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Submitted by: Fred from Phoenix via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer Daniel says, “Gah, I hate sloppy kludges. It would have cost him nothing to include a faceplate. They even have rusty black available, I am sure.”
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That’s just the missile arming switch.
That’ll keep those pesky Johnson kids off the lawn
That switch actually operates the wheel motor, which uses a gear to turn the cutting blades. The motor could be completely removed to make it even greener, but don’t tell this guy that.
Actually, it’s a ground switch. It stops the motor by disabling the magneto
Flamethrower? Yes. WIN.
Great. Our government spends millions of dollars trying to solve the energy crisis and Fred does it in 5 seconds and 5 bucks.
We all know the Government can’t solve anything.
Safety kill switch, without the safety
Emphasis on ‘kill’ then?
Maybe this was the precursor for the Roomba.
No more mowing after dark with THIS switch!
It’s supposed to be a kill switch, but it’s not. Lets hope it doesn’t become one.
BZZZZZT. Hon, I’ll be back I going to get my hair cut.
I like this, but it would be a pain in the ars to mow under brush and trees. The branches would get stuck and hit the switch.
Good heavens! Don’t tell him that! He’ll just duct tape it into place!
judging by the empty hole in the handle, i’d say the blade brake was also removed. certain devices were never meant to be “idiot proofed”, which just lulls the idiots into a false sense of security. make the potential danger of operating clearer than a stupid label, and an easily defeated “safety device”. hell, I’d even sign a waiver at purchase saying i understand the danger, to save the cost of all that crap.
I’d say that is exactly what is going on there. I did that to my trimming mower when the blade brake cable failed. Mine was a bit more ellegant with a push button on the handle, but with the blade brake out of the game the only other way to shut it down was to yank the plug wire.
I yanked uh, I yanked it. I yanked the um, thing.
Pretty sure those things are there to prevent genuine accidents and problems from unforseeable incidents. Been quite happy of my mower having a blade brake a couple times in the past.
Even working in educational AV provision I can tell you there’s no such real thing as idiot-proofing. A good quality, value for money idiot will always quite quickly find a way around whatever safety, maintenance-reduction or ease-of-use scheme you put in place. Better to concentrate on making things better for the average user (and the lower level of idiot who MAY get away with sueing you) and let the “expert users” and true morons (and it’s a thin, very red line between those) sort themselves out. By which I mean disable the safeties on purpose (or just somehow keep one hand on the kill switch even whilst lopping all the fingers off the other because they didn’t realise fast-spinning blades could do that) and end up dead.
I would have used a dimmer switch to get that “variable-speed motor” ambiance.
Gah, I hate sloppy kludges. It would have cost him nothing to include a faceplate. They even have rusty black available, I am sure.
He was obviously trying to save face.
They also replaced the blades with a ceiling fan.
Is this what we’re reduced to on TIFI now? Someone doing a not SO messy replacement of an ignition switch? Hmm.
In that case let me see if I’ve got any pictures of the emergency ignition I rigged up for my bro after his car was broken into and the perp ruined the key barrel trying to force it. Idiot – it was old enough to successfully hotwire. Which is basically what I did, but via an old pond-pump / sanitiser / lighting switchbox. Flip switch one to turn on the accessories… switch two for main ignition… and switch three briefly to run the starter. Worked well and looked fairly neat, tucked away under the dash.
Until it turned out a box made for 240v 50Hz AC at two or three amps per line can’t really stand up to 12v (nom) couple-hundred-Hz pulsing DC with LOTS AND LOTS of amps…
“There, I broke it completely”.
I love it when you talk dirty.
Mud. Dirt. Dust. Pet dander….
um DC (direct current) usually doesnt pulse, AC (alternating current) does , its a constant voltage although if it was the “ON” switch – which controls the ignition system power – there will be pulsed *high current*, but not voltage.
the voltage rating of the switch is the maximum the contacts can safely break without arcing etc (switch off) the current rating is when the switch is closed voltage independent eg no matter the voltage it will be able to handle the rated current when closed and usually a bit higher peak.
HA….. reminds me of my uncle. I used to mow his lawn every now and then, but his mower wasnt this nice. You had to use a screwdriver to shut it off. You just touched it from the sparkplug to the engine block to short it out, and it would die. Worked fairly well…
Good mowers are in SHORT supply.
Oh my God. We did that in my small engine repair class in high school.
I’m surprised, with some of the stupid crap we did, that I made it through both levels of that class with all fingers and toes attached.
My dad did exactly this to our new mower the day he bought it (except he did a neater job of it, with a small steel toggle switch). Occasionally I’d use other mowers and the simple fix when confronted with a safety bar was to tie your shirt (which you weren’t wearing anyway if you were mowing the lawn on a sunny day in the South) around it, holding it to the handle.
This thing really works? I hope not!
He should have used a pull chain and run it up to the handle.
Used non-cotton twine to tie open the throttle on my mower. I could keep the monster running while I used it to chip twigs & branches thru the ‘custom’ get-up I kludged together. Worked just fine & only zapped myself once or twice when yanking the plug wire.
THERE i fixed it!!!!!!!!!
That’s better pulling the spark plug wire off every time, like my old curb edger. and you get shocked half the time.