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- From: winans@xray.aps.anl.gov (John R. Winans)
- Subject: cork vs homasote (Re: Where to mail order?)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan25.165502.14031@mcs.anl.gov>
- Sender: usenet@mcs.anl.gov
- Organization: Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago Illinois
- References: <UfKOYFK00iV38200g7@andrew.cmu.edu> <1993Jan20.143024.29642@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 16:55:02 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- In article <UfKOYFK00iV38200g7@andrew.cmu.edu> cb4n+@andrew.cmu.edu (Colin John Brodsky) writes:
- >First, thanks for all the input regarding plywood vs. Homasote. I
- >decided to go with Homasote using braces every 18". This supports my
- >weight with no visible sagging, so I think it will be OK.
- >
- >Now comes time to get roadbed - a case of cork...
-
- Huh? Why not just use the homasote? There have been several articles posted
- here in the past few months about ways to cut it.
-
- I saw a layout being built in Elmhurst IL. where they used a router to shape
- the road bed out of the homasote after it was mounted. The shape looked fine.
- And they were left with homasote to mount the tracks on (instead of flimsy
- cork.) So they could run trains before they got serious about eye-droppers
- of glue and so on.
-
- For the landscape they had screen tacked to the bottom of the homasote that
- was covered with that expanding foam stuff. The screen/foam combo worked
- pretty well for them. It looks like what happens is that the foam expands
- and then, under its own weight, falls thru the screen until its surface is
- about 1/4" above the screen (the total foam thickness was in the 1 to 2 inch
- range.) So the end result was that they did not actually need anything above
- their sub-roadbed structure to provide the desired shape. (They did, however,
- use an assortment of support styles for the homasote depending on the grade of
- the terrain.)
-
- I would suspect that if you used expando-foam along the edge of the roadbed
- everywhere, that you would not need much support for the homasote. If your
- enitre terrain was made of 2" foam, your layout would be VERY rigid.
-
-
- --John
- --
- ! John Winans Advanced Photon Source (Controls) !
- ! winans@mcs.anl.gov Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois !
- ! !
- !"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." - Tom Waits !
-