George - one man's opinion

If you don't mind taking the time and effort I believe that a home made static grass applicator is the way to go.  I spent $30. making mine and it puts out 15,000 volts of static charge.  I've never seen a test between home made vs "Professional" units, but I'll match my Grass-O-Matic Turbo 5000 against any commercially built unit.

Rick

Noch

The Noch is a good unit if you don't care about the price tag, but as Rick says, the home built units should be every bit as good or perhaps a little better, but there is nothing wrong with the Noch units.

Did you check out the index?

George:

Did you check out Rod's index using this search phrase: MRH static grass ... ? You will find the index listed under the Magazine menu above.

You will find, among other things, the Static Grass generator article that Kevin Rowbotham did for us a couple years back. Among that article is a collection of videos showing the relative static charge of various units, including the Noch, IIRC.

Rod's Index?

Oops, no.  I guess I glossed over the introduction of that. 

Thanks to you and Kevin. The articles pretty much answered my questions. 

Build your own using.........

......the Oatley Negative-Ion generator from Model Railroad Hobbyist.  I can say they stand behind their products as my first generator was not working and they sent me a replacement pronto!! 

Good folks..........

Peter

I suppose I could build my own, but....

I am not ready for one since I am far from needing one at the moment. And when I get to that point maybe I can persuade someone to build it f or me assuming that won't break the budget.

Irv

Our club has a store bought

Our club has a store bought one. I don't even remember the name. The biggest thing I found was in what consistency the glue that holds the grass. The more liquid(water) the better it stood up. The more glue the more it looked like carpet. That is ok for a business or residence, but not necessarily along track side. Also the club one came with a push pin to ground it. I cut it off and put an alligator clip on it. Then you put a nail in the table top, and use the clip to ground it.

Alan

Now that's interesting

Now that's interesting. My last application, I was having problems with the grass standing up - and I was using full strength glue. Thanks for the tip!

50/50

I use a 50/50 mix of white glue / water with a little alcohol added as a wetting agent and it seems to work well.

Rick

I use Rick's Formula as well

I just happen to be using Woodland Scenics Scenery Cement at the moment because I have a bottle.

I've been happy with the Heki unit.

I chose the Heki Flokstar (not sure about the spelling) over the Noch applicator for several reasons

(1) The wire mesh charging element is in the front of the unit - closest to the layout - on the Heki. In the Noch it's closer to the handle. I think the Heki gets a better charge to the particles.

(2) The Heki unit is powered by AC - if you have DCC it's a simple matter to turn on the track power and clip the leads to the rails. And it's good for 18 VAC - as compared to the 9V battery used by the Noch.

I can't speak to the homemade units. I found the Heki applicator served my purposes well and was well worth the investment. 

Home-Built Has More Bang For The Buck!

You are very welcome George.

I think the electroscope test video I included with the article tells the true story of which applicator is most powerful.  I found both the 120 volt and 12 volt home built applicators had much more charge capability than the Noch commercial applicator.

The Noch unit works of course, but no better than the homemade, so I feel it fails to justify the added cost.