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Mickalo

Blending Dubbing

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Yesterday my daughter picked up a new TV with her Tax refund and got me a nice coffee grinder for blending my own dubbing ..... man this is the cat's meow!!! It so cool :)

 

Got a whole bunch of rabbit hide pieces in various colors and can now put it too use. Been going crazy this afternoon. got enough dub to last me a life time now. Mix it with some Lite-Brite and ya get some really nice dub.

 

One trick I learned is to use a drier fabric softer sheet and wipe the inside of the grinder especially working with rabbit, cuts down on all that static buildup, otherwise it'll stick to everything. Keep one inside the grinder when not using it now.

 

So if you haven't tried blending your own dub, pick up a grinder and have a ball. I've heard allot of trier's that do their own dubbing and now I know why. It's just so neat to come up all different kinds of blends mixing different material.

 

Mike

 

 

 

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Hey that is a great tip, Mike. Thanks for passing that along. I think I am going to go straight downstairs and try to steal one without letting my wife catch me...

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Sounds like fun. I have been thinking about getting one and appreciate the dryer sheet tip. Does the grider just blend, or does it also cut up the fibers?

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I use one, and it just blends. You need to be careful on the lengths of the fibers though. Too long on the fibers, and they just wrap up and create a huge tangle. Length of fiber is somewhat dependant on the design of the grinder and position of the arms, but not that long. Use small amounts of fibers to test until you find the limits. The first time I blended fibers that were too long, it took me so long to cut the mess out of the thing I nearly threw it away.

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Sounds like fun. I have been thinking about getting one and appreciate the dryer sheet tip. Does the grider just blend, or does it also cut up the fibers?

 

the one I got, a Hamilton Beach, it has about 10 different speeds on it for different grinds. Which is nice to help control how much blend I want, a real fine or more of a courser blend. It does chomp up the material and blends it's. I've mainly been using rabbit, lite brite, and various yarns to mix. Haven't tried any really heavy type material yet.

 

I picked up a bunch of Opossum from an Ebay auction really cheap, makes some really nice dub too. Going to see how this works in the blender.

 

Mike

 

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Get some spray "Static Guard". Just "spit" a little in with the dubbing. Does the exact same as a dryer sheet, but much faster especially when your doing quite a bit of dubbing blending at one time.

 

Mad Scientist

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Get some spray "Static Guard". Just "spit" a little in with the dubbing. Does the exact same as a dryer sheet, but much faster especially when your doing quite a bit of dubbing blending at one time.

 

Mad Scientist

 

Just picked up some earlier today from our local dollar store with a few other odds and ends, works great. Now don't have to use up a bunch of drier sheets :) Thanks for the tip MS

 

Mike

 

 

 

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Have blended dubbing for many, many years. Experimented with all kinds of materials, for me, natural materials seem to blend the best and have the most "natural" appearance. Sometimes I add in a little synthetic to the natural mix for added sparkle appeal, i.e. "Pearl Ice Dubbing". Rabbit in various shades and colors (my brother-in-law used to raise rabbits, I have quite a few hides in various colors), squirrel, groundhog, muskrat, etc.... all good home blend materials. Length of fibers has proven critical for a good blend and avoiding a knotted and tangled mess. Static Guard or cling free static sheets are a necessity. For many years I used an old multi-speed blender, it died! :wallbash: Then the search for a replacement.... tried a few various brand blenders but wasn't satisfied, then I bought a Smoothie blender..... works great!

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