Cork roadbed - shaping shoulders question

Hi Mike,

I'm coming in very late on this, but my suggestion would be to cut a

45 deg groove in a piece of MDF board and hot-glue a knife blade into it, and glue a strip of timber the width of your required trackbed away from it, and then push the cork across this - provided the cork is rigid enough of course?

This would (in two passes) cut to width and profile in one go.

Just a thought!

Ian.

Good idea, but the trick is to measure a vertical the thickness of the cork to the blade. Then measure half the width of the cork stock and put a guide either side of the blade. Then with one cut you have the two halves necessary to lay the roadbed with no waste. It also lays, glues and bends better since the vertical sides can be precisely placed along a drawn center line on the subroadbed.

Bob

Great idea which I may try with my next lot of cork tiles.

In the meantime here is the progress to date. I tried using the 'square cut' cork 2 days ago (Tuesday). The cork strips are 4mm (approx 1/6 inch) thick, 20 mm 4/5") wide and 300 mm (12") long. I found that I could bend these relatively easily to the minimum 24" radius on my layout (most curves are 30" or greater except in a few places which go down to 24", where there will be speed restrictions).

Having bought some of the American 'How to' books I marked the centreline of my track, laid one strip up to this, put white PVA glue on the cork, laid it in place and then used some small round headed nails to hold this in place. I left this in place for 24 hours to dry then butted the next strip up to this and left it to dry also. Where the glue seeped out from under the outer edges of the cork I just spread along the edge of the cork to help to provide an angled edge. I intend to use a 'Stanley' knife with a curved blade to cut away the top rectangular edge then rub this down with sandpaper.

I have laid strips down where a point (switch) goes, including leaving space for the tie bar. I think that this might be easier with longer strips. The whole thing has been left to dry until I can get back to it next week.

Watch this space for further instalments:-)

Just a thought how about using DS foam tape instead.

Once it is ballasted you do not know what is underneath no glueing, cutting or pins needed and easy to lay.

Peter

This doesn't ring any bells with me. That's the trouble with using 'local' terminology. Us yokels from the 'mother' country don't always understand :-)) Just what is it?

He probably meant Double Sided tape. At least that is what I thought of when I read it.

In message , Frank A. Rosenbaum writes

D'oh - obvious now you point it out!

Yes - You can get 'thick' DS tape, not sure how soft it is as I have always avoided it for the jobs I have needed tape for. Given that it is not under any kind of stress, assuming the layout is fixed, it should last okay. Nice idea. In the US some people use a kind of 'Blu-tak' like putty (comes in track-width strips), you lay it , press down the track, lay ballast over it and press that down. It was called 'instant roadbed', I asked on a US ng and was told it collects dust (so I didnt try it myself). Again presupposes a fixed layout as I doubt it would be terribly strong. One point it to get 'book binding' PVA which stays rubbery rather than setting rigid, it does keep the noise down a bit but you have to get it from the makers (I was not able to find a supplier). I got mine a few years back from a firm called Sheppy, if yoiu have difficulty tracing them I can try and find their details.

Mike

Mike

Don't fret about it. We all have our "D'oh" moments. Some more than others. (G)