Trains Luvr

As I wrote in an earlier post, I was going to use rubber door stops in combination with large washers and nuts to hold the threaded rods for the helix. After sleeping on it, I decided to go back to my original idea of using a piece of rubber as a base into which I would hammer a T-nut and run the rod through.

A short trip to local Lowers yielded an industrial rubber mat (4’x3′, 5/8″ thick) for $30. That thing is heavy and wrestling with 4×3′ size was not fun. After bringing it back home and cutting the needed pieces, I’m left with more rubber than I thought (or really need). Maybe I could use this elsewhere around here…

I was going to use wood glue to bond the rubber to plywood, but after a bit of research turns out I need to use a Polyurethane glue. Another trip to Home Despot the same day and I came back home with…outdoor carpet tape. They had a common brand polyurethane glue in a dinky 200 ml bottle for $14. It didn’t specify it can actually work on rubber, so why take a chance. One of the HD “associates” suggest to use carpet tape, which I liked right away. No fuss, no mess.

Turns out the tape was a great idea. The pieces are bonded well and aren’t going anywhere. Once the helix is put over, they will stay in place and provide a solid base as well as noise dampening. Yay!

Now I’m thinking, could I use this tape elsewhere? Hmmmm.

Taping the cork to the helix sub-roadbed seems to be an ideal target. The tape is around 1″ wide and can be bent around into arcs, I just wonder about longevity of this method. Maybe the only way to find out is to try…