Not big deal this tutorial (!)

Lets stay positive: there are far better video's on the subject on YT - but ok for poor copy efforts... ( I'm a hard one:  if you DO something DO IT GOOD.)

Remark: Use a BLENDER instead of that coffee grinder - well if you want some serious business !

Blender

I use a blender to recycle foliage clusters salvaged from other people's layouts and turn them into underbrush.  Maybe it's because I don't have fine blades, but once they get down to a certain size they don't get any smaller, no matter how long I blend them.  I can see how a grinder would work great to make fine turf.

That's just it

That's just it, we are featuring this video because it's a bit different. It helps to get outside the box once in a while!

Coloring

The coloring step was impressive, I was expecting it to be harder to get a good even color than that.  I’ll probably stick with buy pre-made ground foam.  That color trick might be useful for tweaking shades of pre made ground foam too.

Blender

Just sharpen the rotating blades when they are - or get dull. And do not start with to big pieces. Say 1 cm x 1 cm.

And if you want flock dust pass it in the coffee grinder.

My box is to small !

my box

I mean coffee grinder 'box' !

Check your facts..

The presenter of the YT video is from Australia modelling a UK themed layout. He is not from the UK.

Use a BLENDER instead of that

LOL, reason I used a coffee grinder is I already had two, so I could dedicate one to cutting some commercial ground foam down to a finer cut.  We only have one blender so you'll have to convince my wife to let me use it - and she is from northern England and hard as nails!  

Expect more people to mistake the two; there was a news article on how young American people are less and less interested in learning about England.

Anyway, to be fore Australia started as a British penal colony and they do drive on the other side of the road!

For those who can't play the video

Technique

Basically rips apart carpet pads (tearing them up and separating the netting out, then grinds it up in a coffee grinder. 

Leaving it in the coffee grinder he adds a surprisingly small amount of paint from a tube, and turns the grinder back on. 20 or so seconds later, it turns green. 

A slight Hysterical correction

Hi all,

in reply to 

Some of the east coast US British colonies were penal colonies, even before Jimmy Cook "bumped into" Australia in 1770. 

One of the results of that little stoush of 1776 meant that Brits had to find somewhere else to send their "undesirables". By 1788 things were getting a little too crowded - (look up "prison hulks")  

Short memories??  

Now as for driving on the wrong side of the road in oz -  We always had it correct. It was just that Henry Ford had to move the steering wheel to the "wrong" side so as fit the gearbox into his Model T... (Trading one "hysterical" urban myth for another)

The silliness light is now "off", back to trains.

The best blender to use...

is made by Ninja.  It has multiple blades one set above the other.  The key for making decent ground foam is finding the right screen hole size to filter out the various sizes (fine vs coarse vs way too big and needs to be ground up more).  For paint I use a primer/paint mix made by Valspar available at Lowes.  I'm still working on the right ratio of paint vs volume of ground foam to not waste paint, but to be sure it is saturated enough.  

I was going to write a How To Article about it, but someone beat me too it.  Ah well.  

Ken L. 

Home made is easy

Cube the foam, soak in water.

Fill blender about half full of water and large handful of cubes, put blender on high and grid until blender runs smooth.

Dump ground foam into strainer, press out the water and then let the foam dry. I flip the strainer onto old newspaper and dry overnight. The foam will be in a round "cake"

In a dry blender, crumble the dried foam cake and carefully turn blender on low, leting the blades fluff the dried foam.

Slowly add craft paint a few drops and allow the blender to mix the foam and paint. Only a few drops will be needed. I have used lots of craft paint colors and even latex house paint. Only takes a few drops.

Once color is on all the foam, dump and allow to dry overnight. If the foam doesnt mix, turn blender OFF and use a paint stick to stir the foam from the bottom.

I made all the foam I used to make the "Fast and Easy Trees" article from MRH June 2014.

One word of advice, dont use the wifes fancy blender. Buy a cheap one from a thrift shop.

Blender vs grinder

Depends on size desired Joe

For foliage clumps and trees, blender works good...

For grass fines, I would like to try the grinder and see.

To make Fine Ground Foam only...

...I use the green foam blocks florists use and a cheese grater.  This produces the "fine" grade of ground foam.  The Blender does produce some fine grade ground foam that needs to be sifted out, but if your goal is to make fine ground foam only, that is what I would use.  

I have done some tests with diluted flat paint with water, and that seems to dye the foam without clumping it, but again still working on the proper "formula".  Sadly haven't had time to work on that as health and other projects are on the "to do" list.

Ken L