I've got some wild Parsnip on the property
that I really need to get rid of, and I've been using
these pruners to cut it off
and then pick it up and move it onto a wheelbarrow
so that I'm gathering seeds. But, I was thinking
I should actually make something with a pair of pruners
on the end of a long pole along with some kind of gripper
so I can just, on the end of the poll,
grab it and dump it onto the wheelbarrow.
And thinking about how I would make the mechanism
to close this, I was inspired
by this mechanism for a pruner
and then it occurred to me why don't I just use that pruner.
The only thing I still need is something to also grip
the stem of it so that when I cut it off,
I can then just hold it over the wheelbarrow and let it go.
I just traced out and cut out a hook to lay on top of this here
And then I need some kind of gripper.
And just trying out different geometries,
this seems to work. But I need to have
a hook on here for pulling it on here
more out this way, so this part will also be out of plywood.
This is been a lot of trial and error that I didn't all film
but this part now fits here.
And it grips like so, and then there's gonna be
an extra bit of jaw for it to grip against.
And then I have another layer here
and this piece, that goes on top here,
to give this part more support.
This lever needs a spring, on the end here,
and I just cut a slot in here where the spring fits
in there like that, and then a screw,
and that allows that spring to pivot on here as this is pulled.
Now, the top part that goes on here has a little bit
of a notch carved out here and that gives the lever
a little bit of slack so it doesn't get jammed
in between those pieces.
I now have the gripper attached to the pruner sheer
and works like this and it closes
with this spring here, which is tied to the main string
so that when I pull the string to shear,
that tightens this spring and forces the jaw closed,
once I've cut, and then to make sure that it opens again,
I've got this bolt here which hits this part here
when it opens all the way and that forces it open.
I got myself a Thistle, which is not the target species,
but I figure a good test.
I'm just sealing it with a bit of spray varnish so hopefully
the noxious Wild Parsnips sap won't soak into the wood.
So this is actually Burdock that I'm using it on.
Wild Parsnip is much more dangerous and I need to take
much more precaution, which kind of interferes
with filming, and I just want to test this device
before I get too much of this Wild Parsnip sap on it.
This thing worked as intended but testing it for about
half an hour, I found it was much too heavy to be used
at the end of a long stick and the other problem with it
was with the hook facing backwards
I'd have to get into the weeds and hook and that was difficult
and also some of this stuff on the end of it would get
entangled with the weeds. So realistically,
I should make something with this thing after all
that's more forward facing and lighter.
Except when I got sidetracked with other projects
and in the meantime, the Wild Parsnip went to seed
and I tried to gather it up, but probably spreading the seeds.
So what I did instead is I used this contraption,
and I used that to burn off the seeds.