The only down side I have found with ballast bond is that you have to be extremely careful when ballasting points. I found that out the hard way, as the adhesive is so runny it seeped through the ballast, under the switch rails and into the tie bar mechanism and glued the spring rock solid. had to cut and chisel the set of points out of the track work in order to replace it.
To be brutally honest, Ballast bond just looks like watered down PVA. I've seen many videos where people have mixed up diluted PVA for their layouts and it behaves in exactly the same way as the Ballast bond, no exaggeration. Fair play to the other stuff, but ballast bond just looks like what you'd get if you bought a £15 5L bottle of regular PVA off amazon, put it in a bucket and ran it under a tap for a minute or two. Except it costs the same and you get 400x less mixture.
How valid are these tutorials? Is it a genuinely independent review or product placement and promotion? Would have been better with another product for comparison?
I'm using the ballast magic for the first time. I'm sold on it after about 3 feet of ballast work. No mess, no clean up compared to traditional wetting ballast and using water/alcohol/glue mixture. Ballast seems to be able to worked in much easier as well
![Ballast Glue - Which one to use? [Series 2 Episode 2]](/img/1.gif)
The only down side I have found with ballast bond is that you have to be extremely careful when ballasting points. I found that out the hard way, as the adhesive is so runny it seeped through the ballast, under the switch rails and into the tie bar mechanism and glued the spring rock solid. had to cut and chisel the set of points out of the track work in order to replace it.
My local hobby shop has started stocking the Deluxe Materials brand, I might have to give these a try.
+xrayracer1 Would certainly recommend them.
so is ballast bond better than woodland scenics cement, or are they the same in strength?
thanks
What are those see through boxes called that you spread the ballast with ?
+Leo Roberts They look like "PROSES" ballast spreaders check out proses.com
thanks
Having trouble with applicator
To be brutally honest, Ballast bond just looks like watered down PVA.
I've seen many videos where people have mixed up diluted PVA for their layouts and it behaves in exactly the same way as the Ballast bond, no exaggeration. Fair play to the other stuff, but ballast bond just looks like what you'd get if you bought a £15 5L bottle of regular PVA off amazon, put it in a bucket and ran it under a tap for a minute or two.
Except it costs the same and you get 400x less mixture.
How valid are these tutorials? Is it a genuinely independent review or product placement and promotion? Would have been better with another product for comparison?
I'm using the ballast magic for the first time. I'm sold on it after about 3 feet of ballast work. No mess, no clean up compared to traditional wetting ballast and using water/alcohol/glue mixture. Ballast seems to be able to worked in much easier as well
Ever tried ordinary stupid and simple WALL PAPER ADHESIVE mixed with the ballast ? Result is the same with a bonus: it's dead CHEAP !!