Static Gun

I got a charge out of reading and watching the video. Get it? Great! Well done!!

DIY

Wow, that is a tidy DIY Static Grass Applicator.

I went with the Gucci

I went with the Gucci electric fly swatter and paid big bucks for it - $12.  I really don't know if it is better than the $1.79 on sale jobbie but it works.  I had a good friend locally assemble mine and I have used in one area and it worked well.  I have nothing to compare it to so I can't say it works as well as the $100 machine, but in my head a charged bit of grass is a charged bit of grass, regardless of price of the charger.

At the cost of the applicator illustrated in MRH, I'd suggest you build two, one with a finer mesh and the other with wider mesh.

The skill is in getting the blend of grass you will be happy with, other than that, the whole procedure is a no brainer, even for me.

Static Grass Applicator

I bought one of these electric fly swatters at Harbor freight in anticipation of doing this very same thing. The video helps. Thanks so much.

I have a $6 dollar Walmart one...

that I've yet to take out of the package.  I eventually plan to make a static grass applicator with it but at present I don't even own any static grass in my arsenal of scenery supplies. I've never used static grass before and I've  been " serious" model railroading and building scenery for over thirty five years now. I look forward to trying it but I have to wonder whether it depends on the type of scenery you're modeling how useful it is. I see it put to good use on a lot of "flatlands" railroads but wonder how much I'm actually going to see a need for it on my rugged mountain scenery. I guess time will tell.

Michael

That is fantastic I just

That is fantastic

I just hope they have some left as there will likely be a run on them now.

It does make me wonder though just how does walthers justify 279.00 for something that seems like it can be made for less than 20.00

Rob in Texas

Mountain scenery

Mountain scenery images:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=mountain+scenery+images&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=You0U464FYqhyASrlICAAg&ved=0CBsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=679

Flyswatter mods

Hi,

There are numerous videos of doing these on youtube but apparently many are learrning here. Several of us built these about 2 years ago. examining the circuit, there is an oscillator and a transformer to multiply up the voltage. Output is converted to DC and I cannot remember whether there was a voltage doubler in that stage.

We didn't know what the output voltage was but there is a big clue that it is less than 630 volts as there is a 630V ceramic capacitor across the output. This is there to allow charge enough to deliver lethal current to bugs and nowhere near enough to kill humans.

Now, what you find is that if you happen to earth your applicator, the charge causes a big spark and cooks the glue locally on the board and clogs the mesh where it contacts. Worse still, the big bang cause a natural human reaction to pull your hand away rapidly. Static grass goes everywhere.

Now, the good thing is that for static grass application there is no need to store charge as we are not wanting to kill anything. All we need is the several hundred volts between the applicator and the surface. So if you remove the output capacitor ... just cut it off ... the applicator will work just the same but grounding it out will not gum up the works , test your adrenal gland, nor will it make it snow static grass.

How do I know all of these things happen if you don't remove the capacitor? This is left for the readers to infer.

By the way I made mine so that it sits on a bench and I use a piece of PVC tube with mesh from a spatter guard on the bottom with a lead soldered to the mesh. I thought I might need to make up smaller applicators for tight spots.

Regards,

Greg

Really Nice!

The open top makes refilling simple. No lid to remove first. The down side being that there's nothing to contain the grass if the applicator gets inverted (due to flash bang, or other reasons). Still, for an ultra cheap home made tool, I think I'm going to have to pick one (or more) up. That way I can make several variations for different uses.

I've made a top for my sieve

I've made a top for my sieve out of a top from a margarine container and a rubber band.

Resist reaching into the hopper.

I built the fly swatter unit a few years back and liked the results very much. I quickly learned that if I flatten the bottom of the screen a bit I can get a nice effect without spending too much time near the glue. One of my clubmates has the expensive unit and the only reason I might like to use it is for the funnel that creates a smaller working area. I think a simply modification could take care of that too.

I was zapped by this thing once. I wanted to just sprinkle on a tiny bit from the hopper so I held the unit like a baby in my left hand/arm and reached into the hopper to get a pinch. Dummy me kept hold of the clip and reached into the hopper while I was holding the unit against my body. Well that depressed the button and ZAP!!!!!!!!!! Man that hurt. I can still imagine the ache from my neck through my arm and left side. Lesson learned.

Good job Ken. You have a good presence on video, but your on the edge of sounding like an infomercial when you were expressing the difference in price. I though it was kinda funny.

Ken, The pitch man.

Ah yes you have just

Ah yes you have just discovered how to build your own stun gun and tested it accordingly.

Rob in Texas

My wife just cleaned out my

My wife just cleaned out my sons closet and there was an electric flyswatter in there.  I took it apart and noticed it has double A batteries where the one in video has D's.  Is this worth using or should I go get a D model ?

AA vs D

I'd like to know the answer to this also - my local Bargain Shop has the AA variety for $4

Larger batteries

The larger batteries means the milliamp hours is larger - more current during the same battery life or same current for a longer battery life.

That's it.

ok, but in the real world...

An electric flyswatter is called on to kill bugs and only uses current on contact with the insect. In our application, we are asking for longer periods of current, so the question is: is the AA version actually up to the task?

ie: If it only lasts for 5 or 10 minutes, then we should be looking for the D version.

Or be sure to have

Or be sure to have rechargeable AA batteries

Ten minutes is a lot of grass

Ten minutes is a lot of grass laying.  My average time is only a couple of minutes.

...

You can get enclosures to use larger batteries in the AA sized flashlights.

I just checked the walley

I just checked the walley world has some in different sizes for around six bucks. I think I will buy a couple and see if I can use a flat grease screen like was suggested by someone, maybe in the video as well and build some with different size screens and see about attaching some plastic cups with lids to act as hoppers. Really great feature by the way.

Rob in Texas

Harbor Freight...

is the way to go here in the southland of southern california.

Don't forget dollar stores

Don't forget dollar stores for your source of sieves or whatever they are called, I bought a package of three for just a little over a dollar, and this is Canada where everything is more expensive.

batteries

great tool