Ugly, Awesome, Lawn Roller DIY

[xyster101]

I wanted a lawn roller. What is it? It is a heavy roller to flatten the frost humps in your yard, gravel, dirt, anything. Tractor Supply has a big one for $250 that gets poor reviews, the weld seams break.

I built my own out of old bedframes, a sonotube, black pipe, and concrete. I have $70 invested in materials if you count paint.

First I drew up what I wanted to make (and then proceeded not to follow my plans):



Then I stood the sonotube up, made wood ends for it and put the black pipe. It held 5 bags of concrete mix.



I laid out the rough pieces and it seemed simple enough.



But I never make anything simple in the end. I added replacable bushings because in my mind I will wear out the connection (they will never wear out):



Almost ready for a test run (I eye balled that hitch poorly) :



Of course the 400 pounds is not heavy enough because here in NY we have not had any spring rain, so it needed more weight. I added a rack to hold buckets of anything:





I filled those buckets with water but had no lids, so I used some OSB. I ended up watering the lawn as I rolled.





It works ok on the dry ground, I just need some rain to soften up the lawn. The welds are ugly as I was in a rush and I did go back to fill in my tacks. I bought a Hobart MIG welder back in Sept and this is my first real build with it.

How does one remove all the white flux dust from every nook and cranny before paint?

 

[srmofo]

wire brush removes the white stuff.

Turn up the heat and clean the metal before welding and your results will be better, however that epoxy on the bed frames is some tough **** to remove so I dont blame you too much.

Pretty good idea, my yard is lumpy as hell too, Im just too lazy to deal with it. Although with those ankle twisters out there Im might have to one day

 

[jstroede]

I have a very similar one, but it is narrower than yours. I built the frame out of some scrap 2x4's and used a piece of angle iron to make the "hitch". I have had it a couple of years and it works great. I originally built it to compact the soil after I recontoured the back yard, but I have used it for overall smoothing out as well. Nice job.

John

 

[VictorBravo]

Yours is pretty nice. Not as ugly as mine. I saw this thread and had to go out in the dark and snap a photo.

Two 5 gallon buckets welded together with an axle stuck through, and then filled with gravel, left over thinset, and miscellaneous metal scraps. The axle bearings are simply some pipe welded to the frame, packed with grease.

I used it to roll 2 acres of blue bunch wheat grass I planted a couple years ago. Did the job fine. I used it again this spring on another acre.

 

[Colin HD]

LOVE IT!!!
My kind of homebrew fixing.
LOVE IT!!

 

[laser3kw]

Nice job! I am all for the build it, test it, improve it, finish it method. I wonder how the concrete will hold up when in direct contact with the ground. I imagine if you pull it over a gravel driveway it may want to chip

Tractor Supply has a big one for $250 that gets poor reviews, the weld seams break.

I have had one for several years. I think I paid $150 back then. Never had any trouble with welds breaking. But then I drain it and stand it on end every winter. I wish I had more weight. It does a marginal job of flattening even when the soil is soggy. The extra weight rack would be a nice add-on.

 

[y'sguy]

Not bad. Next time I suggest an old water heater salvage tank. Or a good use for an old used compressor tank, since they aren't worth fixing usually. You can just fill either one with water.
And then one day you will be wishing someone will borrow it and never return it, when it's in the way. Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[gungatim]

I've seen a lot of those at farm auctions, but never one that was done in a sono-tube. great idea, nice and smooth. usually they are pretty rough. you put any wire mesh in the 'crete?

 

[xyster101]

you put any wire mesh in the 'crete?

I did not, didn't even think about it and I should have. I had a small piece laying around too. Oh well.

 

[Homebody]

Make another one and weld it to that one flipped around and you'd have tha makings of Fred Flintstones car! Great parade item and it'll keep your legs strong.

 

[R.Anderson]

The roller looks good to me its the cider block and OSB that makes it look ugly IMO what about using concrete instead of water to the filled buckets, more weight and no splashing. Going to have to copy this idea.

Make another one and weld it to that one flipped around and you'd have tha makings of Fred Flintstones car! Great parade item and it'll keep your legs strong.

Uff da!


.

 

[Bruce4310TX]

This turned out nice and i need one.

 

[Lippyp]

You could just make a plywood box to fit the frame and fill it with sand or concrete. Make three small ones and add a loop of rebar out the top to make it easier to unload them.

 

[kabinenroller]

A number of years ago I found a cylinder in a scrap yard and brought it home thinking it would make a great lawn roller. I fabricated a steel tube frame and made some adaptors that were welded to the cylinder. I wanted the roller to be able to roll without too much resistance so I adapted AMC front disc brake spindles. (They bolt to the hub on the car so they are easy to adapt)
The cylinder is 48" wide and 30" in diameter so I figure it will hold over 200 gallons. The upright tubes in the back of the roller are designed so when emty I can stand the unit upright for storage and the cylinder will not touch the ground.

 

[gungatim]

You could just make a plywood box to fit the frame and fill it with sand or concrete. Make three small ones and add a loop of rebar out the top to make it easier to unload them.

before I put concrete on top for weight, I would think about using something you can fill with water then empty instead. when they are weighted like that, they are super heavy to move around when you need to, but if you use a big rubbermade storage container or something, emptying the water makes it easier to move when not using it...I had one once someone filled with sand, was a pain to drag around when it was in the way...

 

[tarbellb]

Um.... sorry in advance for a noob question.

Whats a lawn roller for? - flatten a lawn, less bumpy?

 

[k-os]

Um.... sorry in advance for a noob question.

Whats a lawn roller for? - flatten a lawn, less bumpy?

Check the very first sentence in the original post.

 

[Lippyp]

I picked up an old factory built 36" roller cheap from ebay. It just needed a bit of TLC, welded up a crack around one of the spindles, wire wheeled it and gave it some paint and cleaned and greased all the bearings and it works great. Until I found this one I was also contemplating building something.

 

[volleyball]

I am thinking if you use the wire mesh and more steel, you could build a box on top and then just load it with whatever you have laying around.
I am thinking that you might be replacing the roller if you load it up and you roller over some harp rock causing the concrete to break. Not removing the sonotube would have extended its life.

 

[xyster101]

Did not evrn think of keeping the sono tube on there. Figured it would just fall off in the yard somewhere.

 

[Lippyp]

What would be good would be a length of plastic water or gas main pipe. The gas stuff they use over here can be pretty big and that filled with concrete would give a nice heavy roller but protect the concrete.

 

[volleyball]

After all this, I am not a big fan of rollers. Maybe once ever 5 years or so. If you roll, you compact. Then you need to aerate to combat the compaction. Vicious cycle. I would think one of those square tampers would spot work better.
But I am a fan of a natural lawn, not a perfect blanket of grass.

 

[FJ 432]

Um.... sorry in advance for a noob question.

Whats a lawn roller for? - flatten a lawn, less bumpy?

Don't see it here at all.

 

[sublime68charger]

Don't see it here at all.

I'm just joking as I don't know you at all

That being said after looking at your location

The words scrolled through my head

That's cause your 2 busy smoking the grass instead of rolling it

I didn't say it much like inhaling
But thought I wouls share non the less.

 

[Kevin54]

I roll about every two years, or if I'm in the mood to knock down and compact the mole hills in the pasture.

With that being said, and the OP posted up a TSC roller.......AVOID TSC ROLLERS!!!! I have one and have welded on it and welded on it. One weak area is where the axle of the roller goes through the side arms. No bearings, just a solid hardened bushing. This will wear. I do see where the side arms now are form a little as previously they were a flat piece of steel that flexed too much causing the bushing to wear and come loose. Then there is the axle itself that goes through the drum. The welds break in that area causing it to leak. They are not bad for the price for the size, which I believe the large one is 900lbs., but they only last just a couple of seasons. For the money, one is probably farther ahead if you just hire someone to roll the lawn. That way, you don't have a roller sitting around for 12 months outside, and you are going to wear the roller out in a few years anyways. The money to hire someone would be cheaper than buying a roller. Or get a few people to go together and buy one and rotate around who keeps it each year.