Automatic Lawn Mower
Video by: dunno source via Submit a Kludge!
I tip my hat to you sir. Billy Mays would be proud. – Ms. Fix-It
Favorite Comment: Fixer Dogmeat says, “A sobering fact: over 75,000 injuries (10,000 of them being children) are sustained from lawnmowers every year in the US alone! Mowers have no conscience and will indiscriminately lop off the extremities of anyone foolish enough to venture too close. If left unchecked, they will often run off only to join up in packs of strays that terrorize the entire area. So PLEASE…respect and obey the lawnmower leash laws! Keep your mower tied up in your yard so that senseless attacks can be prevented.”
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Brilliant! Added bonus: it makes it appear that aliens have landed on your lawn.
Agree…
Home made Grass Circle.. yeahhh!!
now just add some Random math code “inside” them
Don’t! Throwing math codes around is the main cause of DanBrownitis. Crop circles attract Shyamalanists. Putting those together is like crossing the streams! A MelGibson/TomHansk showdown in the backyard! ~shiverrr~
*sigh*..
you’re right…
mwahahahahah!!! we the aliens will take evry lawn nome in existance!!!!!!!!
lern 2 spel.
Ms Swift, if thats who you really are, aliens do not know how to spell. Okay, they DO, but it’s only because they have been analyzing our radio signals for years and all the damn text messages and lolspeak has leaked out into deep space. We’re doomed.
After backyard wrestling, here comes backyard hypnosis.
Added bonus: start it wound and it will mow everything twice
Just don’t leave it unattended, or set it to run quicker than you. Otherwise, you’re gonna wind up on FAILBlog and your local police blotter.
You spin me right round, baby,
right round, like an electric lawn-mower, baby,
right round round round…
Dammit. Not only does it not scan, it’s not even an electric mower.
how about just “right round, like a lawnmower”? that sort of scans.
You spin me right round baby, right round
Like a mower baby, right round round round. . . .
There. It scans, and it makes sense. ‘Mower’ isn’t that common a word.
It scans, prints, AND faxes, all in one!
I think this was suggested on The Red Green Show back in the day, gotta love Handyman’s Corner
yeah…Red Green was the epitome of man lol
it WAS on the red green show 9001 Internets to whoever finds the clip
IT’S OVER 9000!
This should be on epic win with some details…like what size post, type of lawnmower, etc.
it IS on epic win.
Indeed. Am wondering if I could pull this off…
The size post is easy to figure out. Since the circumference of a circle is pi times it’s diameter, take the width of your lawnmower’s cutting swath and set that equal to pi*d. Solve for d, and you have the diameter of the post. (Since watching this video, I’ve given this a lot of thought…)
Or you could just measure how wide of a cut you want with a piece of rope held to the front of your mower, and then go wrap that length of rope around a coffee can or piece of pipe. If the ends of the rope meet, the can has the correct diameter for your mower. No calculator involved!
Your math makes me want to touch myself in inappropriate places.
So it’s safe to call you a “math freak?”
It is seems so simple once you see it done.
That’s stupid; it only gets a small area of the lawn.
Well, that pretty much depends on how your garden is shaped.
on a square lawn it would mow almost 80%!!!
and you could rearrange the post, to make it do more work.
Huh? Looks to me like it would get almost all of the lawn except for the outer corners.
sweet, this would be perfect for my circular lawn
While that stupid contraption is busy getting a large chunk of the lawn, I’m over in the corners with a weed-eater taking everything else down. Yeah, it is stupid; but I’m done with my yard before you are.
A sobering fact: over 75,000 injuries (10,000 of them being children) are sustained from lawnmowers every year in the US alone! Mowers have no conscience and will indiscriminately lop off the extremities of anyone foolish enough to venture too close. If left unchecked, they will often run off only to join up in packs of strays that terrorize the entire area. So PLEASE…respect and obey the lawnmower leash laws! Keep your mower tied up in your yard so that senseless attacks can be prevented.
Awesome, that made me laugh, I thought you were serious until I hit the part about joining packs of strays
Laugh it up, because you can, but as someone currently stuck inside the house due to the pack of strays in the neighborhood, I can promise you it’s not funny watching local law enforcement bumbling around trying to decide what to do about it. Well, OK, so that part’s sort of funny, but not being able to get mail or even pizza delivery definitely is NOT.
I take it you’re a poor shot.
Hopefully they aren’t zombie lawn mowers, that would just compound the issue.
It doesn’t seem to matter, but I don’t think they’re entirely indestructible. Out in the spring rain, I think that rust will take its toll with them soon enough. Meanwhile, the lawns around here have never looked better, though the shrubs only used to look good.
So, that’s *why* those 3 lawnmowers were all together on that other post here!
Have you tried landmines on them things yet?
Throw some shag-pile carpet down in front of them, that’ll work!
No, it’s not. I still can’t leave my house without having them attack me. I ended up having to throw them a branch of pirch to distract them. Though, I did toss them a piece of driftwood and them was chopping at it for two week. Must be the salt.
^at
Now we wait for the inevitable: someone does this with a snowblower.
*runs outside to try* Wait, I live in So Cal! You tricked me Thadius!
So that’s how they do it in the stadiums!
you sir, are a genius. i hate mowing the yard and i’ll probably end up trying to use this device!
What happens when the radius reaches 0?
That is simple. Upon reaching Radius Zero the mower opens a hole into another reality, where it drops through and begins massacring the peaceful smurfey inhabitants.
I’d rather see the video of that.
It divides by it.
“La la la la la….AAUUGGGHHHH!!!”
Same thing as when dividing by ZERO; The universe begins to collapse in on itself.
Your name happens.
I used to do this on a very large unwieldy lawn when I lived in Kansas, except we had a tree in the middle that it wrapped around. With a mulching blade on the mower, we always had a nice, lush, green yard.
My Grandma said almost the exact same thing. She said it’d be great to tie to a tree and let it go, then untie it and move to the next tree until all the trees had been mowed around.
Not sure who was the first to come up with this idea. But I saw this many, many years ago on the good ol’ Red Green Show.
~If your wife doesn’t find you handsome, she should at least find you handy…
~Keep your stick on the ice…
That… is BRILLIANT
wow. i like that. if i did that, my wife would kill me. but im so gonna do that anyway
You might wanna run it by your home owners insurance underwriter first, maybe take out a little more for your life policy, update will etc…
If your wife doesn’t bash you in the head with the camera, can you post the vid here?
Do it before she gets home and realizes, and then she’ll see how awesome it is. I admit ifsomeone came up to me with this idea I’d say “that’s ridiculous!” or “that’s dangerous!” but after seeing it in action… I’m gonna do it too!
For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius.
or…
[after he brings the creature to life]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Alive! It’s alive! It’s alive!
No, it’s FrankenSTEEN!
So that means your first name is Frodrick?
I read this many years ago in a book from the 60′s about a boy that invents stuff…
Alvin Fernald. The books are being republished by Purple House Press.
Whoo, Dave! You approaching AARP eligibility?!? I think that was in a “Danny Dunn” book, the science whiz who was always tinkering with stuff. That was my first thought, too. And he explains all he has to do is the edges and the little bit left. in the middle.
Or, in an Oliver Ott book…
And, that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where crop circles come from. Any questions?
Why is there air. Who stole all the blue food. If you divide by zero and carry one, do you return to where you started?
Any PE major knows why there’s air. To blow up volleyballs with!
Bill Cosby FTW!
How is babby formed
Where do babies come from?
WANT!
/drool
Note to self : Next time make sure dog is not tied up to same post.
Why, then you can mow your lawn and walk your dog at the same time!
Why not? I could save time walking the dog if I just set a lawnmower after it. And maybe a trip to the groomer’s.
How do you get the corners??
Seriously, if this were my yard, I would simply have a circular area for turf, and fill in the corners with pretty landscaping plants. It doesn’t look like that’s what this guy has done, but you could totally make it work in your own yard.
I’m guessing he probably just mows the corners by hand.
We do the same, we have a flag pole in the middle of the yard. We just tie some good thick rope and turn on the mower. Saves alot of time, grass grows fast were we live. Have to mow at least once a week.
this is sooooooo epic!!!!!
Uh, this used to be extremely common. I saw articles on doing this in Popular Mechanics or some such magazine back in the 1960s.
This cheesy old cigar ad embellishes the idea
Homeowners insurance, dogs, neighbors, kids; to hell with all of them. I’m doing the exact same thing this weekend. A Macanudo cigar, Jack Daniels and a good book. Screw yardwork.
Never mind the electronics and programming, a $5 rope and $2 stake, and a spool rescued from the trash. Then all you have to worry about is the edges and how to stop it without losing a limb…
my old boss has a setup like that, but with longer tethers and riding mowers
Amazing. Simply ingenious.
THAT. is the best thing I have ever seen. EVER.
Your wife is going to take that comment personally, you know.
Finally, some circular reasoning I can wholeheartedly support!
Proves rednecks are engineers to.
I support this wholeheartedly. Wait I don’t have a lawn …
stump circumference =< width of mower. am i right?
couldn't be more simple
This is frickin brilliant – I don’t care who originially thought of it. Now I want one that will mow a 1 acre square & avoid the trees.
My parents landlord did this in the late 50′s with an ancient Reo self-propelled reel mower. He had a very large front lawn and too many other things to do.
That;s not a fail, that’s an epic win!
My dad tells the story of an engineer who had set up an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to make his lawnmower do this on his downward sloping (tree’d, too, I think) front lawn, to the increasing amusement (or not) of his neighbors.
Then one day the rope broke, and the mower went running down the slope and into his neighbor’s…. garage. His neighbor came running out, slammed the door, and refused to give him back his lawnmower.
I love engineers.
“Dogmeat
April 23, 2010 at 1:59 pm
A sobering fact: over 75,000 injuries (10,000 of them being children) are sustained from lawnmowers every year in the US alone!”
I really doubt any of the adults are sober
I guess THIS explains the crop circles.
Nice work, I once thought of this as well. I even took the time to calculate the relation between the radius of the coil and the width of the lawnmower. Since I don’t have I lawn I never had a chance to test it. It’s fun to see someone had the same idea and put it to good use.
EPIC WIN!!!1!
Roomba® for Lawns!
Plus all the flesh-slicing fun you can’t get with a self-piloting vacuum cleaner !
This *should* be called Lawnba(tm)!
No, THIS is a Roomba for lawns…
http://www.husqvarna.com/us/homeowner/products/robotic-mowers/husqvarna-robotic-mowers-for-homeowners/
That is the fastest self-propelled push mower I’ve ever seen.
It’s all in the overdrive.
*want*
sweet
In the late 1940′s, Looong before the Red Green show, my dad did this. He put a sturdy stake in the front yard, tied up his garden tractor (a self-propelled lawn mower-like machine which had different attachments for mowing, tilling etc., and as it mowed he sat on the front porch with his feet up on the rail and a glass of lemonade and watched it work. People driving by slowed down to watch and grinned at him and waved.
There ARE already robot lawn mowers that do the job pretty similar to the ‘roomba’.
Brilliant! So damn awesome!
THAT is SWEET! Too bad you can’t do this in a yard with trees!
Yes you can, just use the tree instead of a pipe, and shorten the rope so that the mower starts next to the nearest tree. When its done mowing around that tree, move to the next tree. There is some overlap, but it gets most of the grass around the trees.
W A N T
That’s actually pretty genius – plus it keeps the neighbor’s dog from crapping in their yard.
Whoever did this, officially wins at everything forever. The might of Chuck Norris and the awesome of Bruce Campbell (combined) pale in comparison.
I wonder if that’s how the aliens did crop circles?
I saw this in a Popular Science decades ago.
There’s supposed to be an engine shutdown if the rope breaks.
Also a bumper on the front would turn off the mower if it touched an obstacle or the spool.
OMG!! I sooo need this @ home…
PS:
Start FROM the tree/spool so the mower unwinds the rope making larger and larger circles.
After it reaches the maximum radii, it begins to wind the rope and the circles get narrower.
That’s your signal to turn off the mower.
Maybe you could give the mower just enough fuel to begin rewinding the rope, or not quite reach the minimum.
I LOVE YOU
I had an idea to switch it off automatically -
a. start the mower say with exactly 1ltr of petrol.
b. Let it run around the stake till its done. Keep doing it util it runs out of petrol.
c. Count the number of times it did the lawn. Say it did it 3.5 times.
d. Next time you need to do it, only fill it with say 1 / 3,5 litres. Then it will run and stop by itself when done – hahahahah -
e. Im going to get a bottle mark it with the exact amount and use it as my cup
Im gonna give this a go. Im gonna plant a few stakes in strategic positions with correct lengths of rope. And leave them there. Then simply attach the mower and go. I love the start on the inside and let it do it twice. Clever person who ever thought that up.
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Despite the fact that this is about useless unless you have a round yard, It’s still a great way to create crop circles while remaining undetected. Well, that is until you have to go back to recover your lawn mower.