The New Northern Central

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sounds to me like the glue.  What did you dilute it with?

Wooder.

It's interesting, I thought about that too. It's why I'm using a newer bottle of Elmers in this instead of my ancient gallon. Was hoping that'd be it but obviously not.

I'm going to swap in some distilled water in the next mix up, see if that fixes it.

[Dave V]

I'm having some issues with a new 3-pack of Elmer's glue (not the school stuff) where I'm getting more white residue than I used to. I wonder if they changed the formula.

[Scottl]

FWIW for scenery, I only use matte medium. Never a residue and only marginally more expensive than glue.  I get it half price with a Michaels coupon.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

FWIW for scenery, I only use matte medium. Never a residue and only marginally more expensive than glue.  I get it half price with a Michaels coupon.

Which is funny to me, because when I tried matte medium I did get a ton of residue.

[Scottl]

Lol, you must have crazy water.  Nuclear power plant effluent or something.

I suppose if you diluted matte medium with the same water that generates your green residue, anything is possible.

Green minerals are almost always copper, maybe you have bad Cu pipes in the house or system or there are high metals content in the supply.  Grouts are alkaline so copper could precipitate out as a carbonate which would be green.  Distilled water should solve a tap water issue...  Quite a mystery.

[Jesse6669]

I've always had good experience with Woodland Scenics scenery cement.. although I suspect it's just a formulation of Matte Medium with some wetting chemical added.  Always shaken (not stirred of course, don't want to bruise the matte medium).

With ballast I wet with 50-50 water/99%ISO, especially the fine stuff like grout sand.   

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, you must have crazy water.  Nuclear power plant effluent or something.

I suppose if you diluted matte medium with the same water that generates your green residue, anything is possible.

Green minerals are almost always copper, maybe you have bad Cu pipes in the house or system or there are high metals content in the supply.  Grouts are alkaline so copper could precipitate out as a carbonate which would be green.  Distilled water should solve a tap water issue...  Quite a mystery.

That's what I'm thinking. I'm gonna try the glue mixture change with distilled and see what that does.

I also wonder if this other thing going on might be causing an issue: for some inexplicable reason there's about 3 volts DC on the rails when my DCC system is off. I wonder if that persistent low voltage is having an effect. BTW, I chalk this issue up to my house being haunted.

[DeltaBravo]

Which is funny to me, because when I tried matte medium I did get a ton of residue.

 I have had residue issues with matte medium as well. Not a fan.

[Scottl]

Hmm, I wonder if you have some kind of Seebeck effect, voltage generated by different metals.  That would be wild, and 3 VDC is a lot for that. 

But this does open the door to some kind of electrochemical reaction. Like galvanic sacrificial zinc anodes in water heaters that dissolve in preference to the vital steel parts.

The voltage is there with everything unplugged?  Are there any batteries in the system, like lighting circuits?  3V is a typical battery voltage.

[davefoxx]

I have had residue issues with matte medium as well. Not a fan.

Make that three of us.  I even documented my debacle with matte medium in my build thread somewhere.

I still use Elmer’s Glue-All or School Glue and haven’t had a problem.  My bottles are recent, so I’m not aware of a formula change.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hmm, I wonder if you have some kind of Seebeck effect, voltage generated by different metals.  That would be wild, and 3 VDC is a lot for that. 

But this does open the door to some kind of electrochemical reaction. Like galvanic sacrificial zinc anodes in water heaters that dissolve in preference to the vital steel parts.

The voltage is there with everything unplugged?  Are there any batteries in the system, like lighting circuits?  3V is a typical battery voltage.

This is what I was wondering about.

I don't remember my troubleshooting on the voltage thing. It was a while ago. I think I figured out that it WAS coming from one of my DCC components. Maybe the block detectors? I'll see if I can figure that out again when I go back downstairs in a few minutes.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I still use Elmer’s Glue-All or School Glue and haven’t had a problem.  My bottles are recent, so I’m not aware of a formula change.

DFF

Glad to confirm that.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

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[coosvalley]

Now thats a signature photo spot if I ever saw one.

[mu26aeh]

Just a touch of texture to the sky and you're spot on for a cold November morning