Flocking Source?

[RobertOToole]

Bought a disk cutter, also called a compass cutter, for $10 at a craft store. I use these for making flocking discs and aperture disks. On the way home my wife and I stopped at a Daiso, a Japanese $1.50 store. Found the same cutter for $1.50. Daiso also had nice cutting mats for $1.50 each.

They aren't professional quality of course but they get the job done for $3.00, including cutter and cutting mat!

BTW, If anyone needs compass cutter I can have my wife pick some extras next time we are there.

[Deanimator]

I picked up my Beetle Black today. Haven't tried to do anything with it since I'm fully involved with the base plate. I'll give it a try when I get the plate on the table.

[JLyle]

I like the card stock linked above as well but Protostar is easier to work with when you are flocking the insides of extension tubes etc. I have found only 1 source that sells it in small quantity. Just go to eBay and enter “Protostar flocked” into the search.

I find the opposite to be true, the prostar adhesive layer is too strong to make installation easy and worse it will delaminate after a while. Also its really tricky to apply without bubbles.

The flocking sheets take literally 1 second to apply, grab a sheet roll it in your hand stick it in the tube and start shooting.

Having to apply protostar to the dozens and dozens of adapters and tubes that I have would take weeks

If you want a small amount of protostar send me a SASE and I will send you a foot or two for free. I have a 20 foot roll sitting here in my office gathering dust. I wish someone warned me before buying it.

Robert

I have been using Protostar since 1999. I have bought it in on a regular basis over the past 20 years. I still have most of the items I have used it in and it is pristine 20 years later with no bubbling, de-laminating or any other issues. 20 years or experience with dozens of items leads me to conclude it is a very stable, reliable product.


Lyle

[RobertOToole]

I like the card stock linked above as well but Protostar is easier to work with when you are flocking the insides of extension tubes etc. I have found only 1 source that sells it in small quantity. Just go to eBay and enter “Protostar flocked” into the search.

I find the opposite to be true, the prostar adhesive layer is too strong to make installation easy and worse it will delaminate after a while. Also its really tricky to apply without bubbles.

The flocking sheets take literally 1 second to apply, grab a sheet roll it in your hand stick it in the tube and start shooting.

Having to apply protostar to the dozens and dozens of adapters and tubes that I have would take weeks

If you want a small amount of protostar send me a SASE and I will send you a foot or two for free. I have a 20 foot roll sitting here in my office gathering dust. I wish someone warned me before buying it.

Robert

I have been using Protostar since 1999. I have bought it in on a regular basis over the past 20 years. I still have most of the items I have used it in and it is pristine 20 years later with no bubbling, de-laminating or any other issues. 20 years or experience with dozens of items leads me to conclude it is a very stable, reliable product.


Lyle

Glad to hear Protostar works well for you Lyle. I was just sharing my experiences to help others. No need to defend protostar.

As a professional full time photographer for the 16 years I often get responses like that. Some of my gear sees more use in one week than most people in 10 years of use. It's no unusual for a camera mount or lens mount to wear off the chrome plating and require replacement (they wear down and become loose), the same case for hot-shoe mounts. The same case with VR and AF motors, my Nikon 4/500 VR went through 3 VR motors, 3 mounts, and 2 AF motors before I finally sold it, all within the 3 year warranty period. If I posted my 500 VR experience on a Nikon forum I'm sure others would come to Nikon's defense and reply that they never worn out anything on a Nikon lenses in 29 years.

Over the last year or two I've tested a lot of lenses in the studio so all of my gear is well used. Most of my SM2 thorlabs tubes and brackets have the anodizing worn off. Is it defective, no, but the anodizing will wear off with heavy use, I can tell you from experience.

Best,

Robert

[chris_ma]

I've found this on the thorlabs page:
https://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cf ... umber=BFP1

Code: Select all

Black Flocked Self-Adhesive Paper

Self-Adhesive
Does Not Shed Dust or Lint
30" x 30" x 0.012" (76.2 cm x 76.2 cm x 0.305 mm) Without Backing
Flocked paper is a self-adhesive material made of many fine fibers. It has a textured, matte-black surface. When viewed at from low angles, it absorbs virtually 100% of the visible light that strikes it. The fibers will not shed dust or lint, unlike some velvet and felt materials. The approximate compressed thickness of the flocked paper is 0.015" (0.381 mm) with the backing and 0.012" (0.305 mm) without the backing.

Image contrast can suffer due to stray light reaching the focal plane of many applications where the light path travels through a tube or other enclosed area. Applying a flat-black paint to the inside may help, but a textured matte-black surface is a much more effective light trap.

Caution: Do not cut the BFP1 black flocked paper with a laser cutting tool, as the BFP1 burns easily and may catch fire. It is suggested that you use a utility knife or other sharp edged tool to cut the BFP1.

reflectance data, (Data Obtained at 8° AOI):


seems to be a suitable choice. I'm probably going to order some in the next week or two, so if somebody would like a sample to try send me a note.
chris[/code]

[chris_ma]

got side tracked with other problems but the current topic of flocking fun reminded me that I wanted to post a comparison of the thorlabs material and some from protostar that Robert kindly sent me a while back.

here some pictures, I used a strong LED light source and tried to hit it at an angle in the third pic to see it does in this situation (the board below is matte black anodised aluminium).

the protostar looked less brown for the eye, which seems to be an artefact from the digital camera.





I used masking tape to remove any loose fibres, the thorlabs material seemed to give off slightly more.

in real world use, both seem to do the job very well.
But since I have to change extension quite a lot I'm planning to mont the lenses on a Hasselblad bellows which I hope will work without flocking.

chris

[Deanimator]

I used the Beetle Black in my M42 tubes and got excellent results.

[Miljenko]

German manufacturer D-C-Fix produces ali sorts od self adhesive vinyl sheets in 45 cm wide rolls. Their black velvet has extremely low reflection factor. The price is incredibly low for such high quality product. I'm using it for ages with great success. It can easily be orderer from various places and ships worldwide. Check for instance Here:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1970422047

[Macro_Cosmos]

Here's another boutique flocking adhesive:
https://www.edmundoptics.com/search/?criteria=acktar