Topband: Edger for burying ground radials ? VE9AA Method

[Mike & Coreen Smith]

On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:39:20 -0600 Ed Stallman <n5dg at airmail.net> writes:
> I would like to know if anyone has used an edger to cut small groves
>
> in the ground for burying radials ?
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I made a small edger blade for my lawn tractor....(yes, I know you said you 
don't own one, but perhaps you could borrow a neighbours for the 
afternoon?).  My idea also came from the ON4UN book, but with a lawn tractor 
at my disposal, well...read on>
What I did was this:

-Cut the lawn as short as humanly possible.

-Take one "wheel" off the deck of my mower.  These are the roundish plastic 
"wheels" that keep the deck from touching the ground.  Generally lawn 
tractors have 4 (or more).

-Replaced the "wheel" , which is mounted on a vertical shaft...with a very 
small metal rod (3/8" I think) which I had welded a small peice of flat 
metal to (that I sharpended on the bench grinder to for the "blade") 
(leading edge)..almost looks like a barbers straight razor with a round 
handle.

-on the trailing edge of the blade I simply taped a very small dia. white 
plastic water pipe (3/8" or 1/2" I think)...this is behind the blade and 
goes down into the ground ALMOST as deep as the blade/pipe.

-I did try different pipe sizes and blades and it's kind of ground 
dependant. (rocks, grass, holes, etc.)  I think it will work without a blade 
even if you are not able to weld...just take your metal pipe and flatten it 
with a large hammer.

-Through the plastic pipe I ran my #20AWG copper wire

-On top of the deck I had a small cardboard box weighted down with a roock, 
then with a 10lb roll of #20 in it. (3000' I think works out to-I 
forget)..The wire spool is supported by a long screwdriver punched 
horizontally through the box as an "axle" or armature for the spool to spin 
on. Less resistance the better ! #20 will break quite easily if anything 
gets hung up.

-I started off near the base of the tower, cut a short slot by hand...then 
went forward real slowly with the lawn tractor....my foot pushing down on 
the deck to keep the "blade" in the ground ...harder I pushed...further the 
wire went in.

You'll get the feel for how hard to push down right away.  Without pushing 
down, this method did not work for me.  I would GUESS I might have had 40 or 
50 lbs of force to keep the blade into the ground a few inches.

  It doesn't work as well in real rocky ground or ground that has real thick 
grass roots, but you can bury a 130' chunk of wire in perfect (lawn) 
conditions in less than a minute....obviously if you have to stop and clear 
roots off your blade, or move stubborn rocks that are preverntly your wire 
from being inserted in the trench, you are into more time.

I laid 23 radials in a couple hours....and my ground is very very rocky with 
almost no topsoil. No nails, staples or anything.
It's an old farmers field so you can imagine what I was up against !

On a real lawn you could concievably be done in under an hour.

All that being said; the following year I laid a bunch more on TOP of the 
lawn....I lost about 1/2 of them due to winter snow plowing and then mowing 
in the spring.  My ground is not perfectly flat, so with holes, humps and 
whatever, I would've needed 1000 staples, so I just suck it up and replace a 
few each year.  Mother nature takes care of 50% of them as the grass grows.

Either way works !

Mike VE9AA