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+--- Thread: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? (/showthread.php?tid=3006)
Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - scubadude - 08-02-2010
Has anybody seen or more importantly used this ballasting tool?
http://cgi.ebay.com/N-Scale-Easy-Perfect-Ballast-Spreader-/290460157968?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item43a0c64810
Kind of pricey, but might be worth it. If anyone has any experience with this thing, please let me know, I'm seriously considering buying it if it works as well as the video tutorial seems to show...Might be like that Ronco Slicer-Dicer we all have on the top shelf of the cabinet above the fridge.....it worked great for the first onion you chopped, but not so good after that!
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - nachoman - 08-02-2010
Not just like that one, but I have seen and used one similar for HO scale. I was a little disappointed in the results, but most of that was because I expected too much and that my gluing technique was faulty. It's main usefulness was evenly spreading ballast - especially along the sides of the track. I thought it would greatly speed up ballasting and make the whole process fun, but I had not yet learned how to glue without disturbing the ballast, so in reality no time or headaches were saved. If you haven't mastered the standard ballasting technique, this device will not make things easier or faster. It likely won't spread ballast perfect, so you will still have some "touch up" areas to fix. Now that I know how to glue ballast without disturbing it, I would definitely consider one of these things if I had a large layout and lots of ballasting to do.
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - yellowlynn - 08-02-2010
I have had one for HO for years and don't know why I have kept it. Probably hoping that one day it would work right, or I would learn how to use it. I generally roll a sheet of paper into a cone, snip off the tip (according to size of ballast), then tap-tap-tap along the tracks. Works good for me. I hold the cone with one finger over the tip while filling.
Lynn
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - scubadude - 08-02-2010
Kind of what I've been thinking. The demo video sure makes it look like a snap, but I'm afraid it's the Ronco Slicer - Dicer all over again....
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - nachoman - 08-02-2010
The one I have used is the MLR ballast tool. I don't know if this one works better, or if it is about the same. Looking at the video, it seems to be about what I remember. You still need to go over the ballast with your finger to get it off the ties. And after gluing, you still will need to clean up several spots. The tool is still a good way to evenly distribute ballast along long sections of mainline, just be prepared that does not make ballasting a "quick and easy" job.
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - eightyeightfan1 - 08-02-2010
Not that one.
But Micro-Mart did sell one similar in HO and N scales. I bought the N scale one when I was N scale. It sucked! Straight up didn't work worth a crap.
Use the money you save from NOT buying that, and get some rolling stock.
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - Brakie - 08-04-2010
eightyeightfan1 Wrote:Not that one.
But Micro-Mart did sell one similar in HO and N scales. I bought the N scale one when I was N scale. It sucked! Straight up didn't work worth a crap.
Use the money you save from NOT buying that, and get some rolling stock.
IMHO it could work but,I kinda doubt it since I never seen any of the previous ballast spreaders work.
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - MasonJar - 08-04-2010
scubadude Wrote:Kind of what I've been thinking. The demo video sure makes it look like a snap, but I'm afraid it's the Ronco Slicer - Dicer all over again....
This tool only addresses the spreading of the ballast. There is still the grooming, wet-water application, glue application, picking-wayward-bits-out-of-points-and-off-ties, etc, etc. The claim that it doesn't get any ballast on top of the rails could also be made by a Dixie cup applicator.
I notice that they also don't show how it works when the track is installed on roadbed (cork, foam, etc). The applciation looks really tidy on a flat surface, but how much is dispensed when the roadbed slopes away on each side (and how tidy is it then)?
Andrew
Re: Have You Seen This Ballasting Tool? - P5se Camelback - 08-04-2010
I bought, and even used a couple times a round, grey ballasting "tool" back in the late '70's. It might have been the MLR one, I don't remember. It was of marginal use at best as I recall ... and it still lays in a box of cast-off-but-not parted-with devices, much like the Ronco "Slice-O-Matic" that sits in a cabinet drawer in so many American kitchens, along with all the other gadgets that seemed like a kool idea at the time, but somehow missed the mark in the execution of the idea. You know those products ... it seemed like a good idea at the time of purchase ... but it wasn't. The "product test" portion of Product development was either not carried out to completion or was skipped over entirely.
I have reverted to the spoon and rolled-up paper funnel and 3x5 card for keeping an "edge." I also found that the number one "God-given" tool is still a good one.