I am looking to buy one of these and really the question is which one? Is the WWS one worth £100 or do the much cheaper (fly swatter based) one work as well?
I re read the Double0 applicator review in Model Rail and I felt it was a bit non commital "a good number of grasses were left standing up"
Anyone with experience of any units care to comment, I dont want to spend £100 if I dont have to but equally dont want to waste £15 or £30!

I have used both, And in my opinion the cheap tea strainer type are good enough for the job

I made one but have only tried it out on scrap pieces of wood so I couldn't comment on how good it looks.They don't cost much to make £2.99 (inc p&p) for the swatter and no more than £2.50 for a sieve (incl p&p) though you may get both much cheaper at a pound stretcher/99p store etc.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Handheld-Bug-Zapper-Electronic-Wasp-Fly-Swatter-Electric-Insect-Mosquito-Killer-/310666678061?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Garden_Plants_Weed_Pest_Control_CV&hash=item48552d4f2d

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-PACK-KITCHEN-STRAINERS-BAKING-COOKING-SIEVES-TEA-BRAND-NEW-IN-PACKETS-/370952191057?pt=UK_Kitchen_Accessories&hash=item565e793c51

There are loads of videos on you-tube on making them.

Tomsk

Thanks Guys, I'm going to make one. Wonder if there is any benefit in uprating to 3 volts or whether this will blow the circuit, will order two fly zappers, at that price it;s worth an experiment!

I've tried making one, Dave.  I've reverted to the old system of PVA glue and a vacuum cleaner.  It works for me.  :thumbs

I have made one out of 50mm PVC down pipe and fittings, some fly wire, a negative ion generator, some insulated wire and a 9v battery terminal. Quite simple to put together.



This cost less than $30.00 Au to make and it works a treat. The negative ion generators can be purchased from Oatley Electronics , see here ; http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OATLEY-ELECTRONICS-IONB2-GRASSINTOR-HIGH-VOLTAGE-MODULE-/121226593244?pt=AU_Toys_Hobbies_Model_Railways&hash=item1c39ab03dc#ht_1315wt_1133



The red wire in the foreground is the earth wire. A small nail has been soldered to it to fix it into baseboard/PVA. The negative ion generator sits inside the 50mm tube and the grass fills into the larger hopper that the red wire leads into. If you would like further instructions, please PM me.

Cheers, Gary.

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

I've tried making one, Dave.  I've reverted to the old system of PVA glue and a vacuum cleaner.  It works for me.  :thumbs

This seems to have gone thru to the keeper.

 Maybe many think it is a joke.

 Believe me (and Max) it does work.

 Paint the area to be grassed with PVA (white glue), spinkle area wit glue, hold vacuum nozzle aprox 2" ( 25 mm) from suface and you will find the grass fiber will stand up nicely.

 NO, it does not get sucked up..

 Cheers

 Ian

Hi Gary,

That static grass applicator looks the business. Some idiot proof instructions would be good ;-)
No rush as I'm miles away from scenics yet but good for the reference archive.

I don't like the grass to grow under my feet.

Cheers

Toto

Iansa wrote:

MaxSouthOz wrote:

I've tried making one, Dave.  I've reverted to the old system of PVA glue and a vacuum cleaner.  It works for me.  :thumbs

This seems to have gone thru to the keeper.

 Maybe many think it is a joke.

 Believe me (and Max) it does work.

 Paint the area to be grassed with PVA (white glue), spinkle area wit glue, hold vacuum nozzle aprox 2" ( 25 mm) from suface and you will find the grass fiber will stand up nicely.

 NO, it does not get sucked up..

 Cheers

 Ian

Sorry to be picky, but 25 mm is equal to 1 inch!

So is it 2" ( 50 mm ),  or 1" ( 25 mm ) ? 

I made a tea strainer type, it works okay on the test areas, but don't try and do too big an area at once.

I have heard that the puffer bottle type can produce results that are just as good, with practice.

Cheers Jeff

I ended up making the 'Tea-strainer' type, which works very well for small areas. I wanted to make one like Garys', but I had trouble trying to source an ion generator here in the UK - they seem to be readily available in both the US and in Australia, but not in the UK (well, for me, anyway:roll: no doubt someone will post a link to an outlet:))

In the meantime the tea-strainer will have to do. 3 volts is more than adequate by the way, - even more so if you remove one of the resistors from the circuit board in the fly-swatter.

Theres a good tutorial on the web - just google static grass applicator or similar…

Shaun.

Great info, thanks all. Which resistor needs to be removed, is it fairly obvious?

I have a NOCH static grass applicator and though it still works it needs a new battery terminal clip.

Anyway, I could never get on with it and all I ever ended up with was flat grass, something that I was quite capable of doing myself without the help of an expensive high tech gizzmo.

So, if any one wants it, it's yours for 30 quid, just PM me to  arrange  transaction.

Cheers.
Allan.

[user=1645]DaveP[/user] wrote:

Great info, thanks all. Which resistor needs to be removed, is it fairly obvious?

Hi Dave.


I didn't bother to remove it on mine, as it works well enough, but I think it was this one shown below. You had to replace it with a wire link:
(All it does is to keep the final voltage down a bit)




Results using my fly-swatter:




The swatter itself is designed for 3 volts - so I use a couple of rechargeable AAs.

HTH,

Shaun.

Thanks Shaun, my stuff is on order together with some static grass so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for taking the trouble to post that pic, I'll try it with it left in place and remove the resitor if I think its needed.

I assume the red goes to the tea strainer and the black to the croc clip, or does it make no odds?

Makes no odds Dave - with mine I've got red to strainer and black to ground.
Do try not to touch the ground with the tea strainer though - you get a big fat spark and a loud crack!

Best of luck with it.

Shaun.

[user=1460]jcm@gwr[/user] wrote:

Iansa wrote:

MaxSouthOz wrote:

I've tried making one, Dave.  I've reverted to the old system of PVA glue and a vacuum cleaner.  It works for me.  :thumbs

This seems to have gone thru to the keeper.

 Maybe many think it is a joke.

 Believe me (and Max) it does work.

 Paint the area to be grassed with PVA (white glue), spinkle area wit glue, hold vacuum nozzle aprox 2" ( 25 mm) from suface and you will find the grass fiber will stand up nicely.

 NO, it does not get sucked up..

 Cheers

 Ian

Sorry to be picky, but 25 mm is equal to 1 inch!

So is it 2" ( 50 mm ),  or 1" ( 25 mm ) ? 

I made a tea strainer type, it works okay on the test areas, but don't try and do too big an area at once.

I have heard that the puffer bottle type can produce results that are just as good, with practice.

Cheers Jeff

Sorry, I had a seniors moment and my fingers did not obey command from brain.

It is 2" and correct metric conversion is 50.8 mm.  (25.4 mm= 1")

 All the best for  Xmas and new yr to all.

 Ian

Just a word of warning to those of us in Australia. The electric fly swatter, one version of it anyway, is a prohibited import item and you will have it confiscated and receive a nasty letter from customs as far as I understand.

Yes.  I got one of them, Marty.

Now you can buy them from Bunnings.

I got one for Christmas last year.  Do you think HM Customs will send me a written apology to balance the threatening letter I got?

My letter said that I was importing a device which is calculated to inflict cruelty on animals (presumably flies).

Idiots are everywhere.

I didn't realize that flies were a protected species in Australia.  Presumably, you also have to have a license to wear one of those hats with corks dangling, just in case any flies are injured. 

Terry

[user=711]col.stephens[/user] wrote:

I didn't realize that flies were a protected species in Australia.  Presumably, you also have to have a license to wear one of those hats with corks dangling, just in case any flies are injured. 

Terry

I was born and bred on 150 Sq mile pastoral property in NTH east Sth Australia and worked in the pastoral indutry in the Ausy bush a lot of my early life and can never remember seeing anybody wearing hat with dangling corks.

 The corks were more annoying than the dam flies which there was always plenty plenty of them.

 Cheers

  Ian