Franken-mulcher!

I present to you, my latest creation...


I don't really have a good name for it, but it's essentially a stationary leaf vacuum/mulcher, as opposed to a mobile one.

After dealing with the leaves from my trees for 4 years, I got tired of hauling a heavy, noisy, vibrating leaf vacuum and having to constantly empty the messy cloth bag, I decided to make a stationary one that put the mulched leaves directly into a trash bag. Instead of taking the vacuum to the leaves and the carrying those leaves with you, now you bring the leaves to the vacuum and leave them in the can. No more sore shoulders for this lawn-boy.

Here how it works:
You put some leaves in from of the opening of the duct (a ready-made piece of sheet metal duct)...


...and it gets sucked up to the mulcher.

(Blogger was stupid and rotated my picture)
It just so happens that a 5" metal duct fits perfectly into the intake opening. I had to build a custom mount that would safely hold the mulcher in place while also depressing the safety button. The mulcher is held onto the mount with a clip that I bent up out of some spare sheet metal that I had laying around the shop from my last metalworking project.

The mulched leaves then exit through the outlet, thru a 90 elbow that is held onto the outlet with an adapter disc that I cut from some scrap 1/2" poplar, and into a 44 gallon trash can (I wanted a big trashcan so I wouldn't have to empty it as often).


To keep the trash can from blowing its top, I cut several holes in the top and covered the openings with some fiberglass window screen.

I was surprised to see that these openings let too much air come out, but the air being blown into the trashcan kicks up the mulched leave which then cover up the screens until a natural equilibrium is reached.

I tested out my new setup this past weekend, and it worked like a charm. The front yard didn't seem to take quite as long as it has in previous years, and I only had to stop 9 times to empty the trash can. With my old set up, I would have had to stop at least 4 times as many times since the standard bag on the vacuum is MUCH smaller than a normal yard trash bag. The other bonus is that my shoulders and back weren't fatigues from carrying around the vacuum and leaves all over my yard. I also didn't get covered in leaf dust since I didn't have that vacuum bag up against my body for several hours.

Does anyone know how to go about getting a patent?