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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
I chuckled at this a little…:rolleyes: not on the east coast!
I guess that is one of the benefits of living in a small midwestern town.
Believe it or not, we have a service station about two blocks from me that has a free pump. One of the old style with the U-shaped line holder that goes up and down to turn the air on and off and then there is a knob for adjusting the air pressure on the right side. It’s gray in color, has a large analog view window and it stops ringing when the tire is up to pressure. The same place has a analog gas pump which has the nozzle on the side and you lift the nozzle and turn this handle about 90 degrees to zero out the analog numbers and the numbers flip as it changes. AAAHHH! the memories those items bring back.
Jim, This is the second version of the mixer I redneck engineered. It works pretty well and is much quieter than the Planter’s Nut Can version. I think the photos are self explanatory, the blade was some kind of a clip that was in my junk collection. I heated it with my propane torch and flattened in with my bench vise.
When I formed the question in my mind I was checking out a duster I bought to use for tying. It is a rainbow 4" in diameter and looks like Estaz. Anyone ever try using that?
It seems that everyone blends using a version of a dry coffee grinder. Many decades age I was shown how to “wet blend” by Eric Leiser at his shop. It has always been successful for me and really does the best job.
I use a miniature Cusinart Mini-Mate chopper/grinder and add a half cup of water and just a few drops of detergent. After blending I drain the resulting mat through a small tea strainer, place it on a paper towel and dry it in the microwave. I never have a heat or tangling problem.
Doing this I end up with a neat little dried disk of dubbing that is compact enough to retain a manageable shape.
This may seem like a lot of added work but the result is worth it. 
I threw my 1.00 coffee grinders away after using this method. Theres nothing faster , cleaner, easier. No need to worry about static. Just get a new bag. I like little plastic bags. The ones that Tiemco hooks come in are about perfect for me. I kinda like getting more than one use out of a plastic bag other than just buying the hooks that came in it. I fold the bag in half and punch holes in it with my bodkin. The holes act as vents so the bag doesnt blow up.
There is a popular attractor nymph pattern around here call the Blue Assasin. Which was what I had in mind when I ask the original question. So following our sage advice and experimenting a little I came up with this.
That canned air is expensive!!! I try to cut all my stuff 1/4" plus a little bit and have never burned anything up and it works okay in my coffee grinder.