet.
All in all, LION is pleased with what him built. But this is the third or fourth layout for some of the tracks, and ballast makes it hard to recycle the track to a new layout. Not that I will be doing this again. Besides with the number of cuts and gaps in this track now, it would be useless in a future layout.
Besides LIONS are known to be lazy, lying in the sun all day, Yawning is hard work you know. Good enough is just that: Perfect is a pain in the tail.
Works for me you lazy kitty.