It works great. Less than $4 bug zapper, 3 strainer set at the dollar store for… you guessed it… a dollar. The wire is form an old phone charger and I had the clip. Less than an hour to get it all together. Super tool for $5.
I didn’t bother with the connector and soldered the wires inside and to the basket.
Works pretty good for about $10 in materials. Even less if you already have some of the parts which I’ll bet most of us do. The only extra part I bought was the wire mesh strainer. I spent a total of $5, not including tax.
However, I can see buying the real one if you do lots of dioramas or very large diorama layouts as many “train” guys do.
I used a slightly different set of instructions. Its the same as the video except the large brown capacitor and blue r4 resistor are removed. Supposedly it makes it more powerful. I dunno, I have nothing to compare.
I bought the strainer at Family Dollar. You get both a 3in and a 4in diameter for $1. I drilled holes (2) in the plastic handle of the strainers and fit them over the two pegs that the screws go into at the top of the swatter. This results in a nice very tight fit for the strainer. No shiming necessary.
For simplicity I used an alligator clip to attach the positive wire to the strainer.
Very interesting idea, i may well have to try this. I’ll check the video out later. I have found a bug zapper than i think will fit the bill on Amazon for £4. But one question. Whats the pint of the cable seeing as the Zapper is battery operated.
If you mean the wire out the back, the is clamped to a pin or nail stuck in the wet glue. I assume this energizes that somewhat to create the static field that aligns the grass. You’ll see when you watch the video.
I dunno, call me a non-conformist-party-pooper but I’ll save the 10 bucks and sprinkle it on with my fingers like I have been doing for the past 30 +/- years. Very controllable IMHO, perhaps a little slower. I have not experienced the problem of being ‘all charged up’ and having it stick where I don’t want it to stick. Any ‘overflow’ gets picked up and put back in the bag, very little waste.
I forgot where I saw someone post a year or two ago how to take a Bug Zapper from Harbor Freight Tools and convert it for this particular use. I picked a BZ at HF on sale for under $3 and followed the simple instructions. Works like a charm![Y]
What a terrible video! The worst part was listening to this guy think out loud, and very slowly at that.
PSA: put a little thought and planning into a how to video.
To be fair, it’s a good idea that could be executed a lot more professionally though. For example, pliers aren’t crimp tools. I could go on, but I won’t.
I am going to hove to agree… it was a bit tedious to listen to. Again, I agree about the pliers but sometime ya gotta just use what’s on hand. I just put a new radio in my car. about 15 connector squashed with big lineman’s pliers. Wasn’t gonna buy a special tool for a 1 shot deal.
