Which is better?

i have read many differnt things on forums and well as magazines. heck i have even been told by a couple of guys in my club that one is better than the other one. now, i ask you, which is better 50\50 alcohol, or 50\50 dishwashing soap to help hold down ballast and turf? i have used the alcohol for many years, but only tonight i thought i would give the dishwashing soap a try. i have to say i kinda like the soap better. it seems to hold the ballast better not letting it float as much. just wanted your opinion.

 

I ought to stay out of this; this is the type of post I get beaten half to death with.

I don't know about 50/50 alcohol but I don't even wash dishes with a 50/50 dishwashing solution.

For almost thirty years now I have been adding a FEW drops of dishwashing soap to each spray bottle of water prior to wetting my ballast down prior to adding the glue.

 

My preferance is alcohol as my wetting agent,It seems to hold ballast in its place whiles I add the 50/50 glue mix.

 

I use a 50:50 glue/water mix. I use 91% iso-propyl alcohol as the wetting agent.

Have used 91% iso-propyl alcohol as the wetting agent for many years now.

Stay cool and run steam.....

 

I use 91% alcohol wetting agent, but I also use a few drops of detergent in the 50-50 glue/water mix. I would not have a preference for either type of agent.

 

Soap vs. alcohol

Use the soap for the scenery then drink the alcohol and it will look better, unless it's wood alcohol, then you won't be able to see anything. I'm just sayin.

 

I have used "wet water" adding a few drops of liquid detergent to water in a Windex bottle to soak ballast prior to applying 50/50 white glue-water mix with an eye dropper. Some of this was done 39 years ago and it is still holding.

I recently used alcohol to wet the coal pile on my Atlas Shay, then added the 50-50 mix with an eyedropper. But this was a small applicaion where I did not want water, water everywhere. :cat:

 

I use 50-50 alcohol. I never used the detergent and wasn't that curious since, in my mind, it might affect paint stickability. UNSUBSTANTIATED THEORY.

 

Two fingers of Captain Morgan and some pepsi worked great for me. Well it used to. Haven't had a hard liquor drink in 22years.

 

Naw, the paint sticks to everything, even if you don't want it to! mg:

 

Thought it only stuck where you didn't want it to?

So it'd be more accurate to say you've got 49.5/49.5/1 glue/water/detergent?
How does that then compare with alcohol? 50/50/50 alcohol/glue/water?

Or is it like a fine whiskey, and best with less glue and maybe just a drop of water

 

He hee. Actually, I've found that the one drop of detergent didn't work for me very well. I actually squirt in one squeeze of detergent into my bottle to make it VERY wet. Flows much better, but then again I use real rock ballast so maybe it needs more oomph than walnut shells. Of course, you have to be careful not to shake it much, since all those bubbles make it hard to see the roadbed! :teeth: