Building boom sprayer w/foam marker

[PineRidge]

Been following more than a couple of TBNers that have successfully made their own 3-point boom sprayers. Figured after a bit of scribbling on pieces of paper that is was as good as time for us as any to start an in between project. (in between summer and winter) And since I'm not overly excited about adding colorant in the mix to show where one has already sprayed thought I might try my hand at a different twist, making a foam generator to mark, using foam to easily see the areas that have already been sprayed. Since we're going someplace we've never gone before (constructing the foam generator) we will be doing a bit of experimentation and moving a little slower on this project so bear with us.

And if by chance you own or know of someone else that owns a foam generator, and care to share a bit of information chime in, cause I do have questions.

Since I try my best to recycle wherever possible and at the same time save a few bucks. My next door neighbor gave me a couple of rusty but otherwise solid pieces of steel gate made from 1" x 1" tube and that's where we will be starting.

The gate just as we got it.

 

[PineRidge]

Here's the rusty gate in various stages of being cut up and reshaped.

 

[PineRidge]

After I tack welded the 3 boom sections TBN member rswyan welded them up for me. His mig/tig setup is a lot more forgiving on thin stock than my old tombstone.

This is one of the welded boom end sections having the welds smoothed.

 

[PineRidge]

And I needed to fab up 4 hinges from angle iron so the boom could collapse when it strikes an immovable object or for storage purposes.

 

[PineRidge]

Here's the electrolysis process that I'm using to strip the rust and accumulated coats of paint from the old steel. It works well and without a lot of work on my part (I like that).

You can see some before and after pictures of the steel as it comes out of the soda bath, including the bath itself.

If you want to know more about the process you can read about it here electrolysis

 

[djw250]

That's pretty slick Mike. I've never seen rust and paint removed that way before. Keep posting, I'm interested to see your progress and final product.

 

[Gumby6]

Wow, I have always dreaded the labor involved to de-rust my scrap metal finds for projects...this will now be the method of choice! Thanks for the info.

 

[PineRidge]

Guys this is the first time I have used this method as well. It was recommended to me by rswyan and I'm still thanking Randy for the time that he's saved me.

 

[deerhunterf350]

How long did it set in the Solution for the end result?

 

[srjones]

Cool project and pictures.

Regarding the foam generator, what kind of system were you thinking of building?

You've probably already thought of this, but what a system that uses inexpensive (cheap) shaving cream like Barbasol that is mounted at end of each boom. Then, 12V DC from the tractor would operate a gear/cam system that would periodically depress the dispenser.

The advantage (if this works) is that this could built very cheaply. Some wire, a switch, some hobby motors and plastic gears, and something to mount the cans. I'm guessing I could build the system for under $20.

Some potential disadvantages might be getting the cam system to work so that it dispenses the right amount (not to much or too little). Also, I'm not sure how long shaving cream would hang around in the open air nor do I know what it would do to grass.. Finally, if you have a large area to spray, it's unclear if two cans would make it.

It might look a little weird but Barbasol makes a variety of colors that would go well with any color of tractor. http://www.barbasol.com/index.html and at about $1.50 a can you'd have to do a lot of spraying to get to the starting point of the commercial systems.

Thoughts?