Monday, May 4, 2009

Re-Purposing 24 volt Black & Decker Electric Lawn Mower

I picked up a 24 volt Black & Decker electric lawn mower used at goodwill for 8 bucks last winter. I want to use the parts in an electric tadpole trike project and possibly as an Vietnamese style outboard on the sailboat. I've already converted the wheels and metal framing into a bike trailer. I tested the motor and batteries the other day and they seem to work fine. Still need to test out the electronics and salvaged charge controller. maybe it was fully functional before I tore it apart??? oh, well... sure don't need no lawn mower when you live on a sailboat that's for sure.

I was going to throw out the rest of the main body parts but I’m looking at how pretty all that red plastic looks. It how it would be great to re-propose it into a printable material and use it in a RepRap or Makerbot CNC machine. Worse case other than throwing it away is melt it down and CNC it into corner pieces on a Red Rep(St)Rap Machine. If I can re-use the plastic it’ll have re-purposed be about 95%+ of the original components.

Will post updates and hopefully pictures on the project later.

update 9/8/09 - I threw out the housing cause it was taking up too much room in storage. this project is on hold until I get the Makerbot up and going. The Bike trailer has come in handy a couple of times and I'm sure the motor will get some use eventually.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Wulf Design now on Twitter

Now using Twitter intermittently @wulfdesign
Will try and keep updates interesting and relevant.