Weed Grubber - made using an old strimmer and car alternator armature

[brianhw]

I always thought these alternator armatures would have some sort of use and now I've eventually found one ! I decided to modify half of one to use as a weed grubber head for my old strimmer and it worked exceedingly well, saving time and effort on hands and knees pulling weeds from my potato plot.

[Altair]

Thanks brianhw! We've added your Weed Grubber to our Farm and Garden category,
as well as to your builder page: brianhw's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Weed Grubber by brianhw

tags: farm tools

[VinnieL]

That's impressive!!

[TrickieDickie]

The armature will probably out last the trimmer.

[bob47907]

What’s truly impressive to me is the process of, say, looking at an assembled armature on the bench and thinking ‘hey-I could use that to grub weeds!’.
It looks as if you’ve had plenty of time working the grubbing hoe and thinking ‘there’s gotta be a better way.’

Well done!

[N00b Machinist]

Devil’s Advocate here: I imagine the string portion of a trimmer is to minimize damage to non-weed bystanders, e.g., stakes, mailbox posts, ankles, etc. What you’ve got there is a blunt pole saw. Useful, to be sure, but additional care, I expect, is necessary to avoid tearing up things you don’t want tore or launching stones or cans or other FOD at those nearby, including yourself. Also kickback - that’s going to kick back much harder than a string on a spinner.

In the right hands, a masterful tool. I can imagine myself f**king things up spectacularly in my own.

[Gergemall]

Very impressive. The machined square to hold it firmly was also genius. Thank you so much .

[brianhw]

Devil’s Advocate here: I imagine the string portion of a trimmer is to minimize damage to non-weed bystanders, e.g., stakes, mailbox posts, ankles, etc. What you’ve got there is a blunt pole saw. Useful, to be sure, but additional care, I expect, is necessary to avoid tearing up things you don’t want tore or launching stones or cans or other FOD at those nearby, including yourself. Also kickback - that’s going to kick back much harder than a string on a spinner.

In the right hands, a masterful tool. I can imagine myself f**king things up spectacularly in my own.

Care is indeed essential,N00b Machinist. You have to concentrate to avoid nearby plants, just as you would with a (s)trimmer but surprisingly there's no kickback worthy of mention. My vegetable patch is pretty well stone free and any small ones encountered don't cause any problems.
Thanks for comments.

[hemmjo]

Looks like you have pretty good soil there. I have a couple of old alternators here, I am going to have to try that. My soil is not as friable as yours appears to be.