Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey

On Mon, 29 May 2006 04:03:45 GMT, Mickey Feldman
wrote:

Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey
Seems to me I recall discussion some time back about a home built yard
vac.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Mon, 29 May 2006 04:03:45 GMT, Mickey Feldman
wrote:

Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey
Damn! I think it was on Frugal machinist - maybe Hurdy Gurdy Man can
help. or Roy
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Mon, 29 May 2006 04:03:45 GMT, Mickey Feldman
wrote:

Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey

The blowers in the old air cooled VW bugs moved one bodacious amount
of air because they were large diameter and so had high peripheral
velocity at engine RPM's You might want a screen to keep
twigs, golfballs and small animals from making that BRANNNNGGGGG
noise in the blower.

Fresh cut grass is kinda sticky and it can build up. You'll know
that if you've ever cleaned a mower deck with an air chisel. A good
design might be an induction system where a blower creates a
high-velocity jet that aspirates the grass clippings without them
going thru or even near the blower.

I've built 2 so far and am looking at a third. The hardest thing to the
entire job is balancing the impeller. I build mine out of 1/4" plate
with a 12" circle housing and the impeller itself is a 4 blade design. I
have also built one with a modified snowblower impeller. 4 blades seem
to work the best at that size and they are easier to balance as well.
The blades are cut out of 1/4" and look like a rectangle with a bite out
of the outside corner. They extend into the volute area and curve to
follow the housing up to the outlet area. For collection I use a garden
cart with a light steel cover that has a 10" X 24" section of expanded
metal with a chunk of window screen behind it as the vent. 5 HP works
well.
--
Steve W.
Life is not like a box of chocolates
it's more like a jar of jalapenos-
what you do today could burn your ass tomorrow!

"Mickey Feldman" wrote in
message ...
Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey




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Blower wheel really needs to have steel vanes (Think 1/4" plate) to
handle the occasinal twig or small rock without damage.


Where are you? I have a complete blower/engine combo. 3hp BS engine, 5"
(??) inlet. No reasonable offer refused!


Mickey Feldman wrote:

Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey

I built my own vac cart, but used an 8 hp horizontal shaft engine,
abut blower wheel orieintatin is pretty well not relavant. I used a
piece of 3/4" steel plate that I dressed both sides on to get it nice
and flat and reduce thickness........IIRC it came up to approx 1/2 or
a bit thicker.....I used 5/16" steel for the vanes, spaced equally at
90 deg apart (4 total of coarse). I milled slots for vanes to fit into
in the back plate, as well as the hub which was made of reg hot
rolled steel, bored and keyed for engine shaft. I used 4 vanes which
from previousl experiience proviced lots more suction than a fan with
more vanes did, but they are somewhat more noisey. I made the
housing out of 14 and 11 gau sheet steel stock. Inlet is 8" and
exhuast is 7" discharge.....It has more suction than my factory made
vac cart, and I can clean up debri and junk just as easy and good
without having a need to have the mower deck operating as the factory
made cart does with deck in operation, so it opened up more avenues of
use for on my Ford 1720, for general cleanup.......

I mig'd it all together, and checked balance, and adjusted
accordingly. It has sucked up and digested rocks, pieces of bricks
pine conesm pieces of tree limbs up to about 1" in diam........and has
yet to bend a vane. Its just about indestructable. The original one
had a cast aluminum fan assembly and thin gauge housing, and I
basically followed original dimensions but made it all much heavier
duty overall, but went with 4 instead of 6 vanes.

On Mon, 29 May 2006 16:17:05 GMT, RoyJ wrote:
Blower wheel really needs to have steel vanes (Think 1/4" plate) to
handle the occasinal twig or small rock without damage.


Where are you? I have a complete blower/engine combo. 3hp BS engine, 5"
(??) inlet. No reasonable offer refused!


Mickey Feldman wrote:

Anyone here built a grass clippings collector for their garden
tractor? Something that would fit on the 3-point hitch and probably be
driven by an old lawnmower motor (vertical shaft) since they're a dime
a dozen.

I'm wondering about the blower part in particular. My first thought is
that something like the impellor used in a shop dust collector would
work well, but perhaps experience says other wise?

Any shared experience or speculation welcomed.

Thanks,

Mickey