Building a Homemade Rake

[Vernon]

OK lets start by saying my uncle was looking for a way to rake leafs from his Lawn Mower Seat So I design something I thought would work on Auto CAD and after a few days of idea flying around My Dad and I decided on what we thought would work. Than My Dad and I made it happen here are some pictures Please enjoy and leave comments

[DIYer]

That's a nifty build! Looks OEM too.

[jhovel]

Hi Vernon,
nice execution!
I have a few questions:
What's the forward facing lever with the two bushed holes for?
You have a vertical post (channel?) at the front. The cable is attached to it. What is that for?
Do you find the linear actuator is fast enough to be convenient?
What material did you make the actual rake tines from, please? And how wide is the rake?
I also noticed the 20lbs weights on the rake. Did you add them after testing? Did you find them needed to keep the rake on the ground? I ask, because the actuator would also keep it in position, wouldn't it?
I would really like to build something like this for myself, and yours is the first I have ever seen that looks simple enough for me to make.
Great work.
Thanks,
Joe

[DIYer]

Thanks Vernon! We've added your Lawn Tractor Rake to our Farm and Garden category, as well as to your builder page: Vernon's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Lawn Tractor Rake by Vernon

tags: garden, wheel, tractor

[Vernon]

Hi Vernon,
nice execution!
I have a few questions:
What's the forward facing lever with the two bushed holes for?
You have a vertical post (channel?) at the front. The cable is attached to it. What is that for?
Do you find the linear actuator is fast enough to be convenient?
What material did you make the actual rake tines from, please? And how wide is the rake?
I also noticed the 20lbs weights on the rake. Did you add them after testing? Did you find them needed to keep the rake on the ground? I ask, because the actuator would also keep it in position, wouldn't it?
I would really like to build something like this for myself, and yours is the first I have ever seen that looks simple enough for me to make.
Great work.
Thanks,
Joe

Hello Joe,
Ok I will try and answer all your question as best as I can.
1. "What's the forward facing lever with the two bushed holes for?" Originally the two rear weights where bolted in the front tube with the weld in bushing. The reason was to counter balance the rake weight. I will explain later why we moved the weights.
2. "You have a vertical post (channel?) at the front. The cable is attached to it. What is that for?" This was built to slide up or down to fit the height of two different mowers/ Lawn Tractors. The idea is to keep the main body of the rake level no matter what it's hooked to.
3. "Do you find the linear actuator is fast enough to be convenient?" The linear Actuator is a high speed Actuator will complete a full stoke in 10 second, But saying that a full stroke is not needed only about half of that to lift and clear the leafs. If you notice you can slide the actuator mounts on both ends getting closer to the pivot would speed that up. Will talk more about that too later
4. "What material did you make the actual rake tines from, please? And how wide is the rake?" The tines are made from a plumbers snake (Flat) and the rake is 50" wide, We used a plumber snake because of it being spring steel.
5. "I also noticed the 20 lbs weights on the rake. Did you add them after testing? Did you find them needed to keep the rake on the ground? I ask, because the actuator would also keep it in position, wouldn't it? The weights are 20 lbs each or 40 lbs before we cut them in half Yes we added them after we notice if you really choke down the rake the actuator will try and open a little we where shocked that a 200 lbs actuator would move any but it did. Moving the weights to the rear helped a lot to stop that we will make brackets to hold them now. there bolted into some holes we had made for something else at a later date. Lowering the Actuator down on the rear end took some more leverage away, Got further away from the pivot point keeping the actuator closed but made it a bit slower slower (now) it's 10 sec, before it was 6.7 sec full stroke, after all of this it still works pretty well always room to improve.

Joe the tines sit in a grove made by a milling machine that's the only major tool needed for the rake section. Few things where made on a lathe but there other ways to do it.

Thank you Vernon.

[Vernon]

Thank you DIYer

[Aprendiz62]

I just cot up with this and Wow! It looks like that it came out of a manufacturer line, but better. I love this. One thing I think will make it more eficiente, if you're doing leaves on the fall, is extending the rake arm,another foot or so. Just thinking that the leaves will piled out too quick and hit the wheels, again don't know if doing it will change the hole mechanical part of the actuator.