The Farm Hack River of Activity

I would love to see more photos/videos of this in action. What type of polymer did you opt for using for your soil type? Thanks.

Hi everyone!

I'm Chloe, a microengineering student from Switzerland. I've been WWOOFing a few times (short term) in England and Norway.

I came in contact with the Farm Hack community at the end of last year, when I was doing an internship in humanitarian engineering in southern India. My subject was to build a rice planting machine, and I decided to try a pedal-powered version based on a modified bicycle. The Culticycle was a great inspiration to my work but I decided to make something even simpler to build, focusing on having a tool that Indian women can easily use: most farm tools are made by and for men, and the local people I was working with are small women (1m50 or 4.9ft on average).

As my internship wasn't for a very long period (3 months) and our schedule was rules by various external events, we didn't manage to complete our testing of the prototype for the rice transplanter, which needed improving mainly in manufacturing quality. However, the tractor we built out of the bicycle could be used as a driving unit by other people who'd like to develop a simple pedal-powered tool, and I decided to share my designs: TricTrac - Tricycle Tractor

This is the first tool I publish, and I'm aware documentation could be more complete so all comments are welcome!

Cheers,
Chloe

 

There have been several of these out there through the years:

mysare.sare.org/sare_project/fne07-603/?page=final&view=print

http://www.readingeagle.com/berks-country/article/solar-powered-picking-...

http://localbanquet.com/stories/issues/2016/fall-2016-issue-38/item/craf...

as well as supine (sitting) versions.

<p> I, for one, am not really interested in projects that are just ideas with no prototype.</p> <p> Overall perhaps having tags</p> <ul> <li> Commercial&nbsp;</li> <li> Stage: Idea</li> <li> Stage: Planning</li> <li> Stage: Prototype</li> <li> Stage: Working</li> </ul> <p> And a search mechanism that can handle "Water -commercial &gt;Stage:Planning &nbsp;meaning I'm looking for water &nbsp;projects that aren't commercial but are more than at the planning stage.</p>

<p> If you want to have it here you should tell people how to build it.</p> <p> If you won't tell people how to build it, you can't claim open source licensing.</p> <p> Going to your website there are no plans, no instructions. &nbsp;In my book, you fail to meet the spirit of this site.</p>

<p> 1. &nbsp;Detail on the controller for the deicing cable.&nbsp;</p> <p> 2. &nbsp;9200 cubic inches of sand is somewhere between 5 and 6 cubic feet. &nbsp;Sand runs 150 lbs per cubic foot, increasing to 200 lbs /cuft if wet. &nbsp;This will require a heavier frame. &nbsp;I suspect taht this one, as diagrammed will sag and sink into the ground.</p> <p> Suggestion: &nbsp;Use 3 2x4's on edge under the bottom. &nbsp;Secure every 8" with 2" deck screws -- ceramic coated (green or grey, not yellow)&nbsp;</p> <p> For legs use doubled 2x4 and use 3 rows of 3. &nbsp;At attachment locations cut 16 x 16 right triangles of plywood to use as gusset joints.</p> <p> 3. &nbsp;The sand will get wet. &nbsp;Everything todo with gardening gets wet. &nbsp; Build your table with a 2" slant and have drain holes in one edge or corner.</p> <p> 4. &nbsp;Use coarse builders sand or even washed gravel if you don't want water to hang around inside.</p> <p> 5. &nbsp;The cable only needs to be held still while you put the gravel in. &nbsp;Duct tape or red tyvek sideing tape should work long enough for that, and has less chemical leaching.</p> <p> 6. &nbsp;You must use a weatherproof box for you connections. &nbsp;I would put the weatherproof box on a scrap of wood and put it under the germinator. &nbsp;If it's on a scrap, you can easily unfasten the scrap and bring it out to work on it. &nbsp;Being under the germinator will give in additional protection.</p> <p> 7. &nbsp;You must wire this through a ground fault interupter circuit. &nbsp;Otherside&nbsp;if a fault develops in that cable you could be pushing daiseys.</p> <p> Further directions and ideas.</p> <p> If the lid is easily removable, you can work from both sides.</p> <p> If you are off grid, putting the entire device on an array of black plastic barrels then wrapping that array with clear plastic may generate enough heat. &nbsp;If you do this, don't insulate the bottom.&nbsp;If you end up doing a lot of starts this may have advantages even if you are on the grid.</p> <p> You can achieve better temperature control if you separate the barrels from the germinator, (put the insulation back) and have a tiny pump to move warm water though tubes in the the sand.</p>

<p> The normal way I've seen this done is to fasten the lower edge of the plastic to a pipe, usually 2" waste water line with an internal glue in connector. &nbsp;A crank and one end rolls the plastic up. &nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> With this system I can see it getting loose in the wind. &nbsp;If it gets loose, it will tear on the spike.&nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> When the plastic is lowered what anchors it down?</p>

<p> Has anyone determined a good material for the fingers?&nbsp; Pourable plastics?&nbsp; Cut with saw, stamped from the walls of truck tires, etc?</p> <p> I really need to make some of these.&nbsp;</p> <p> &nbsp;</p> <p> God bless.</p>

I agree with @Joel_BC, this is a great post. I think it's worth studying the way the most recent https://www.facebook.com/Fietswiederss/ works. I think better than a rotary pedal mechanism. For example,

https://www.facebook.com/Fietswiederss/photos/ms.c.eJxFkdkNxDAIRDtaMYA5~...

(Difficult for me to find and link to the details because I get stopped by the facebook modals wanting me to sign up...lesson: don't publish your info that you want to share with the world on facebook.)

<p> So i just did something similar with an upright single glass front True brand pepsi display cooler that had bad compressor.. I put aquarium in bottom, filled iwth warm &nbsp;water, installed 100W&nbsp;adjustable aquarium heater, and took filter out of re-circulated&nbsp;box from aquarium just as an agitator for humidity... glass door faces east so gains benefit of morning sun, white insulated exteriors face south and west and north... I actually had to install an attic fan thermostat and block light from east&nbsp;to cool it because I cooked first round of seeds at 120 degrees for a day...Im amazed at how well it holds in our zone 4a Colorado Februarys</p>

<p> I made a flame weeder like this with 5 torch heads. It is 26 inches wide and i bent a sheet metal pan that is 30 inches wide to block the wind. it works good for 30 inch growing beds or for weeding the driveway.</p>

I'm quite new here. Think the idea is great, but the web page, especially the forum looks like a total mess. Perhaps a thorough cleanup would be necessary. Perhaps there's also some even more  cool new forum?