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Compressed water weedwhacker

No more lame cords.
  (+11, -2)(+11, -2)
(+11, -2)
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The weedwhacker - a marvel of lawncare utility. But the problem is that plastic cord. It gets short, then breaks, and it is tough to get the right amount to come out of the weedwhacker. You need to stop everything and fiddle with it before you can get whacking again. If you are up against concrete or stone, you can go through a lot of that cordage.

The Compressed water weedwhacker uses a high power jet of compressed water to cut through grass, obviating the need for cord. Water, sufficiently compressed, can even be made to cut through steel - this device uses less compression than that, but enough to cut through even the toughest weeds. Hook it to your hose and off you go!

bungston, Apr 29 2005

Water jet cutting http://www.memagazi...oldkni/coldkni.html
[bungston, Apr 30 2005]

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       Waterjet cutters use abrasives too, not just water pressure. Not sure if this would work.
5th Earth, Apr 30 2005
  

       Nice take on things. Big plus. Is this from Bungco?
contracts, Apr 30 2005
  

       abrasives? I believe it, New to me, though.
The Halfbakery: You learn more than one new thing each day.
Zimmy, Apr 30 2005
  

       I too am experienced in the art of using a pressure washer to cut through weeds and moss etc. The trouble that i find though is that although this is usually fine for use on concrete or hard floors, as soon as you aim the jet at any surface that is vaguely loose (e.g. a flower bed) you end up either looking like the creature from the black lagoon, or missing various facial organs as all manner of stones and mud gets spattered straight over you.
HowardMarks, May 01 2005
  

       I'm sorry, but this idea sounds to me like one of those things my boss would be sold on at some trade show and promptly order a dozen, leaving us to cope with the ineffective, problem-wracked, and sloppy outcomes.
reensure, May 01 2005
  

       Water cannot be compressed--change the description.
baconbrain, May 01 2005
  

       Actually baconbrain, water can be compressed, you just need a little bit of mass for gravitational compression, like in a black hole. However, it might be tricky to mount a small black hole on your weed-wacker and getting the water back out might be problematic as well. I suggest a massive government funded program to look into the idea with me heading it up for the next 30 years and pulling down a 6 figure salary. Use politics to sell the idea. Say: "Without black hole water compression, we'll all suffer global warming or global cooling or worse, both global warming AND global cooling."
doctorremulac3, May 02 2005
  

       I like this idea so much; my thought on reading the title was that it was a weedwhaching water rotor though
beanangel, Mar 09 2008
  

       I too thought it was an hydraulically driven rotor. I like the idea of using a water jet, but the probem is (as Howard pointed out) that the jet will slice through any weeds and also into the soil (or indeed any wanted plants beyond) - it would be a bit like a short- range laser.   

       However, you could do it if you had the right type of head. Imagine a "V" shaped pair of jaws, held horizontal to the ground (with the handle emerging upwards from the base of the V). Imagine also that one arm carries the water jet, and fires it across to the opposite arm, where it hits a deflector that diffuses and disperses the stream. You could then use this to slice weeds as they passed through the jaws of the V.   

       However, I think you'd still have problems.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 09 2008
  

       Mount it on a little robot and program it to destroy any plant with a particular color of paint on it. Then walk around with a paint stick and spray the offending weeds.
nomocrow, Mar 11 2008
  

       Ditto to [baconbrain], but yes. However, the good thing about having a colour-sensitive robot is that if large friable objects just happened to be the same colour as the paint, it would also destroy them. In fact, it could even be programmed to destroy pests of the right colour.
nineteenthly, Mar 11 2008
  

       I don't think loose soil would be a problem as the water is not directed downwards. If you turn a normal strimmer (weedwhacker) sideways it would kick up soil too. I also don't think you'd need an abrasive as dandelion ain't made of steel.   

       An advantageous side effect would be that you water the remaining plants while you weed. If not for this fact I'd suggest that compressed air could do the job just as well.
marklar, Mar 11 2008
  

       The description implies a single round stream of water, but doesn't really say so. If the nozzle was sending out a fan-shaped spray of water, this would work better than a single stream would. The power of the water would disperse quickly, and leave only droplets after a few inches. There would still be problems, but it would be more like a weedwhacker and less like a laser. [ ]
baconbrain, Mar 11 2008
  

       /pests/ [nineteenthly], I read "pets".
david_scothern, Mar 11 2008
  

       Has anyone done a laser weed wacker?
nomocrow, Mar 13 2008
  

       There has been at least one laser weedwhacker and maybe two.
bungston, Mar 14 2008
  

       //Water, sufficiently compressed, can even be made to cut through steel //
Just pour some of our compressed water on any hard surface, folks. Watch it drill, smash, annihilate its way through!
ldischler, Mar 14 2008
  


 

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