Had some fun today as I started to plan my 2023 Garden. Each year I steal some of the good soil to fill in some of my Irish wolfhound excavations and need to replenish it in the garden and I thought it would be nice after I add some loose soil to start with some level surface. In the CNC world we actually call this “farming the Spoil board” to get a meticulous parallel surface to the router bit or laser. We use a large router bit and go up and down with1/2 step over to ensure level surface to start a piece of work from. Well I didn’t need the thousandth of an inch tolerance here but what I wanted to see how I could engineer a solution that didn’t wreck the Farmbot arm. I cut a piece of good cardboard, and attached it to the universal tool mount with a rubber band that would allow the plow to bend if there was too much resistance. Figure if I make a tool to have it spring supported to fold if soil resistance is to much. I only pushed 5-3mm on each turn and ran it over a number of times, now I have an even level surface to start planting from. Yes, I know the hand rake is close by in the garage but then so is the watering can and I am a geek…
The rubber band originally had a stick to tie together but needed to tighten it up so a part from the hose was used dont judge …
Was thinking to make it much narrower, with aluminum, and a spring folding mechanism from the top with adjustable resistance, being narrower it will not create as big of a force on the UTM arm/gantry. and what the heck 75 mm with a step over of 33% would be 48 passes for 5mm scrapping depth, and is easily programmed.
the magnet attachment offers too little resistance to the dragging force. It’s a balance about how much the arm/gantry can put up without damage and the movement of “loose” dirt. hence the weird rubber band contraption. I am putting some plans in fusion 360 for aluminum parts and a release mechanism and springs for a plow to fold under x amount of force. all this ,however, my day job has me on the road again so it may be some time.
I need to warn that the gantry and Z-Axis components were not designed to do soil plowing as you have shown in the video. Although in your video, you are not moving significant amounts of soil, and you are not getting motor stalls, this type of plowing actions can create a torque force upon the cross slide and the Z-Axis components.
You may consider reducing the size of the plow to minimize the forces, or adding a brush to the rotary tool to achieve the same soil effect. You could do well to brush the entire soil surface with a wire brush mounted into the rotary tool.
Having given the warning, it is good to see these creative ideas posted on the forum and we want to encourage people to try new things with the FarmBot.
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