human powered mower???

[bparks]

I think I've performed a pretty thorough search, hopefully I won't be corrected :-)

It looks like we may be moving to a new house, with a lot more land (.7acres from a small city lot)  and I don't think our walk behind gas mower is going to be a good solution.  A push reel mower would take even longer to mow such a large yard i would think.  The yard is very flat, and mostly free of obstructions.  I've been searching for some sort of a bike towing a reel mower deal, the pics I've seen seem to mostly be sculpture, or redneck jokes.  So, the goal is to get a niceley cut lawn, with a mower that has a wide cutting swath, and is human powered.  

It seems like a few different attempts have been made at mounting reel type mowers behind a bike.  One company, dynamow? seems to have had such a product & gone out of business.  Other links I found indicated that two tradtional reel type mower could be mounted together, with a slight overlap to give a wider cutting pattern.  It sounded like that was pushing the max hp a person could put out though, while giving a 30 - 40" swath.

I'm starting to wonder if the blades from a hedge trimmer could be adopted to make a mowing deck.  They seems like they would have the lowest friction of any mowing device, so could be fastened together into a fairly wide device.  There are 17" models available for $30 each new, 4 of these could be overlaped to make a 5' cutting path!!!  Attached to a custom made trike (perhaps recumbent) it would seem like you could use a chain or cable drive to make them oscillate very quickly.  The big problems I've had with the reel mowers I've used before are mostly due to them not 'sucking up' the grass like the spinning blade gas mowers do.  I think the one I'm imagining would have the same issues.  A plus I see is that it wouldn't care at all about how tall the grass is, only the thickness would seem to be an issue.

Well, i think that is my idea, thank you for reading all this.  I appreciate any feedback, or better ideas.  Goats are not an option, though I think I'd love to have goats at some point.

[Norm]

 

  Bparks,

   The tips of the blade are what do the cutting

the rest of the blade can be up out of the way

so it doesn't drag on the grass....the discharge

chute can be directly across from the cut grass

  Here's a concept ...if you were to use

replaceable blades like on a utility knife...the

whole blade would only have to travel about 120

rpm. slow enough that you could use even neo mags

to hold the blades on indentations in the blade holder to fit into those notches in the blade to

hold them in position.

  Now dual mountain bike tires for the bike part.

  Swing pedals connected to a flywheel ...4 inch

friction drive pulleys on the shaft of the flywheel driving the wheels.

  Well that's about it ...what do you think?

                   ( :>) Norm.

[TomW]

pparks;

Get sheep.

They mow for free on their time You get some clothes and meat from the deal if you care to go really back to the land.

In more detail you would section off a "house yard" you mow with a push type mower. The rest of the place you let the sheep eat the grass to keep it down. Seasonally you get lambs for meat and shear the sheep to make that nice cable knit sweater you always wanted. If you get a few ewes and a ram this system is self powering and self replicating. One solar powered fencer would handle the entire containment system easily which makes this truly a solar mowing solution.

Cheers.

TomW

[bparks]

If I understand your idea I think it sounds pretty sharp!  (no pun)  Let me see if I have it right.  Start with a regular mower deck & spinning blade.  Instead of using the blade for cutting, it becomes a holder for 6 or 8 utility knife razor blades on each side.  The blade would also act like a flywheel & a fan.  Since these blades are so much sharper they will cut the grass at much lower rpm's.  I guess I wonder if the lower rpm's would generate a good amount of suction on the grass to pull it up into the cutting blades, and then spit it out the side of the deck.  I also wonder how long the blades would be sharp enough to cut well.

If i have it right it's a lot simpler than the contraption i was designing.  Razor blades are cheap, even if i had to replace them after each time it would probably be cheaper than gas.

One stat I came across several times while researching this is that mowing for an hour releases the same amount of pollution as driving a newer car for 11hrs.  Newer mowers seem like they are much cleaner than old ones, but they still must run a lot dirtier than our car motors.

[ghurd]

Those reel mowers take some effort to push. I have seen lots of them ganged up, 3 to 5 wide, but they are pulled by a HORSE.

I can't imagine a bike would get traction reliable enough to work very well or very easy, even with 1.

Gang mower.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/mow26_20040526.htm

A larger "hedge trimmer" mower... and one in use.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/101937547/101955181poEQFh

http://community.webshots.com/photo/47017092/47019800ZzloVE

G-

[Drives]

As a boy I used to use a push style reel mower to mow 1 acre of lawn.  I also used to run 10 miles for fun.:-)  My advice....keep the blades VERY sharp!

Now I have 2.5 acres of lawn and 2 large riding mowers....no wonder I'm overweight.

[Norm]

As a boy I used to use a push style reel mower to mow 1 acre of lawn.

  You too? Well I only had a 1/2 acre and I

learned 3 things

 1. Keep the blade sharp

 2. Keep the proper clearance of the reel to blade

 Just close enough to cut a blade of grass...no more, no less!

 3. Cut the lawn often...if you let it get ahead

of you it turns into a nightmare!...and you ask

for your allowance.....( "as soon as you get the

lawn mowed")

                  ( :>) Norm.

After I grew up and left home ...Dad buys a

power mower  and mows it all himself.

[hvirtane]

After I grew up

and left home ...

Dad buys a

power mower

and mows it

all himself.

That is the realistic

story about those mowers,

which you are supposed to push.

It is not a human work.

Dads will not push them,

sometimes boys do.

A long time ago I realized

that a sickle is much better.

A similar one as on the

flag of Soviet Union.

- Hannu

[richhagen]

When I was a boy, I had a common gasoline powered push mower and made a bit of spending cash cutting lawns.  When I bought my first house, I got an electric mower.  Used it for many years until it no-go no more.  Lately, since I have some rental property, I have a gas push mower for the bigger stuff, and a hand reel mower that I use when I can.  I like the little reel push mower.  If you don't let the height of the grass get ahead of you you can mow as quickly with that as you can the gas one, and its easier to move from place to place.  (no fossil fuels, bonus exersize, lighter to move, easy to maintain) Rich

[Norm]

Hannu,

    A scythe is better yet!

  2 guys used to mow the grass in the park with scythes both of them working together cut something

like 10 acres as easily as 4 guys do now with power lawnmowers.

  They made it look so easy...work a few minutes

stop and take a whetstone out of their backpocket

spend a few minutes talking and sharpening...then

back to work for a few minutes I think they actually spent more time sharpening than cutting!

              ( :>) Norm.

[hiker]

miss those days on the homestead......

we raised chickens and ducks--plus a cow or two..

we lived on the mountainside-5 acres..

it  was my job to cut the grass for the cows--used a scythe or a sickle...

any way it didn"t take any time at all to get a huge amout of grass cut -just doing it by hand.....

well its all gone now---hillside looks like a city now--at one time are  nearest neibour was a half mile away--just a few houses or cabins here and there..

makes me sick to look up on the mountainside now--trees gone--houses back to back..

i guess its called progress!!!!

well hopfully i will be able to progrees right on out of this city! and move to a little ghost town called chitna---i have to small lots their..should be a great site for wind power and hydro--a big river runs nearby......and i will cut the grass.

[JF]

Dear bparks and other friends,

The concept of the human-powered lawn-mower has often been discussed in different books. Kindly consult the following good and extensive material:

"Bicycling Science" - FR Whitt & DG Wilson - MIT Press - USA 1974.

The first two images are from this book and shows a MIT BS masters thesis project from 1973 by mechanical engineering student Michael Shakespear.

This project by Michael Shakespear is also fully discussed in the very good book - "How Things Don't Work" by Victor Papanek and James Hennessey - Pantheon Books NY USA 1977.

[PS: Anything by Victor Papanek and James Hennessey is a "must to read"]

The following description is given in both books:

"The original model has a three-speed Sturmey-Archer hub-gear, a brake and differential incorporated into the transmission. The reel-type cutter is driven directly from the input to the differential drive to the rear wheels. Pulling the left-hand handlebar lever releases a catch and enables the cutter assembly to be raised by pulling the handlebars back to a rear position and so permits easy maneuvering. The prototype constructed largely of scrap materials and components was very heavy but still gave easy cutting. A light-weight model might show real advantages"

Following for this good work the publishing firm of Rodale Press from the USA - financed further experiments by Lee Laiterman - another MIT student. the third image is of the tentative design and is taken from the book - "Pedal Power" - James C. McCullagh - Rodale Press USA 1977.

The following specifications are mentioned:

"Wheelbase 45 inches

Front track 35 inches

Seat height 19 inches above ground

Wheels - 2 - 20 inches diameter in front, 1 - 16 inches in diameter in rear

Cutter length 39 inches

Weight app 45 lbs.

Front-wheel drive, differential unit mounted on front axle, steering by rear-wheel.

Overall length 7 feet

The seat mount will be able to slide along the body thus enabling adjustment for different sizes of riders. The cutter assembly is experimental. If it works it will cut like an electric hedge cutter"

In this third book from Rodale Press are also very detailed constructional plans and instructions concerning different types of pedal-powered equipment for pumps, ploughing, winches etc.

I hope that these informations may be usefull to you and possibly others - otherwise I could possibly suggest you try a search concerning "Human-powered vehicles - HPV's"

With best wishes - JF

[bparks]

Great diagrams & comments, thank you for taking the time to scan those.  I've found a few first hand comments about people using this basic layout, of a bike pulling a reel mower & the consensus seems to be that it's too much effort to be very useful for large lawns.  That's what got me thinking about different cutting mechanisms that would allow for a wide cutting area (hopefully equal to or greater than a riding mower) while not requiring lance armstrongs legs.  Maybe I should be researching lasers :-)

[Norm]

  All in all you want blades that are very sharp

rugged ...but lightweight, that spin slowly, but

not too slowly (rotory), wide lightweight tires, swing-pedals

hooked to the crankshaftof a  stripped small

engine...just the block, crankshaft and flywheel.

                ( :>) Norm.