At risk of ending up on r/DiWHY, I present my newest creation.The no-push push mower!Problems:- Petrol lawnmowers are noisy and obnoxious.- Traditional flywheel-style lawnmowers kick up a lot of dust and pollen, triggering allergies.- Push mowers solve these problems, but require a lot of effort to push around, and are very tiring.- The yard is on a very steep slope, making the above problem even worse.- Autonomous robot mowers are still (for some reason) prohibitively expensive. Especially ones that can do steep slopes.Resource allocation:Project Management determined it would take a team of six engineers a year and twelve million dollars to achieve our goals. After negotiations, that was reduced to one afternoon, a budget of $25 and a Woolworths apple turnover. And I would be working alone.Results:I present the Golf Mower. Or alternatively, the No-push Push Mower. A daring fusion of push mower and electric golf buggy. It also folds up for storage.Method:Sorry for the lack of progress pics. There really wasn't much worth documenting.The donor push mower and golf buggy both came from the local junkyard and cost about $30AU total. I had trouble getting the battery to take a charge, but it now works for testing purposes. If I have to get a replacement battery, it won't need nearly as many amp hours as required to play a whole golf game.I had intended to mount the guts of the golf buggy on the push mower and use it to drive the mower's wheels, but that turned out to have a lot of issues. The biggest of which was that the axle would have to pass through where the blades are. Rather than stuff around with gearing, I decided just to bolt them together and have the buggy push the mower.I cut the unnecessary bits off the buggy with a hacksaw. I removed the handle from the mower, then fabricated a mount by bending a piece of flat steel in the vice and drilling a couple of holes in it.I'll test it out in a few days. If I find the golf wheels don't provide enough traction I may put a few studs in them.This may be one of the most brilliant, and most dodgy projects I've done. via /r/DIY http://bit.ly/2KhTCER
