ohiofarmer 3,276 #1 Posted May 6, 2023 Hey guys, I thought there could be some interest in an easy to build sprayer. It starts with any lightweight mower frame you have kicking around the barn. When you buy a fifteen gallon sprayer with a single wand with a heavy duty gun, it's almost there. Use an angle iron to clip the axles on at a balance point of your choosing . Mount a bar on the back and purchase your desired nozzles and barbed nozzle fittings. Two bolts holds it on. Finally,bolt another angle to the frame with two more bolts. Six bolts out and store it on a shelf. It looks like a miniature honey wagon. The little pump it came with will run four nozzles, but with a longer pipe and a better pump, you could add two more and do at least twelve feet at a time. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ohiofarmer 3,276 #2 Posted May 6, 2023 I always put a tank return tee and valve to reduce pressure to the doesy tops if needed and also agitate the mix in the tank .Just drill a tight fitting hole for the return hose 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RandyLittrell 3,884 #3 Posted May 7, 2023 I have been wanting to do this, can you share what nozzles you bought? Thanks! Randy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ohiofarmer 3,276 #4 Posted May 9, 2023 (edited) On 5/7/2023 at 1:19 PM, RandyLittrell said: I have been wanting to do this, can you share what nozzles you bought? Thanks! The nozzles I have on it right now are over fifty years old and brass. The plastic green nozzles by TeeJet are a very fine mist and the weather has to be perfect. Then they get coarser spray with brown , and then sort of a droplet size with a specialty grey nozzle that works great in the wind.what you need to do is to pick a gear that you want to spray in---lets say high range second gear.Run the sprayer over some dry concrete to establish the width of spray pattern or width. go for even distribution by experimenting with nozzle width and all that. Just remember that the wind resistant nozzles will take more water per square foot. If you use twice as much water to spray your yard, you will use half as much spray in each tank. . Now fill your sprayer and record the time it takes to spray the entire thing out. Now you will get the coverage per tank from calculating how many units or square feet per unit of time that sprayer puts out. You can calculate output per hour on the time it took to go 100 feet.Lets say you go 100 feet in thirty seconds For example you are spraying and the spray pattern is twelve feet.. It takes you thirty seconds to travel 100 feet or spray 1200 square feet..that means you are putting out .826 acres in fifteen minutes. If the spray manufacturer is calling for a quart per acre, you need about 26 ounces of product to a full tank Do not think that more spray is better because the weeds need time to die down to the roots. too high a spray concentration will burn down the leaves too fast and the plant will be back before end of summer. Two lighter applications a few weeks apart is also a good way to get great results. Most of my yard did fine on one application, but one section took two applications. Remember there are 43560 square feet per acre. Also, check my math. I am old and tired and do make mistakes.If you do get a one GPM pump, you will definitely need to dump some pressure back to the tank .Four small orifice nozzles are not enough outlet for such a pump. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=teejet+flat+spray+nozzle&atb=v212-1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dxv3KatJ4Il4 Edited May 9, 2023 by ohiofarmer Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RandyLittrell 3,884 #5 Posted May 9, 2023 Thank you for the info!!! Randy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ohiofarmer 3,276 #6 Posted May 10, 2023 On 5/9/2023 at 9:32 AM, RandyLittrell said: Thank you for the info!!! Randy You're welcome. One other thing. I mount the nozzles straight to the rear ( horizontal) so they spread more evenly. That way they can stay close to the ground and the fan still spreads apart. My yard has areas where one side of the spray boom can dip very close to the ground 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites