Power Rake Makes Lawn Cleanup Easy

Power Rake Makes Lawn Cleanup Easy FARM HOME Miscellaneous 32-3-11 Doug Firebaugh's power rake gets gravel off his lawn and back on the road quickly, and makes short work of leaf-raking in the fall using an array of flat toothed metal rake heads. "The clerk at the farm supply store didn't know what to think when I bought 24 metal rakes at once," says Firebaugh. "I needed rakes with a metal flange that I could attach to the rake bars." After removing the original tines, he cut down the bars, frame and axle. The old rake went from a 7-ft. swath to a four to five-ft. swath. Firebaugh also cut off one of the rear wheels. "I wanted it to be short enough to get around trees in the yard," he says. He then mounted half a dozen metal rake heads to each bar by placing them between two 1 by 2-in. wood strips which he bolted to the bar. To power the rake, he modified the ground drive to run off an old 3 hp gas engine. "The driveshaft still goes through the gearbox to power the four bars, but it's powered by the motor now," explains Firebaugh. He cut the dogs off both wheels, locked them to the drive axle and slipped a pulley on it. A series of belts and small-to-large pulleys gear the drive speed down by the time it reaches the large pulley on the axle. "I pull it with a lawn tractor, and the gas engine lets me stop it and let the rake run in place," explains Firebaugh. "I can move slow where the grass or leaves are heaviest and speed up where it's light." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Douglas Firebaugh, 697 N. Harlem Center Rd., Freeport, Ill. 61032 (ph 815 232-6341).

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