Adding static to grass

A while ago I scrimped and instead of buying an electric static grass appliator I bought what woodland scenics calls the static grass starter set, which basically is just a plastic bottle with a screen on it to dispense the grass. I paint clear Elmer’s glue on the table and spread the grass on top of it. Is there a way I could make the grass stand up without buying an applicator and starting from scratch? Thanks

I made one for under $20 that works great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1jrUL_PLU&t=765s

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

I made two static grass applicators out of $4.00 electric fly swatters and they work great. Takes 10 minutes.

The improved version.

DSC 0002

you need a way to apply [momentarily] the static charge to get the grass fibres to ‘stand up’, … an applicator [whether home made or bought] is the easiest way …

Rub a ballon on your hair for a couple minutes, then hold it near the grass. [:-^]

Mark.

Nah. Just have a cat do your static grass, after rubbing it on a towel.

Seriously, look at a Gras-Tech static grass applicator. Mine was about $25 a few years ago, is still on its original set of batteries and gives me great results. The high-priced applicators are not necessary.

I’m not sure that you’d be interested, especially if you don’t wish to start from scratch, but here’s a LINK to a thread on making your own static grass applicator.

Wayne

Well then, I guess i’ll be doing some work with a scraper and a vaccum… Thank you for the suggestions, I was leary of the price/quality of the $20 applicators which is why I stayed away from them. At least I’m only half done with the grass! Thanks

This is the static grass applicator I built from the Luke Towan YouTube video, I haven’t seen any manufactured grass applicators but this one works very good for under $20.

Mel

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

I was just looking around for one, and saw one for $20, an ABS blah, blah. Then I looked at reviews. There were a number of good reviews on it… until I saw one that said “some of the grass stood up”. Then I saw the 1-star review, and the reviewer said "it’s only 2.5KW, you need a lot more for it to work properly. It looks like you can get a better one, but now we’re up to around $65+.

Think I’ll look into building one, after buying the negative ion generator for $21.