I would like to thin some Titebond III. Can I mix some water in it?
I want to thin it so I can spread it on my ballast outside to help stabilize it.
Yes. A 50:50 mixture works OK and makes it easy to apply with a turkey baster.
It will yellow and brown with age …
I dunno I set my ballast with cement one year and pulled it all out the next. Never looked right.
John
Doug
I have tried cement and a couple of different glues in the past to “set” ballast outdoors.
It always looked great for a while then the grief started. Expansion and contraction would leave little “ice cubes”
of ballast chunks floating loosely between and around the ties. As John pointed out the glue will change color.
I found the only thing the glue really sticks the gravel to is the ties and rail, not a real issue till you go to make a
change or just take up the track and try to clean it up. Freeze and thaw is another issue. The glue or cement dust
mix only went so deep into the ballast so with moisture and freeze I had entire sections of rail with ballast stuck to and between
the ties. Just try to work that back down and into the roadbed for reballasting.
My recommendation is don’t do it just use a good crushed gravel with the rock dust in it.
But, I am sure others have used these methods with great success, so you just have to try the methods and make up your own mind
as to what works for you.
Doug
Yes… you can certainly mix Titebond III with water however I would like to raise my hand and ask the question… what are you are using for ballast?
I agree with John, yellows and browns with age, yuck.
Greg
We’ve had BAGRS member’s who used Quikrete Concrete Bonding Adhesive thinned about 60/40 with water with quite good results. I helped a member with a large layout apply this to his screened crushed granite fines. We misted a little water on first than applied the mixture with a turkey baster. Seems to work really well in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Russ Miller
NGRC 2016 Chairman
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NGRC2016/
SVGRS members use a dry powered white colored Quckset, sold around here only at Home Depot. Mix it dry with the ballast about 20% powder with 80% ballast. Put it on dry, mist it in with a hose. When you need to change it, just hit the ballast a couple of times and it’ll break up.
Dick and Russell are right. Applying (mixing) dry Quickset with ballast fines and misting it with a hose forms a good bond that holds ballast in place well. I’ve used this technique several times with success. Cleaning off ties for later changes is easy as the bond is not so tight. But don’t Fido step on the track. It will break the ballast up some.
There is some sort of bonding sand that received good reviews here a few years ago. Can’t remember what the sand is called. Mix it with the ballast.
Primary use was bonding stone walkways, as I recall.
Doug why? It doesn’t rain in the desert(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Steve Featherkile said:
There is some sort of bonding sand that received good reviews here a few years ago. Can’t remember what the sand is called. Mix it with the ballast.
Primary use was bonding stone walkways, as I recall.
Polymeric Sand.
Yep, used between walkway and patio pavers. Works well.
I think I will experiment with the Quickset. I know I used it on some bricks. Just never thought of using it on the ballast.
Shawn, the rain hasn’t moved that ballast but the hard winds we sometimes get has. We had hard wind yesterday and it sure raised heck with my town. I have to do track inspection!