# Medium ballast not drying properly



## frown888 (Nov 1, 2012)

I'm trying to ballast my layout with woodland scenics medium ballast grey blend, I spray water with dish liquid on before, them put the glue mixture on. 2 days later it's still soft and gluey underneath. I've tried this once before and scraped off and relayed ballast and still the same. It hasn't been terribly hot where I live, so maybe this is part of the problem? Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I've used coarse ballast this way before and it was dried hard in like 24 hours.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Has it been humid in your area after you put down the ballast?

I use W/S ballast, the wet water and white glue mix and it has
always set hard within a day.

Unless W/S has changed, their ballast is ground up nut shells.

Don


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I don't put any water on first, just 50-50 white glue & water with a dash of alcohol as a wetting agent. Never had an issue with it drying, usually within 24 hours.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Try using 35% rubbing alcohol as your wetting agent (the 70% concentration you buy in the store, diluted 50%). And, if your adhesive is more than 4 parts water to one glue, increase the concentration of glue.

Your situation is actually not that abnormal, especially if you live in an area with fairly high humidity (your profile location of "Earth" covers a little too much territory for me to tell). Try keeping the area above 60 Fahrenheit and below 60% relative humidity (which is a good idea no matter what, as mold requires humidity higher than 60% to grow).

Finally, you may be applying too much wetting agent, especially if your ballast is drying to a crust on top. Apply just enough to thoroughly saturate the ballast. I apply mine to the area between the rails, and dribble it on until I just see a little seeping out of the bottom of the ballast pile. Same with the adhesive. The finer the ballast, the more water it can hold).

And above all, be patient. It will cure eventually. I've had thick applications of Sculptamold (a plaster and shredded paper product) take over a week to fully cure.


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

If you are in an area where the air does not move much (like a basement), aim a box fan at your layout (low speed is fine). That will speed up the drying considerably.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

He is in "Earth" Canada, according to his profile. :dunno:


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

Ya need to be sure the ballast is wet all the way down to the wood. The glue will only get down there if the path is already wet. As mentioned earlier, a fan will dry it out in a day or so if it's really humid there. The objective is to dry the water away and leave the dried adhesive.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*Ballast*

I used Woodland Scenic's ballast on my railroad and it worked great.
I put the ballast down dry and got it the way I wanted it to look.
I then moistened the ballast with soapy water sprayed on with a spray bottle like a Windex bottle
I then added the glue water soap mixture until the ballast was saturated. It took a couple of days for the glue to dry but the ballast is stuck down very well.
I did the gravel roads and parking lots the same way


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## Patrick1544 (Apr 27, 2013)

You say soapy water. How much detergent was actuall in your mixture. You should only use a few drops of liquid detergent in a spray bottle. It shouldn't be soapy when you apply it. It may have diluted the glue/ water mixture too much. Rendering it not being adhesive anymore. Try adding more of just the glue mixture without the soap wetting mixture.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*Soap*

I used just a little soap. I used Ivory dish soap. The glue was Elmers yellow carpenters glue cut 50% with water and mixed then the soap added. The soap has to be stirred in so it won't foam up.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

All I can think of is that you have too much detergent in the mix. If you do, the detergent film can cut the evaporation rate of the moisture in the glue-water mixture drastically. It takes only a drop or two. any more makes it slow drying. My experience is that it eventually dries, but can take quite some time if you use too much - and its hard not to (I had an early batch were it did this rather, than as Gunrunnerjohn mentioned, use alcohol to wet down things.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

Patrick1544 said:


> You say soapy water. How much detergent was actuall in your mixture.


Not much soap. Just a few drops of liquid hand soap


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Mr. SP said:


> Not much soap. Just a few drops of liquid hand soap


Liquid hand soaps have more additives than liquid dish detergents, and are less soluble in water. I would use dish detergent. My own recipe is 2 drops per pint of solution.


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