DIY weedlicker / weedwiper - again

johngalway

My fascination continues...

Found <this> in a google search. Make for a nice project for someone maybe.

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

My fascination continues...

Found <this> in a google search. Make for a nice project for someone maybe.

My old man bought a weedlicker from RoCo in 1996 - it was one of the first ones that ther sold. It came in at £1700. As you can imagine the neighbours were fascinated by it and we had several people come to look at it. One neighbour in particular came to look at it several times and announced that he was going to make one. He had several ideas for making it better. His has no pump - the tank is mounted high up and is just a plastic 5 gallon drum. He has a flush valve on it which allows the roundup mix to flow through a copper pipe over the roller. the copper pipe has several small holes in it allowing the roundup to flow onto the roller every time he pulls the chain to flush it. Roco weed wipers were poorly made, ours broke at several welds (got a lot of abuse pulling it behind the tractor), wheel bearings were too light and gave a lot of bother, wheels were crap. This neighbour put better wheels on it and made it much stronger than ours. It works perfect. Its simple and it cost him less than £300 at the time to make.

johngalway

Nice one. I don't suppose there's any chance of a few photos if possible (won't get if I don't ask, no hassle either way :pac: ).

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

My old man bought a weedlicker from RoCo in 1996 - it was one of the first ones that ther sold. It came in at £1700. As you can imagine the neighbours were fascinated by it and we had several people come to look at it. One neighbour in particular came to look at it several times and announced that he was going to make one. He had several ideas for making it better. His has no pump - the tank is mounted high up and is just a plastic 5 gallon drum. He has a flush valve on it which allows the roundup mix to flow through a copper pipe over the roller. the copper pipe has several small holes in it allowing the roundup to flow onto the roller every time he pulls the chain to flush it. Roco weed wipers were poorly made, ours broke at several welds (got a lot of abuse pulling it behind the tractor), wheel bearings were too light and gave a lot of bother, wheels were crap. This neighbour put better wheels on it and made it much stronger than ours. It works perfect. Its simple and it cost him less than £300 at the time to make.

have an older version of this one, non galvanised
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1859616
very strong though, have it for years

reilig

johngalway wrote: »

Nice one. I don't suppose there's any chance of a few photos if possible (won't get if I don't ask, no hassle either way :pac: ).

I'll try.

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

have an older version of this one, non galvanised
http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/machinery/1859616
very strong though, have it for years

Looks like a sturdy machine!!

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

Looks like a sturdy machine!!

ya its quite heavy, my one has motorbike wheels, its box iron which tends to rust so the galvanised ver would bea big improvement there,its pretty simple, a belt running from one of the wheels turns it, inside the section just over the main barrel covered in carpet is a copper pipe with holes, when you turn on pump for a few seconds it wets the carpet and off you go, the only thing is the carpet/barrel tends to drip at either end so you often see a little trail of burnt grass, nothing major. last year last to replace belt and get new tyres on internet, other than that no problems, have it since the early 90s anyway

johngalway

My thinking has gotten this far:

Two mountain bike wheels on a frame. A (for arguments sake) 6 foot long pipe with a series of paint rollers on it (maybe there's a better type of sponge or material easily available I'm not aware of). Two belts, one on each wheel, crossed over (if that makes sense - figure of 8) so the belt drives the roller the opposite way the wheels are going. This is to turn leaves upwards and lick the underside of them.

Some type of system to enable to roller to be lowered, raised. Numerous ways to do this, but with the belts I'm thinking that the handlebars (oh yes, it's going to be shanks mare powered - as are all of my patented Connemara machines :pac: ) should be hinged, and some type of drilled bar or bars incorporated into the frame with pins to enable the handlebars to be set at different angles, therefore lowering or raising the roller.

Not done much tank thinking yet. Some type of dripper pipe almost the length of the roller will be needed to wet the roller. This may present a problem with different angles for different heights though. Not sure if I would be able to get 100% evenly spread wetness on all of the roller either. Maybe some sort of concoction with several separate pipes from the tank. I'd ideally like to have a relatively large bore pipe coming out of the tank, and have a regulator valve (or whatever they're called) so I can trial & error adjust the flow onto the roller.

Sometimes being sick and able to do SFA all day has it's advantages, time to think :pac:

The reason I want it JG powered is the land is really awkward mostly, and it'd be handy to be able to get into the nooks and crannies without the headache of how do I get a tractor/quad there, or more usually I can't get a tractor/quad in there.

Oh yeah. I did read somewhere, that the ends of DIY rollers sometimes leak lines of herbicide. Maybe I'll need some type of small reservoir on each end to capture any spillage and put it back into the tank.

You know on dosing containers, the caps with the nozzle in them to attach a tube. Is there a correct name for those type caps? Wondering if one could be got for a five gallon drum.

Am I forgetting anything?

reilig

Too complicated for me john.

Think about a hand held weed wiper - made from plastic pipe with a wick to wipe.

http://www.micron.co.uk/product/microwipe

Now think about it on a bigger scale - maybe 1 or 2 meters wide, mounted on 1 or 2 bicycle wheels, 1 inch or 2 inch pipe instead of the standard 3/4 inch which will hold loads of spray. Gravity flow to the wick, light weight and easy to push around, no tanks, no pumps, no problems. It would work and would be so much simpler.

I woke up at 3am with this idea in my head

johngalway

I have the handheld Micron in the link. Tried it last year and to be honest, I didn't rate it. Didn't find the wick got wet enough, even with the cap fully off the handle. Also the design is un-ergonomic (if that's even a word :pac: ) which makes it slightly uncomfortable to use. Also completely wrong scale for large areas.

I actually already have about 10 metres of that type of wick. Last year I'd thought about finding a knackered wheelbarrow and mount a wicked waste water pipe full of herbicide to it.

I know my idea above sounds complicated, but in my head it's a fairly simple design. What I also like about it compared to the wick design is I (in theory) will have a moving roller which I think is important, and some degree of control over the flow rate of herbicide to the roller.

Bodacious

Hi John,

I did a bit of weedlicking behind quad last year for a fella with a hired homemade job... bicycle wheels /carpet roller etc and it was a pain in the h*le and if i ever were to get one i'd get a foam type wick and a proper frame that is easy to adjust height for rougher terrain.

This yoke was very hard to regulate keeping it wet and dripping and land was very hilly and it burnt the green grass on top of hillocks on uneven spots several times. This was for rushes too and i think IMO only on rougher ground/rushes id top them first and use quad sprayer- slow down or use hand lance to big clumps an extra wetting and licker no good around boundaries/tight corners/where rushes around rock/ sod walls etc

johngalway

You know, walking around earlier today I actually had the same thought about rough ground and say the mid part of the roller brushing stuff I didn't want brushed. Still a bit of thinking to do but I believe I'm getting closer to something useful

Have you any more info about this foam type wick, like a sponge is it?

I've a few different ideas about regulating the wetter flow, I'd like to keep it basic and gravity fed mind.

Regarding the frame, I'm thinking lightweight and adjustable and that'll require a fair bit of thinking and maybe make up a little model if I feel adventurous

This isn't going to be towed behind anything so it won't be hugely wide and certainly won't be heavy. Maneuverability is important to me. Dripping is something I'd like to avoid at all costs.

Bodacious

johngalway wrote: »

You know, walking around earlier today I actually had the same thought about rough ground and say the mid part of the roller brushing stuff I didn't want brushed. Still a bit of thinking to do but I believe I'm getting closer to something useful

Have you any more info about this foam type wick, like a sponge is it?

I've a few different ideas about regulating the wetter flow, I'd like to keep it basic and gravity fed mind.

Regarding the frame, I'm thinking lightweight and adjustable and that'll require a fair bit of thinking and maybe make up a little model if I feel adventurous

This isn't going to be towed behind anything so it won't be hugely wide and certainly won't be heavy. Maneuverability is important to me. Dripping is something I'd like to avoid at all costs.

well the carpet on this one had become frayed and an area had started to come away and majority of drip was at this section but it was still too wide and roller would touch top of hillocks regardless and prob would be grand in a big flat field of rushes but you'd still have to spray the headlands with hand lance

johngalway

Bodacious wrote: »

well the carpet on this one had become frayed and an area had started to come away and majority of drip was at this section but it was still too wide and roller would touch top of hillocks regardless and prob would be grand in a big flat field of rushes but you'd still have to spray the headlands with hand lance

If I was to use something like carpet, I reckon I'd rivet it to the roller. Wear is the reason, rivets can be easily drilled out, and the carpet replaced again.

Six foot roller would likely do me, don't think it'd be practical for me to go any bigger considering the land. There are a couple of fields that would not be a problem, but the majority demands the smaller more maneuverable approach methinks.

I'll also have spraying to do on top of licking/wiping.

Bodacious

johngalway wrote: »

If I was to use something like carpet, I reckon I'd rivet it to the roller. Wear is the reason, rivets can be easily drilled out, and the carpet replaced again.

Six foot roller would likely do me, don't think it'd be practical for me to go any bigger considering the land. There are a couple of fields that would not be a problem, but the majority demands the smaller more maneuverable approach methinks.

I'll also have spraying to do on top of licking/wiping.

Ah you're grand so if you doing a combination of both. But a licker alone wouldn't do it all for me anyway.I have ferns to do now ina woodland area in July (asulox) and i could do with a licker and have her set up high but again there will be areas in around trees/corners/hillocks/sodwalls/ close to drains/fences etc that licker just wont get complete coverage so find that for me on rough ground the quad boom sprayer and handlance will cover all bases

johngalway

I'll be much the same in that I'll also be facing obstacles and practicalities which mean some areas will get spray, some will get licked/wiped. A big advantage for me in regards to the weedwiper is I'm not going to be hauling large volumes of water as I would be if I was confined to using a sprayer. This is important because not only is the land rough and we're lacking a quad (sighs) but some of it is also difficult to reach from the road with equipment. So one of the factors to the very forefront of my thinking is ease of use, ground driven roller and gravity fed dripper = no need for battery/motor = save weight, bicycle wheels achieve much the same thing once I get the frame weight correct and don't end up busting tyres :pac:

Had I a quad, and the type of land which would be perfect for a wider licker, then the design I'd have in mind would probably be very different

reilig

Resurecting this thread. It will probably be most interesting to JohnGalway.

On my travels this week I met a guy with a home made wick weedlicker. It consisted of a piece of 4 inch sewerage pipe about 6ft long. Caps on either end. A filling point on the top. 6 wicks approx 1ft long connested to the pipe at 1ft spaceings. It was mounted on a light trolly with large wheels which he could easily push up and down hills. The mix flows from it by gravity and soaks through the wicks with no drip. The main wiper part of it looked something like this:

http://www.mazacze.com.pl/foto6e.html

He recons that he bought all the fittings for it in a local hardware for less than €70. It was a simple diy job to put together. It carries about 10l of weedkiller mix - enough to do 3 or 4 acres at a time. He had to buy the wicks for it from Amazon, but they were less than €15 in total.

Its a very simple idea, but very effective. It puts a cheap weed licking solution in the hands of any farmer - no matter how big or small.

Fries-With-That

Open the page and there are several different types of weedlicker pictured.

The easiest one for a DIY effort would be the one on the bottom right of the of the page.

http://smuckermfg.net/Documents/2011%20Weed%20Wiper%20Prices.pdf

Bike wheels,5 gallon drum and a few pipes you could buy foam from an upholstery company.

Build Frame for wheels and holding tank.
Drill a series of holes in 2inch PVC waste water pipe.
Cap both ends of Pipe.
1/2 inch qualpex from 5gallon drum to waste pipe.
Wrap waste pipe in foam and cable tie into place.
Use a simple valve on qualpex to fill 2inch pipe.

Sugarbowl

Thinking of making our own weed licker from ideas above? Anyone that made one themselves successfully here? Any pics perhaps?

Who2

Sugarbowl wrote: »

Thinking of making our own weed licker from ideas above? Anyone that made one themselves successfully here? Any pics perhaps?

I was intending to build one from scratch with my own tweak on design. After all the chopping and changing I ended up I just ordered one, from a crowd in Carlow. By the time you buy all the bits and pieces , a few failed trial and errors and your own time added in, you'll find it's cheaper buy a good one, if the home made one doesn't work right you won't be inclined to use it.