Here's some updated photos. Still hard to tell for me. I made sure to heavily saturate my base ground foam layer (fine dirt from WS). I also tried tapping the basket this time instead of my previous side-to-side motion. I think the results are better, maybe? Yes, this is my entire problem here - it's not standing much at all and certainly not the results I'm looking for. As a side/funny story: I had the battery door on the applicator removed and put electrical tape around to hold the battery better than the door was. As I was tapping the basket, I happened to touch the metal part and got a nice little shock. I immediately re-did the tape so I could put the battery door back on 8).
I am still concerned that you aren't getting the strands to stand. The shock you received tells us the ion generator is working, but I am wondering about the connectivity between the alligator clip/pin, back to the unit; and from the mesh screen to the unit. With battery removed, can you check with a multimeter? Put the pin/nail in the alligator clip, and then trace the wire back, to make sure you have a connection. The other method is to simply put down some glue-mixture, put the pin into it, then bring the switched on applicator down towards the glue until you create a spark.
Hi Rick, I just tested this and found that from the alligator clip to the battery terminal (negative), the multi-meter shows continuity when the button is pressed. However, from the basket to the clip or basket to battery terminal, I didn't see any continuity. Thanks, Matt
Check for a good strong spark. The ion generator will be between the battery and the basket, so may not show continuity, but it is possible that there isn’t a connection, or a very week (high resistance) one.
I just put several drops of scenic cement with a few of IPA and water around a nail and then attached the clip to the nail. With the button pressed, I couldn't get any sparks to show, even a with the basket within a 1/2" of the mixture.
Yeah, well then the problem is clearly identified. The basket is not connected to the generator, or the generator is kaput. At least we now know what the issue is, and it wasn’t technique.
From what I can tell, the wire was connected to the basket (and I fidgeted around with it a bit), so my bet is something inside, even though it gave me a nice little shock . Thanks for all the help! Time to find a new one and give that a try!
Ordered the applicator from MicroMark since they have 20% off this weekend. Hopefully will have it before too long and will report back.
Thanks everyone for this thread. I've been following closely, mainly because I've never had any issues like this with my applicator. I scratch built my own using the instructions over on that online hobby magazine. It works great.
Also if you are using white glue, add just a tiny bit of salt to the water and isopropyl alcohol and mix it well before you add it to the glue for dilution. The salt will increase the conductivity of the mixture and will increase the effective area that the applicator will work over.
