Do it yourself dubbing

[Uncle Jesse]

After I manufactured a homemade coffee grinder subsitute I tried my hand at making colored doing out of knitting yarn and some old macrame cord that was like eye yarn. It came out okay I guess but my question is how long of a staple of fiber is ideal for making dubbing? Quarter inch seem pretty short, half inch seems like it may be a little long, suggestions would be appreciated.

[James Smith]

UNcle Jesse,

You are the master of do-it-yourself inventions if you rigged up a coffee grinder. I use mine for dubbing all the time and I find it depends on the materials I'm using. Synthetic fibers like carpet tend to get wrapped up and burn/melt if the fibers are much over 3/8 inch long in a coffee grinder. Natural hairs can become a twisted mess at 1/2 inch so I rarely use anything longer than 3/8 inch lon;usually somewhere between 1/4 and 3/8 inch long.

p.s carpet fibers are great additions to a dubbing mix to change the color and give it a buggy look. You can get the carpet sample boards with all the colors (usually 24 to 30 colors) in swatches of 1X1 1/2 inch for free from most carpet stores when they change lines. Lots of dubbing material with lots of different colors to change your dubbing mixes. Just a thought...

Jim Smith

[aged_sage]

With respect to using a coffee/spice grinder, I agree with Jim, based on my own personal experiences; 3/8inch works for me ( I just 'eyeball').

There are other ways of mixing longer fibers, one of which seems to be very practical, but which I have never tried. Put the material to be mixed into a large zip-lok bag and close it up. cut a small portion of one corner off, insert the small tube from a can of compressed air into the bag , and blast away! I have seen a YouTube video on how to do it , and it is impressive.

[Rick Z]

I found two heavy pet brushes and use those to make dubbing. Does not make alot at atime, but you can change the colors easily.
Much cheaper than carding brushes.
I get yarn scrapes from the knitting club in town.

Rick

[Allan]

Pretty much what's already been said. I've had to mix a lot of dubbings and have a few coffee grinders that I've picked up at yard sales for about $1. each. Do Not make the mistake of using your coffee - coffee grinder or you'll most likely get he** from wifey. Anyway for natural dubbings: beaver, muskrat, rabbit, mink, fox, mole, even seal, etc. I'll just cut the fur/hair at the base (remove guard hairs for dry fly dubbing) and spin it. You MUST USE very short bursts of the grinder otherwise the fur can get cut. For synthetics I generally cut the fibers at about 3/8 to 1/2 inch. I believe the trick is to not use a lot of material at one time and again, you Must use short bursts otherwise heat will build up and melt the fibers. Rmember, whether using natural or synthetics, every so often wipe in and around the grinder blades, dome and sides with an anti-static tissue or towel that you've sprayed with some type of anti-static guard. Yes, there are other ways to prepare dubbings but I find this is the easiest, fastest, cleanest and least messy way of doing it. But do get yourself your own grinder!
Hope this helps.
Allan

[Silver Creek]

Another method of mixing dubbing is to use an air mixer.

Get a zip lock bag and put in the dubbing mixture. Get some canned compressed air. It works best for fur.





Put the tube spout in the zip lock bag and close the bag around the tube and pulse the air. It will mix the dubbing.


This is great for small amounts of dubbing. For huge amounts of dubbing go to a service station that has an air pump for inflating tires and use this method. Air is free in in most gasoline stations in the USA.


Mega Dubbing Blender Compressed Air - YouTube