# Using styrofoam for a hill



## TimTheTrainMan

I'm thinking of using styrofoam to create a small incline as a support for tracks from the flat part of the bench up to a covered bridge. 
Is there any advice either online, here on the forum on what tools to use and how to make such a thing? Like what can I use to shave the styro. board to make it like a ramp? 
If not, then any tips on what to do?
And I dunno if it matters, but it's for an O scale Lionel. 
Thanx in advance.


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## Reckers

Tim, if I may offer a few suggestions...

First, I would recommend not using the white, cheap styrofoam that is composed of a zillion lil white balls clinging to one another. As soon as you try to cut it, the balls break away instead of cutting and you spend the next hour trying to sweep them all up, with nothing but rough, irregular edges where you'd like to have flat ones.
Second, go to Lowes or any other building supplies place and look for 4' x 8' sheets of extruded foam insulation. This stuff is rigid and usually pink or blue; the pink is by far the best of the two. It can be cut with a razor knife or with a heat knife, sands and works well into shapes, is inert, so it glues well, too. However, it does not take kindly to any oil-based paints, solvents, acetone, and so on: paint your ramp or mountain with oil or toluene based paint and you'll have a puddle of goop. Use water-based latex paints, only. Finally, look around the Forum and you'll find lots of step-by-step demonstrations of how to do it: use the "Search" feature in the toolbar, up top. 

Best wishes!


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## Reckers

One more suggestion: when you go to Lowes, look for damaged sheets (called culls). You can usually buy culls for a fraction of the cost of an intact sheet. If they don't quote you a very low price at first, say no thanks and start to walk away. When I've done that, the price would suddenly drop to less than 25% of the intact sheet. Remember you can cut the sheet into pieces, then stack and glue them for increased elevation. I did that and then ran it through a band saw to get the right angle for the rise.


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## concretepumper

I have not tried the foam. Seems flimbsy to me. Here is a pic of my raised section. It was an after thought so I simply took the jig saw and cut along both sides of the roadbed where I wanted to elevate and blocked it to up height. Easy and solid! I plan on using Seans Mountain building method to close the gaps off and make it look natural!


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## tankist

i build with foam only. not _flimsby _one bit. perhaps you should have tried it first.

early stages


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## Xnats

I agree with Tank about the foam being pretty strong. To make it even stronger cover it with plaster cloth and a thin coat of plaster. The foam will be lighter then wood so it is less strain on the table. Foam is cheaper then wire mess, in my case foam was free "construction left overs". You can even bypass the plaster cloth but I personally like using the stuff. It makes little details easier to do with plaster.
This is the first time I am building a real layout and I been playing with different methods.
Whenever I do another one, I'll be doing things different. It will sit on plain plywood, Woodland Scenic riser sets will be used to set track elevations and the good old fashion newspaper and plaster cloth will make the terrain. I personally thought is was a pain in the rear, to shave out a perfect ramp for the track. The week I fiddled with foam, cardboard and wood forms was a wasted week. Once the risers arrived by mail I was done in seconds, after gluing and pinning it down. 
I guess it always falls back to, that there is no wrong way of doing it as long as it works, lol.


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## Robes

As long as we are talking foam....I looked up the hot knife at Harbor Fgt. The reviews are not good. Most say it only last a few minutes and then peters out. Anyone use the HF hot knife?


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## tankist

agreed, carving foam to shape can be somewhat tricky and it is very messy for sure. but small hand held vacuum solves the mess problem and i found a way for myself to to do near perfect slope - diamond tipped (tile cutting) blade of hack saw. after the rough slope is cut I work the blade as if it was a file. it is perfectly flat but bends around the curves cutting off any small ridges. unless one carries away the resulting slope is near perfect. the track bed then floats on layer of caulk creating perfectly flat surface for track to be attached to.

if i had to do that again i'd still do foam construction. i would have bought several shapes of hot knife however. would have been much less messy


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## concretepumper

Your right Xnats! Whatever works for you and If you enjoy that method go for it. Myself I am in the Concrete Construction Industry and I tend to OVER build everything so It is sure to last a long time. Also I don't want foam all over the house. I build in our Living room.  I suppose if your layout was built to be portable foam would be your friend though. :thumbsup:


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## sstlaure

Robes said:


> As long as we are talking foam....I looked up the hot knife at Harbor Fgt. The reviews are not good. Most say it only last a few minutes and then peters out. Anyone use the HF hot knife?


I borrowed my Dad's HF hot knife and it died within about 20 minutes - cheap Chinese crap of a tool.


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## Robes

Scott,...That is what every review of the product said,..almost verbatim!


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## JohnnyB

I've had good luck with foam cutters from hotwirefoamfactory.com. They make a freehand router tool that will allow you to bend the wire into different shapes for easy cutting. I have over 100 hours on some of their cutters without any issues. Note: I only use their PRO style cutters. I have no experience with their craft cutters, which use a smaller transformer and are less expensive.

I use the hot wire cutters on standard white styrofoam blocks.


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## tankist

sstlaure said:


> I borrowed my Dad's HF hot knife and it died within about 20 minutes - cheap Chinese crap of a tool.


 foam cutter is just a wire and power supply,what exactly died?


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## JohnnyB

tankist said:


> foam cutter is just a wire and power supply,what exactly died?


Some of the cheap cutters have fragile transformers/power supplies. When cutting through form, if the wire is allowed to stay in the foam for a long period of time, meaning you don't cut through quickly, the wire gets hotter than normal, because there is no air to cool it. When this happens repeatedly, the transformer/power supply usually goes. The cheap power packs are usually sealed and have no way to change a fuse or repair. The higher quality packs/power supplies usually have means for replacing fuses.

Also, if you use a thicker wire on the cheap craft cutters, this will also over heat the power supply and it will stop working.

I have made my own cutters in the past for large cutting projects using nichrome wire and a standard car battery charger. You wouldn't need anything this large for the small train display projects. A standard pro cutter from a good quality manufacturer will do the job just fine.


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## sstlaure

tankist said:


> foam cutter is just a wire and power supply,what exactly died?


This wasn't the wire type - it was a wide, hot blade. It was hot at first, then stopped heating at all. Not sure what stopped working on it - I didn't dig into it and used a saw to do what I needed then vacuumed the mess up. I tried it again a couple hours later thinking maybe something overloaded and would reset - but it still doesn't work.


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## acwilli

I'm a strong beliver in foam. If you're not using cork it quiets your trains considerably. I used and electric knife, the old turkey carving type. I cuts where not perrfect, but they glued to my table just fine. 

















thx aw


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## aionta

*Cheap White Foam*

I am building a small 4 ft by 4ft HO layout /Diarama and I am using the white made of a zillion balls foam - got a 6 pack of 3ft by 4 ft pieces realy cheap at the DEPOT.

I can be a bit messy but the shop vac makes quick wor of any cleanup.

I use the Woodland Scenics long foam X-Acto blades and they cut very well
I am still using the 1st blade. I have also used my bandsaw to cut thinner pieces and that works well too.

#1 rule, have fun and don't worry.


Aaron


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## jonyb

To help out the original posters question, here's a few video's that shows building hills and scenery on extruded foam. Hope this helps.

http://youtu.be/NXB9JabHH78

http://youtu.be/19m5H3IFBrs


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