12/22/2023 0 Comments Rake out brackets in signal web apiOne thing I did notice is that if you have fairly long grass it does snag a bit so it's best to use this on your yard after you've mowed the grass a bit low. Once everything is tighten down, attach your broom handle, throw down some dirt on your yard and push it with your rake. Tighten the bolts if necessary, once you start using the rake on dirt it's not as easy to re-tighten things because the hex holes get filled with dirt. Wiggle it around and test to see if anything is loose or if there is any flex. Making sure that the rake has no flex is important since this will be used to push dirt and soil around. Note: This pictures were taken before I did a final assembly so I didn't have washers installed. I forgot to take pictures while I was going through this process so I went back and took pictures later, but they should give you an idea of what needs to be done. Once the frame has been assembled try your best to make sure it's squared, I used the same piece of wood to check for squareness. Tighten the bolt down as much as you can with an impact driver or ratchet with the hex bit. Drill the holes on all 4 corners and insert the M5x20mm bolts in from the bottom and add the lock washer, washer, and nut on top. It is important to remember which piece is on top and which is on the bottom so you won't have misaligned holes. On my build have the 24" piece on top of the 12" piece. For this process I used a piece of scrap wood and laid down my aluminum in a right angle, from there I did my best to hold the two pieces down and slow drill until I hit the wood. completely flush against the frame which is what you want. After some testing I realized that with M8 holes the bolts sit almost. The first thing you want to do is drill M8 holes in the aluminum angles, the reason for M8 holes instead of M5 holes is due to the fact that counter sunk bolts don't sit very flush with 5mm holes. M8 and M5 drill bits Assembling the frame Note that you really only need 3 aluminum channels for my build, but it’s a good idea to have a spare on hand or if you want to have 4 channels on your rake:Ĥ x 24” x 1" x 1" x 0.062" Aluminum Channel 6063-T52 Extruded Architectural - Part #: 20189Ģ x 12” x 1" x 1" x 0.062" Aluminum Angle 6063-T52 - Part #: 17856Ģ x 24” x 1" x 1" x 0.062" Aluminum Angle 6063-T52 - Part #: 17856 I’m including the parts for the 1” as I think it’d be a better size. The easiest thing to do is to go to, copy and paste the part numbers into the search bar and select the lengths I listed below. I’m sure if you go to a local home improvement store it would be cheaper but you’ll have to cut the pieces to the correct length, I didn’t have the right tools to make the cuts at the time. I purchased all my aluminum pieces from, the cost came out to about $30. I eventually found something that worked and it works well. The most difficult thing to find was a swiveling hinge to attach the rake and handle to. The reason being that the holes needed are almost too big and it makes the 0.5” aluminum feel a little thin. If I could redo it, I would probably go with aluminum channels with a 1” base and 1” legs. I went with aluminum channels that were only 0.5” at the base with 0.5” legs. The thickness I decided to go with was 0.062” which I felt was sturdy enough and didn’t have much give at all. I decided to make my rake out of aluminum instead of stainless steel due to the fact that I am not a welder, it costs way more, and drilling through steel is a lot more difficult and making a mistake can be costly. After doing some crude drawings and searching online I was able to find a shop that sold almost everything I needed to make my own lawn leveling rake that was 24” x 12” for around $50. After looking around Reddit and a few other websites I realized that this rake was literally C channels and angles welded together. The next size up is 30” x 10 1/4” and costs $132 + shipping, which to me is ridiculous. The cheapest one lawn leveling rake I found on Amazon was around $55.99 and is only 16.5” x 12.2” with a 5’ handle. One of those tools is the Levelawn or Lawn Lute, essentially a flat tool that is used to help push and level top dressing. I’ve bought different tools and equipment to help me on this journey and as always I came across a few tools that I didn’t feel like were completely necessary and/or way over priced. I know that those goals are probably not going to be achievable quickly but I’m trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can at the moment. I’ve been amazed by the amount of work they put into their lawns and just how lush and green they are. I’ve been watching a lot of videos on Youtube by guys like Ryan Knorr, Connor Ward, Lawn Ginja, etc. My backyard is literally 350 sq ft so there isn’t much to care for. I started my journey into lawn care recently and by no means am I an expert or pro.
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