SG1

Nope, not a Stargate post, but the reference isn't entirely accidental.  I am a Stargate SG-1 fan and to a lesser degree I enjoyed the Atlantis spinoff, though I really wish they'd have done more with the SGU series, but I digress.

Rather, the title of this post has more to do with what happened in the Mojave desert on June 21, 2004.  I was there when Mike Melvill earned his astronaut wings flying Scaled Composites' 'SpaceShipOne' into the edge of space and back.  The coolest part by far was when, after the ship had landed, they hooked it to a pickup truck and drove it down the tarmac so the crowd could get a closer look.

When it came to choosing a name for my static grass applicator, I kicked around a few from Grassinator (say it like Heinz  Doofenshmirtz) to Grass Blaster, but ultimately I just settled on SG1, short for Static Grass One.  Of course the name is far less important than the function of the tool, and this one - so far - works great.

I bought the components to build the thing NINE years ago, so perhaps I should've named it ADT or 'About Dadgum Time'.  Ha. 

It runs on 12 volts provided by an old power supply.  I won't say never throw anything away, but this time it helped to keep a bag of old power supplies.

For the first test flight I decided to see which of these two adhesives performed better.  I'd have to say the Alene's Tacky did the best in terms of overall coverage, while the Sobo tended to be patchier.  That patchiness could be an advantage in the right setting. 

I have much more experimentation to do before I use this on the Pine Branch Park pike, so I am planning at least one diorama to practice techniques for this tool as well as road building, track weathering and tree making.  Look for those in upcoming posts.