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Self-Mowing Lawn

Even better than a robotic lawnmower!
  (+5, -2)
(+5, -2)
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against]

Sprinkler head like devices are buried under the ground, and whenever the lawn needs to be mowed, the user presses a button on a central control panel. This triggers the first set of heads to pop up, and unwind a certain amound of cutting string, such as that used in Weed Eaters. The heads spin, cutting the grass within a certain radius of the head. The string reels in, and the heads retract back. Then, another set of heads pops up, and cuts the grass in another area, and so on and so on. The different sets are to prevent the different cutting strings from colliding with each other.
BinaryCookies, Jul 26 2002

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       what about the grass cuttings?
yamahito, Jul 26 2002
  

       [Yamahito]'s right. There'd need to be a fanlike device.
watermelancholy, Jul 26 2002
  

       Hopefully the other heads would cut up the other clippings, forming a mulching device, or the heads could also have a vacuum orifice that sucked up the clippings...the vacuum pump would have to be pretty strong, though.
BinaryCookies, Jul 26 2002
  

       I'd hate to be a random small animal that walks across when the device is in motion. Neutral vote for now.
kaz, Jul 26 2002
  

       Hopefully, the device would also incorporate some laser sensors that would detect an animal, child, or toy left in the yard. The noise would probably deter most animals anyway.
BinaryCookies, Jul 26 2002
  

       Hmmmm... possibly if the "string" was a "\" in cross section instead of a "o," (presuming clockwise rotation), it could provide enough lift to blow the grass cuttings upwards. If this effect was balanced perfectly, the cuttings would be continuously mulched, providing the grass with plenty 'o' goodness whithout allowing its height free reign. I think that's (kinda) the way the robotic lawnmowers dispose of the cuttings.
yamahito, Jul 26 2002
  

       What [yamahito] said. Have the head rise up to a decent height (12"?), start spinning, then slowly work its way down....
phoenix, Jul 26 2002
  

       Or you could grow saw grass, and then with a big fan, make it whip back and forth to cut itself.
FarmerJohn, Jul 26 2002
  

       I'm busting a gut here, UnaBubba.
Shouldn't the device somehow shoot out large amounts of pigeon food moments before impact, I mean mowing?
thumbwax, Jul 27 2002
  

       Now THAT, I'd vote for.. ;op   

       As it is, I think the funniest possible flaw of the system would be that it may easily be tangled up by over-long grass, and burn out..
yamahito, Jul 27 2002
  

       was that before or after he painted everything green?
po, Jul 27 2002
  


 

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