Homemade leaf collector

[HeyBub]

Video

[bob haller]

very good idea, low cost, using whats available. too bad he didnt show off the impeller, wonder what it looks like?

[Jim Elbrecht]

Nicely done- mulches, collects, and helps unload.

See the accompanying website for the impeller details-

Jim

[HellT]

I've always wondered - why collect them? Two passes with the lawn tractor and they're finely chopped and disappear into the lawn. It's a lot faster and easier than vacuuming or raking them up.

[Roanin]

If you want to have a lawn the next year and have a lot of trees, you have to rake them. My lawn gets so deep, when you drive the lawn mower over the lawn, it picks up the front wheels because they are so thick.

R

[Andy]

Andy comments:

I understand what you mean. However, the trick may be to mow more often, before the leaves build up to that level, rather than wait and try to do it all at once....

I my back yard is heavily populated with oak, and I get LOTS of leaves. However, my lawn tractor mulches them effectively, especially if they are dry, and they just disappear in a couple days.... The technique may not work everywhere, but it works well in North Texas in an oak forest .....

Andy in Eureka,

[Roanin]

Most of my trees are sycamore and all the leaves fall at once. These leaves are so bit that the mower gets overwhelmed.

R

[Home Guy]

Close-up pictures of the impeller are here:

=========== There's an impeller made from six half-inch nylon blades bolted to an aluminium hub. The blades are bolted from the back using three 2" long

1/4" bolts threaded straight into the nylon.

The vanes have a profile milled into them to make them lighter. Michael cut that profile with his CNC mill.

The original sides of the blower were made from aluminium soffit material. But with the occasional pine cone, pebble, or walnut in the mix, that became quite dented.

Before starting the leaves this year, Michael replaced the sides with

18-gauge galvanized steel. That should be able to take much more abuse than the aluminium.

Michael used a Bill Penz blower design to base his blower on.

I asked Bill Penz for permission to use this image. Bill Penz added:

"Please warn then that if they don?t use a material handling impeller (meaning plastic or aluminum) or if they hit a branch or rock they could get seriously hurt. I?d also recommend making the blower with a double wall."

With the engine running at 3500 RPM, the tips of the fan blades travel at about 65 meters per second, or about 234km/h (146 MPH). That's fast, but not bullet fast, so a reasonably sturdy enclosure should be able to contain a catastrophic impeller failure.

Michael Grant does custom electronic designs: NoMi Designs and other stuff: Krazatchu Design Systems ===============

[Harry K]

Exactly. Until I did away with a couple red maples I used my walk behind Honda without the bag. Leaves so deep that on the first pass the mower was sorta tunneling through them. 2-3 passes later the lawn looked like salt/pepper and in a couple days - nothing.

I still have a couple red maples left so it gives me 'seat time' on the rider now.

Besides being much more energy efficient to "mulch in place" they are good for the lawn.

I haven't 'bagged or raked' since late 70s. Harry K

[Harry K]

Mulching the leaves should not harm the lawn. I suppose if there were a huge amount of them like you describe it might be a problem mulching them but "harm"? I doubt that.

Harry K

[Home Guy]

Viruses, fungii and other nasty pathogens to trees are found on leaves and these tree diseases will return year after year if you don't remove the leaves in the fall.

Leaf material left on lawns can promote powdery mildew and other fungi turf diseases. Leaves can also prevent the lawn from drying out if you have a lot of rain in the fall, again not a good thing for turf.

[Tony Miklos]

With many acres of woods surrounding my house I still have never had the need to vacuum leaves, just mow/mulch them. They are good for the soil and the trees. Nature intended for the leaves to lay under the trees, why move them?

[Hell Toupee]

Only if they are present, and have been a problem in the recent past. Otherwise, no problem. Typically, there is no problem.

Shade and lack of air circulation are the primary factors for promoting powdery mildew. And so? Powdery mildew isn't even as serious to turfgrass as pimples are to teenagers. It's unsightly, but almost never causes significant harm.

Leaves can also prevent the lawn from drying out if you

That scenario would require a hell of a lot of leaves and a hell of a lot of rain. Most of the time, that's not the situation.

Thanks to the points raised by a couple of other posters, I can understand the utility of vacuuming when there's a deep accumulation of leaves. But I expect the typical homeowner would frequently, if not usually, find that a riding mower or lawn tractor could neatly mulch leaves into the turf, if he wants to deal with them in that manner. I raised the issue because I've had neighbors who bagged grass clippings and leaves _only_ because they assumed that's how they're supposed to be handled. The first time I used my Snapper walk-behind with a Ninja mulching blade on the leaves, several of them came over for a closer look. They were pretty impressed that a good blade/mower could make the leaves virtually disappear. It's simpler yet with a lawn tractor.

[Tony Miklos]

Wow! It's a miracle there are such things as "forests". How did they ever survive without people gathering the leaves?

[IGot2P]

There is a State Forest that borders our small community so it looks like we need to organize everyone and go rake it so it will be there in the years to come. It is over 8,000 acres and we only have a population of 600+ so it will be quite a job but obviously well worth the effort!

Don

[Tony Miklos]

I think you need to call in the National Guard! Save the forest from the leaves!

[micky]

That's what I do. When I had a mower without a "mulching attachment" I taped a heavy business size envelope over the output chute and it worked just as well. I only need it for about 1 or 2 mows in the late fall. (They've just started to fall this week.)

When I had a half acre I never even considered raking the leaves, so I never have.

[micky]

What makes you think there *were* forests before there were people to gather the leaves. Most of the world was desert before that.

Sherwood Forest, for example, was just a half-acre children's park that became very successful and expanded.

The Black Forest was a style of chocolate cake sold in supermarkets across the country, and the owners used some of their profits to plant a forest in Europe.

Right now, the owners of Sahara Ice Cream have pledged to plant a forest in what is still known as the Sahara Desert their sales go above 10 million a year.

[JIMMIE]

I like the idea of the direct drive, my father in law made something similar using a blower with belt drive. With exposed belts his was a "fool killer". His sides were made of EMT conduit and poultry curtain material. To unload you just folded the sides down and shoveled it off with a grain shovel.

Jimmie

[aemeijers]

In principle I agree with you, but I still have to go to work, and I don't want the neighbors to torch my place while I am gone. I don't get anal about it like they do, but I relocate most of the leaves, if weather and first snowfall permit. Thankfully, I have a tree line in back to dump them in, so I don't have to mess with bagging/burning/hauling.