A Gricer's Guide to Flocking
Are you one of those rugged types who spend six hours reducing an old curtain rail to a 40:1 worm gear, because you find the pitch of commercial gears rather coarse? Are you prepared to toil for hours to save yourself a couple of bob? Do you wear the trousers in your house; or, more importantly, in your kitchen? You do? Then this article is for all three of you. Firstly however, I wish to apologise to Roy Link for abusing his drawing and to anyone else who might be offended by the unnatural act depicted therein. Thank you.
"Flock: A lock, tuft, particle (of wool, cotton, etc.); hence, anything of no account". Thus quoth the Oxford English Dictionary, and who am I to argue? The trouble is, if your layout has ever reached the stage of needing any, you will have discovered that it is really rather expensive for something which is of no account. It is also rather unrealistic, both in
its texture and its colouring. So here's how to make it yourself.........
STAGE ONE
Get hold of some lumps of foam rubber. If you are unable to achieve this without parting with your pennies, forget the whole thing. Next; tiptoe into the kitchen and purloin your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's (delete those who are inapplicable) meat mincer. For those undomestic types, a meat mincer is shown in section in Figl . Note: the meat mincer must be of the old type, fitted with an 'Archimedian Screw'. Those resembling a rotary cheese grater are totally ineffectual. Remove the handle from the body of the machine and clamp it into the three-jaw chuck on your Myford. (No, not the handle, the drive shaft). There will be various methods of doing this depending on the design of your lathe and mincer. Next, turn on the lathe and commence feeding large lumps of foam rubber into the top of the mincer, being careful to first hang a bucket below to catch the smaller lumps of rubber which emerge. It will be immediately obvious to the engineers amongst you that the required result could be achieved by hand turning the mincer. The process however, is vastly more satisfying when mechanised owing to the attendant dangers of minced fingers. As someone clever once said, "The medium is the message".
STAGE TWO
Back to the kitchen; this time to purloin your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's liquidiser. This is a machine that looks like an elongated beer glass (with or without handle) on a base. They are sometimes refered to as blenders. Inside it has rotating blades and it is supplied with a lid. See Fig2. Liquidisers may be found either on their own or as attachments to food mixers. In the latter case you will also have to purloin the food mixer as you will need the motor
drive. (Mmm....... nice machines food mixers). You could, of course, also attach this device to the lathe but you would need to devise a right-angled drive and, as they come with a motor, it seems rather unnecessary. Put the minced foam rubber into the liquidiser, replace the lid; I repeat, replace the lid; and turn on. The liquidiser will now reduce the foam rubber to the size of your choice, from little lumps for moorland scrub, to fine grains for grass; and
it is springy, just like the real thing. A word of warning liquidisers are usually fitted with nylon water tight bearings which melt if they get too hot. This can be overcome with a drop of oil but that has an adverse effect on the soup, etc, which the machine is usually employed to make. The manufacturers normally recommend that they are not left on for more than 15 seconds at a time and, for the sake of domestic harmony, I would endorse this. It does however raise a small problem in that, to produce the fine grains necessary for grass, the machine may need to be left on for up to 15 minutes. The problem may be overcome by wiring a time switch (available for a pittance from most Government surplus stores) into the lead, from plug to liquidiser, and setting it to operate for 15 seconds in every 5 minutes
"Flock: A lock, tuft, particle (of wool, cotton, etc.); hence, anything of no account". Thus quoth the Oxford English Dictionary, and who am I to argue? The trouble is, if your layout has ever reached the stage of needing any, you will have discovered that it is really rather expensive for something which is of no account. It is also rather unrealistic, both in
its texture and its colouring. So here's how to make it yourself.........
STAGE ONE
Get hold of some lumps of foam rubber. If you are unable to achieve this without parting with your pennies, forget the whole thing. Next; tiptoe into the kitchen and purloin your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's (delete those who are inapplicable) meat mincer. For those undomestic types, a meat mincer is shown in section in Figl . Note: the meat mincer must be of the old type, fitted with an 'Archimedian Screw'. Those resembling a rotary cheese grater are totally ineffectual. Remove the handle from the body of the machine and clamp it into the three-jaw chuck on your Myford. (No, not the handle, the drive shaft). There will be various methods of doing this depending on the design of your lathe and mincer. Next, turn on the lathe and commence feeding large lumps of foam rubber into the top of the mincer, being careful to first hang a bucket below to catch the smaller lumps of rubber which emerge. It will be immediately obvious to the engineers amongst you that the required result could be achieved by hand turning the mincer. The process however, is vastly more satisfying when mechanised owing to the attendant dangers of minced fingers. As someone clever once said, "The medium is the message".
STAGE TWO
Back to the kitchen; this time to purloin your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's liquidiser. This is a machine that looks like an elongated beer glass (with or without handle) on a base. They are sometimes refered to as blenders. Inside it has rotating blades and it is supplied with a lid. See Fig2. Liquidisers may be found either on their own or as attachments to food mixers. In the latter case you will also have to purloin the food mixer as you will need the motor
drive. (Mmm....... nice machines food mixers). You could, of course, also attach this device to the lathe but you would need to devise a right-angled drive and, as they come with a motor, it seems rather unnecessary. Put the minced foam rubber into the liquidiser, replace the lid; I repeat, replace the lid; and turn on. The liquidiser will now reduce the foam rubber to the size of your choice, from little lumps for moorland scrub, to fine grains for grass; and
it is springy, just like the real thing. A word of warning liquidisers are usually fitted with nylon water tight bearings which melt if they get too hot. This can be overcome with a drop of oil but that has an adverse effect on the soup, etc, which the machine is usually employed to make. The manufacturers normally recommend that they are not left on for more than 15 seconds at a time and, for the sake of domestic harmony, I would endorse this. It does however raise a small problem in that, to produce the fine grains necessary for grass, the machine may need to be left on for up to 15 minutes. The problem may be overcome by wiring a time switch (available for a pittance from most Government surplus stores) into the lead, from plug to liquidiser, and setting it to operate for 15 seconds in every 5 minutes
STAGE THREE
Back to the kitchen once more. This time for your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's baking tray, shown in Fig3. You will need about half a dozen of these, although you can get by with one - it just takes longer. Spread them out on the floor (the trays) and divide your minced and liquidised foam rubber between them. You should have about half a bucket full (note the use of metric measurement) to make the task worthwhile. At this stage it is advisable to remove the bits of fingernail and red flesh which inevitably find their way into the foam. Next; go to the garage/loft/store and dig out those almost empty tins of emulsion paint, left over from when you painted the sitting room walls. Don't let your wife/mother/lover/boy-friend see or they will decide they need doing again (the walls). This old paint will probably have dried up or be pink (not a common grass colour) in which case you can steal little Johnny's paint box; anything water based will do. You will need some green (blue and yellow make green), yellow and brown (brown is achieved by mixing together everything except green and yellow - you can throw them in too if you have some to spare). The paint should be of a consistancy thin enough to be easily absorbed by the foam but thick enough to have an effect on the colour of it. Pour some of the paint into the foam and stir it about. You will need very little paint 'cause foam rubber soaks it up like a sponge. Sorry. Then pick up the foam and squeeze it in your hand to remove the surplus moisture and spread the paint through the foam. You will now realise why you should not have used oil based paint. The trays of flock (as it now is) should be a range of colours from darkish brown, through a dirty yeller, to leaf green. Keep the colours subtle; nature tends to. When you are satisfied with your colour range squeeze them out again and lay them out on a cloth or newspaper to dry. This is best done in the airing cupboard, which is the place where the household bedding, etc is usually kept. Don't mix the colours together.
Back to the kitchen once more. This time for your wife's/mother's/lover's/boyfriend's baking tray, shown in Fig3. You will need about half a dozen of these, although you can get by with one - it just takes longer. Spread them out on the floor (the trays) and divide your minced and liquidised foam rubber between them. You should have about half a bucket full (note the use of metric measurement) to make the task worthwhile. At this stage it is advisable to remove the bits of fingernail and red flesh which inevitably find their way into the foam. Next; go to the garage/loft/store and dig out those almost empty tins of emulsion paint, left over from when you painted the sitting room walls. Don't let your wife/mother/lover/boy-friend see or they will decide they need doing again (the walls). This old paint will probably have dried up or be pink (not a common grass colour) in which case you can steal little Johnny's paint box; anything water based will do. You will need some green (blue and yellow make green), yellow and brown (brown is achieved by mixing together everything except green and yellow - you can throw them in too if you have some to spare). The paint should be of a consistancy thin enough to be easily absorbed by the foam but thick enough to have an effect on the colour of it. Pour some of the paint into the foam and stir it about. You will need very little paint 'cause foam rubber soaks it up like a sponge. Sorry. Then pick up the foam and squeeze it in your hand to remove the surplus moisture and spread the paint through the foam. You will now realise why you should not have used oil based paint. The trays of flock (as it now is) should be a range of colours from darkish brown, through a dirty yeller, to leaf green. Keep the colours subtle; nature tends to. When you are satisfied with your colour range squeeze them out again and lay them out on a cloth or newspaper to dry. This is best done in the airing cupboard, which is the place where the household bedding, etc is usually kept. Don't mix the colours together.
STAGE FOUR
The final stage is the application of the flock to the layout. Paint the surface to be covered with gloss paint of a similar colour to the flock which you wish to apply. Then sprinkle on the flock and leave it alone until the paint dries. The surplus may then be removed with a vacuum cleaner; the sort which has a flexible tube attachment. If you take the trouble to fit a clean bag to the cleaner, you can recycle the flock. Colours of the flock can be mixed and varied whilst sprinkling. Remember that grass gets brighter in hollows 'cause that's where the water is. Conversely, it gets very brown and thin under trees for the tree gets the water and stops the sun from getting to the grass. Grass tends not to grow on vertical surfaces.
In the next issue I will be telling you how to convert a Kenwood Chef food mixer into a simple lathe or, if your wife/mother/lover/boyfriend is still not talking to you, how to convert a lathe into a very sophisticated food mixer. Future articles will cover such topics as how to fire your live steam models on hydrogen-peroxide and impact moulding with one of those Government surplus howitzers.
Having perused the above article my wife was kind enough to point out that the meat mincer which looks like a rotary cheese grater, to which I refer, is in fact a rotary cheese grater. She also mentioned that, rather that melting the bearings on the liquidiser, one could achieve the same results in the coffee grinder which is built to operate for longer periods. I tried this and, despite the smaller capacity of the coffee grinder, I must admit that she is quite right. She always is.
The final stage is the application of the flock to the layout. Paint the surface to be covered with gloss paint of a similar colour to the flock which you wish to apply. Then sprinkle on the flock and leave it alone until the paint dries. The surplus may then be removed with a vacuum cleaner; the sort which has a flexible tube attachment. If you take the trouble to fit a clean bag to the cleaner, you can recycle the flock. Colours of the flock can be mixed and varied whilst sprinkling. Remember that grass gets brighter in hollows 'cause that's where the water is. Conversely, it gets very brown and thin under trees for the tree gets the water and stops the sun from getting to the grass. Grass tends not to grow on vertical surfaces.
In the next issue I will be telling you how to convert a Kenwood Chef food mixer into a simple lathe or, if your wife/mother/lover/boyfriend is still not talking to you, how to convert a lathe into a very sophisticated food mixer. Future articles will cover such topics as how to fire your live steam models on hydrogen-peroxide and impact moulding with one of those Government surplus howitzers.
Having perused the above article my wife was kind enough to point out that the meat mincer which looks like a rotary cheese grater, to which I refer, is in fact a rotary cheese grater. She also mentioned that, rather that melting the bearings on the liquidiser, one could achieve the same results in the coffee grinder which is built to operate for longer periods. I tried this and, despite the smaller capacity of the coffee grinder, I must admit that she is quite right. She always is.