Would like to use 1" thick foam board insulation over plywood on my benchwork. What board is dense enough to resist surface indentations from leaning on it with elbows? Any ideas?
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I am new to the hobby I joined a train club and they used homasote over ply...much more dense then foam...
The foam boards over ply are suitable only if you intend to carve out lowered scenery details. The word INSULATION used with foam boards refers to TEMPERATURE not sound. All foam boards will dent when leaned on.
Homasote over ply is used to reduce SOUND and has some other uses. Yes, its OK to screw down the Homasote. Homasote does not transmit vibration/sound.
Pre-construction on the Clubs layout begins in February. Homasote and 3/4 ply will be used extensively. Details will be up soon.
Foam comes in several densities (often color coded) with different compressive strengths from 10 psi to 60 psi. The higher strengths are used in construction and the lower as insulation. You won't find the former in the big box stores.
The lower strength foams will not hold screws. You must screw into some other substrate. like plywood. You can't screw the track to the foam. You'll need to glue the track to the foam which is not ideal.
Search the forum for "homasote" and "foam" in the layout construction threads. I thinl you'll find the answers to your questions.
Jan
If you're going to ballast your track then the glue that holds the ballast will also hold your track in place.
I used the 1" foam over plywood. I used the old method of the two zip ties to anchor the track (o ga tubular). Holds fine and the sound is significantly reduced.
How long were the zip ties?
