I hate weed eating around the pond.

[drumz2129]

EaA few years ago I had a 1.5 acre pond dug in my front yard.

It is now stocked with channel cat and copper nose blue gill. This spring I will stock it with large mouth bass.

Now that my pond is full, I have had the joyous task of weed eating the bank. I had a spare push mower that I used for a solution to this problem. Here is what I came up with:

Bracket mounted

Boom attached. I did away with the shocks. It made the pivot a little stiff.

Stored position takes up no more floor space than a push mower.

Here is a video of the first test:

[/VIDEO]

I played with the angle a little and sharpened the blade after the video was shot and it seems to work even better. On the next pass I took it all the way to the edge of the waYter. It sure beats holding a weed eater while on a slope.
I am not too sure how well the wheels will hold up. When they give out I plan on making a set of height adjustable rigid skids.

I just thought I would share.

 

[Bearco]

A very nice use of the brain.

 

[Brian22]

A feat of engineering to solve a problem - great job, keep up w/ the great ideas!

 

[drumz2129]

Thanks, I guess I should mention how it is being driven. If you look at the top of the last picture there is a piece of 2x2 tubing that makes a "t" at the end of the boom arm. This plugs into receiver hitch on a 3 point trailer mover I made for the back of my tractor and allows me to adjust the offset from the side of the tractor. I use the lift arms to raise and lower the boom so that it follows the slope. I don't have a picture handy at the moment.

 

[IfItFliesItDies]

Redneck engineering at its finest.

 

[cnodie1]

My profs at LSU always told me "Work smart, not hard!"

 

[Gus McCrae]

Redneck engineering at its finest.

That's actually a little nicer than "Redneck engineering" IMO. If it was such, he would have just used duct tape instead of welding it together as nice as he did.

 

[USMC-Deano]

That's very neat. Nice work. Working on a patent? Would probably be a good idea.

 

[Guate_shooter]

Thats pretty SWEET!,

My backyard dies to the "canal" and I hate to weed-eat there just because that close to the water I have seen Water Mocasines and Gators so I do a quick pass and leave.

 

[bs875]

 

[Request Dust Off]

You could modify it a little and have it roll on the ground using just the weight of the mower. It would need some freedom in the vertical plane.

 

[Cochise]

That's r a really awesome idea. I need to build one of those for my parents.

 

[Young_Gun]

awesome idea. Maybe you could open the chute and switch sides so you can go faster and all the clippings wont shoot towards you. Just my recommendation

 

[Golden-Eagle]

I think it's time for a Patent. You could call it Sulphur Solutions!

 

[Tulse Luper]

That's a crop circle making machine.

Very Innovative.

 

[I_FLY_LOW]

Very cool! Nice work, too!

 

[mprice]

Brilliant!!

By the way, this is graduate level welding / finishing - I'm at about 3rd grade.

Very nice job!!

 

[drumz2129]

You could modify it a little and have it roll on the ground using just the weight of the mower. It would need some freedom in the vertical plane.

It does roll on the ground under it's own weight, to an extent. The chain is to limit the angle of operation to 10 degrees off horizontal, I have a turnbuckel to add for a finer degree of control. The reason to limit the angle is because this push mower, like most residential grade mowers, uses a splash lubricated engine, that if tilted too far, will starve the bearings of oil. Briggs recommends a maximum angle of continuious operation of 15 degrees. I allowed 5 degree of sidehill of the tractor. Next time I use it I will put an protractor on the hood an see if I am even getting 5 degree of angle.

 

[LACamper]

Or you could get a cow... she'll keep the grass down all summer then have a bbq in the fall!

 

[drumz2129]

awesome idea. Maybe you could open the chute and switch sides so you can go faster and all the clippings wont shoot towards you. Just my recommendation

The plan is to build a chute that hooks to the rear bagger chute and discharges the clippings to the rear and slightly away from the water to keep them out the pond. This was just a test run to see how well the idea worked so I could change the bracket if needed before I paint everything.