Different makes of ground foam

[ddavidv]

"Zip texturing". Yikes, that was like voodoo to me when I read about it 'back in the day'. Never did try it.
Nothing wrong with using either WS or your own concoction. For a little layout like mine, I'll stick with the WS stuff. Bigger layouts may need a different solution simply based on cost.
But like everything in the hobby, it's up to you. Some folks may love making their own ground foam while others may loathe it. No different than my complete hatred of anything involving wires and soldering. I'd rather spend the time building structures. There's so much to enjoy and sample in the hobby you need not get bogged down worrying about taking the easy way out with some things.

 

[acsxfan1]

sawdust

I use it all the time .. get it from Home Depot by the trash bag full .. dye it green and brown using rit ..

I use it as the base for the scenery .. then sprinkle a little ground foam on top of that .. it makes for some decent product..

 

[ezdays]

I'm glad this thread has been revived since I have a question. I stated earlier, as being a relative newbie that I wanted to try to make as much things from scratch as I could. Not so much to save money (although it helped) but to have the pleasure of knowing I did it from scratch. I had no problems making ground cover and dirt from wood chips and sawdust, but I have to admit that grinding up the foam in a meat grinder did present a challange. I bought a cheap electric grinder and it just seemed to want to jam the foam and ground up very little of it. Has anyone that has done this got any suggestions? How about a blender or a food processor, would they work?

Don

 

[ceebeenq]

grinding foam

ezdays---
I was experimenting a little last night: grinding foam in my Hamilton Beach blender. First, it's probably best to use the lighter density foam- I had the denser kind that is probably a little hard to chop up with the blender. (fabric stores usually sell 2 or 3 densities)
I think it was a little hard on the motor.........And I put in water so the foam wouldn't float above the blade. After pouring water, it chopped up much better. From what I can see, it will be good ground cover, clumpy stuff.
Comparing it to the WS stuff (Clump Foliage) the home-made is lighter. I think it will still be quite useable after coloring.

:thumb:
cbNq

 

[ezdays]

Re: grinding foam

Originally posted by ceebeenq
...And I put in water so the foam wouldn't float above the blade. After pouring water, it chopped up much better. ... I think it will still be quite useable after coloring.

Thanks, I wonder if soaking the foam in water first would work with my meat grinder as well. I'll give it a try after we move (the grinder is packed up and somewhere on the bottom of the pile )

Don

 

[Lightbender]

I haven't tried wetting the foam before grinding but I do tear it up into small chunks rather than trying to feed strips. I also ground up used old foam that was ready to be thrown out because of disintegration. It's not easy to grind which is why I was grateful for child labour. He gets to run his Hogwart Express on my layout whenever he feels like it. His Dad and I are amused.

I doubt that anyone would find this process enjoyable as it does resemble WORK! but it is big time convenient and cheap and you get to have as many colour variations as you can think of.

Sorry ddavidv. My favourite non-running-trains activity has always involved metres of wire and a soldering iron. I'm one of those annoying people that think it's simple, don't use colour coded wire, build impossible rats nests, don't know what a short is and can usually trace an electrical problem in a few minutes. Building and painting structures to the quality I've seen here is so far over my head, which is why I have so few.

Here is what I've built that I'm proud of;

 

[harpandhound]

ground cover

Go to either a home depot or a lowes. They have saws that cut customers wood. Just ask them if you can have the sawdust. The sawdust is very fine and usually you can get over 20 lbs if you want. But the fabric dye that comes in a box. Purchase a dark brown and a green dye. Desolved one packaged in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water. Add the sawdust and stir. Let it soak for about an hour and drain as much of water as possible. Your next step is to dry the sawdust. Either dry it in the sun or dry in a oven or a outdoor grill. Set temp at around 250 and keep the oven open a little to let the moisture out. After its good and dry use the brown sawdust as ground cover. I threw in some dried leaves and some coffeet grounds. I used basic craft glue and used a brush to apply to surface with a fine screen. Works great.

 

[Jim Krause]

Vic: Sounds like you're from my era. I had to disconnect the car battery from the radio in the house to run my first Mantua loco. Didn't go very fast on 6 volts. I'm from that time when green paint equaled grass and black paint equaled roads.

 

[stripes]

saw dust!

I have a store full of products that I sell such as WS. But when I do a diorama or layout I still do it the old and inexpensive way.
The dark green areas on this diorama are saw dust dyed with hunter green, and the gravel parking lot is siftings from my yard, and old fish tank rocks around the pond!!

David

 

[Relic]

I found that the foam outa the back seat of my old 88 won't grind up as fine as the light camping materess .All my stuff is home made,I don't know if it looks good or I just bent my perception, but I like it