Developing a rubbish picker-upper
This image is of people fishing off the sandspit at a local beach. We have an amazing natural resource here but we often find that people who enjoy this wonderful environment themselves are quite happy to leave rubbish behind when they leave.
Nick Baker, Dannii Lee and Ross Eveleens are developing a machine to help clear away rubbish on our beaches and farmland. Our Inquiry is to make the first off road RUBBISH PICKER UPPER out of an old ride on lawn mower. It will have a cage-like frame on the back to hold a large see-through barrel which will contain all of the rubbish. Instead of having a blade at the bottom of the mower we are going to remove that and attach a sucking unit. This will be hooked up to the barrel and make a vacuum inside it.
We came up with this idea because we realised how the beach and paddocks around our area get so full of rubbish and no-one picks it up. We went on the internet to look at other designs of off road rubbish picker uppers and there were none, at least none that have been published yet. In the end we looked at other designs and figured that a lawnmower with a vacuum unit on it would be perfect.
We plan to build the cage first and then put the barrel in. After that we will remove the blade and then, finally, we'll attach the vacuum unit. This will be the most troublesome because we will have to cut the mower itself and then force the unit into tight areas. We will have to make sure we get the unit into the best position for strong suction, without making it vulnerable to being hit by anything else. This will be our prototype which we'll trial and probably re-design several times. We hope it will be useful for keeping uneven ground clear of rubbish.
Kevin Baker has recently joined our school and is the newest member of our group.
Nick Baker, Dannii Lee and Ross Eveleens are developing a machine to help clear away rubbish on our beaches and farmland. Our Inquiry is to make the first off road RUBBISH PICKER UPPER out of an old ride on lawn mower. It will have a cage-like frame on the back to hold a large see-through barrel which will contain all of the rubbish. Instead of having a blade at the bottom of the mower we are going to remove that and attach a sucking unit. This will be hooked up to the barrel and make a vacuum inside it.
We came up with this idea because we realised how the beach and paddocks around our area get so full of rubbish and no-one picks it up. We went on the internet to look at other designs of off road rubbish picker uppers and there were none, at least none that have been published yet. In the end we looked at other designs and figured that a lawnmower with a vacuum unit on it would be perfect.
We plan to build the cage first and then put the barrel in. After that we will remove the blade and then, finally, we'll attach the vacuum unit. This will be the most troublesome because we will have to cut the mower itself and then force the unit into tight areas. We will have to make sure we get the unit into the best position for strong suction, without making it vulnerable to being hit by anything else. This will be our prototype which we'll trial and probably re-design several times. We hope it will be useful for keeping uneven ground clear of rubbish.
Kevin Baker has recently joined our school and is the newest member of our group.
