Apr 27 2010Looks Dangerous: DIY Automated Lawnmower
This is a video of an automated lawnmower. Well, technically this is a picture FROM a video of an automated lawnmower, so you're gonna have to hit the jump to actually see the thing in action. Anyway, to make your own auto-mower like the one in the picture from the video all you have to do is tie a string to it and wrap it around a stump or something similar with a little girth to it. Then tape the throttle bar down and you're good to go. Just don't forget the string part. Because I did and next thing you know I'm watching a runaway lawnmower plow through Ms. Jenkin's flowerbed. You know what I told her? Deer ate all her flowers. She bought it too -- old bag's crazy as shit.
Hit it for a short video of the potential disaster.
The Lazy Cheapskate's Automated Lawnmower [gizmodo]
Thanks to Greg and I Swear To God This F***ing Crossword Puzzle, one of whom sounds angry. Greg, is there something you want to talk about?
Reader Comments
1. hotdog - April 27, 2010 5:31 PM
DON't try this at home...
2. Slap Happy Tuna - April 27, 2010 5:33 PM
i just srap a chainsaw to my roomba...
3. aqua-tough - April 27, 2010 5:38 PM
That's so crazy it just might work!
4. TRIGGER - April 27, 2010 5:45 PM
what could possibly go wrong....
5. maddog - April 27, 2010 5:51 PM
Pretty sure that's a push mower... and you have to PUSH it, so unless it has some trickery that normal push mowers don't then I call bs. Tis a good idea though.
6. they're real and they spectacular - April 27, 2010 5:53 PM
It mowed the lawn in a spiral, it's art! Extremely dangerous and stupid, yet I still want to try it. This is what comes from watching so many episodes of Mythbusters.
7. Haddie - April 27, 2010 5:54 PM
I was flying into a grass airstrip in Indiana about 10 years ago, and the automated airfield phone line warned me to be cautious of "Mowing Operations" at the site.
They were doing the same thing, only with a GARDEN TRACTOR!
Never did go back.
8. Cameron - April 27, 2010 6:01 PM
@5 - I guess the phrase "self-propelled" doesn't mean anything to you? Jesus.... where the hell have you been? Self-propelled push mowers have been around for decades!!
You must feel pretty embarrassed.
9. ET - April 27, 2010 6:04 PM
@ 5 its "black magic" tamed
10. Mr. cow - April 27, 2010 6:08 PM
Moo
11. BL - April 27, 2010 6:14 PM
Wow. Someone actually took an "invention" from a children's book from the 80's or so (The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald) and applied it to reality.
12. Peterman - April 27, 2010 6:14 PM
now I don't have to choose between mowing the lawn and sitting around in my underwear... I can do both. Such a timely discovery.
13. Jaja - April 27, 2010 6:14 PM
@5 MAD DOG!
BUT I BLEW YOU UP! I SWEAR TO GOD I DID!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Played TC3 for over 260hrs in my life -suicide-
14. Thumperchica - April 27, 2010 7:02 PM
Can't wait for this to backfire and we'll have a great video...
15. Danny - April 27, 2010 7:18 PM
@5 Have you heard about the rainbow conspiracy? It'll blow your mind.
16. ~zeus~ - April 27, 2010 8:53 PM
yes, but can it make doughnuts
17. melulu - April 27, 2010 11:50 PM
Isn't this exactly the kind of wacky invention that is a catalyst for several kids being 'shrunk', I'm pretty sure there's a movie about it, where some kid sets up an automated lawn mower, and in his ensuing free time decides it would be wise to play with a shrink-ray?
18. J - April 27, 2010 11:52 PM
Sorry to get all "Sheldon" on you but you cant just wrap it around a stump or just anything. Too thin (like a stake) and it would take forever to finish. Too big and the spiral would be too direct and it would miss heaps of grass.
@5, my grandmother had a self propelled mower......do you live in a cave???
19. Forevergogo - April 28, 2010 1:01 AM
OH EM GEE!
An invisible mexican! SO COOL!
20. D-RoK - April 28, 2010 1:43 AM
@19 So very,very wrong, yet so very, very funny.
21. antmattmn - April 28, 2010 2:02 AM
@ 19
LMFAO. You win!
22. Marcus - April 28, 2010 5:16 AM
How original.
I guess he'll be discovering fire next then or maybe even inventing the written word.
23. JADE - April 28, 2010 9:04 AM
See this is what happens when rednecks have to much time on their hands.............just sayin
24. MadManDan - April 28, 2010 10:36 AM
@19 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, this is great except for .... where .... what the hell .... where the fuck is my cat.....
25. Mr.Q - April 28, 2010 11:03 AM
Not new. I remember seeing it in a movie about 10 years ago.
26. its just math - April 28, 2010 12:14 PM
@18; just make sure that the circumference of the central anchor is somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0 times the width of the cutting path of the mower.
27. me - April 28, 2010 12:21 PM
@19 i am mexican and that is one of the best jokes i have ever heard. thank you!
28. blue mcniel - April 28, 2010 3:05 PM
oooooh, how 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids.'
29. Zippy - April 29, 2010 11:30 PM
@23 you're wrong, rednecks aren't that smart
30. Alex - May 12, 2010 4:54 AM
This is straight out of Frankenhooker.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099611/