If you’ve spent much time among those involved in agriculture, chances are you’ve seen some pretty ingenious homemade contraptions. In many cases, these minor inventions are a matter of repairing something, but in other instances, like this “4-Gang Seed Sower,” it’s something new altogether.
Certainly there have been mechanical apparatuses for seeding land for a long, long time, but this is the first design that I know of that is made out of a plastic funnel. Inside of this seed-bearing funnel is a shaft that allows it to rotate when pulled in a sledge (AKA “sleigh”) assembly. Inside of this funnel-container are two round pieces of plywood. The first has holes drilled in such a way that the number of seeds that drop out when rotated are limited. The other piece of plywood keeps the seeds controlled when they drop. Four of these are stacked together to allow for faster seed dispersion than a single-funnel design.
In addition to showing off this clever mechanism, the video displays a wide variety of construction techniques that could be quite useful. The table saw setup to make round pieces around 0:30 is one I will have to remember, as well as the PVC bending technique using a heat gun seen around 3:30. Definitely use your own judgement with any new construction method!
On another note, I enjoyed the nice-looking dogs and horse in the video, although the number of rocks they have to deal with on their land would be frustrating! Of course, their videos about “what happens here on our little piece of land in the west of Ireland” wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if there weren’t some obstacles to overcome.
5 thoughts on “Sow Like a Pro: Make a 4-Track Seed Dropper”
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When I was 14 years old (IIRC), I invented a seed sower made from PVC with a funnel on top and a little arm that jutted out in front with an augur on it to make the next seed hole. I was already starting to get arthritis in my spine so this device allowed me to sow my garden without having to bend down. You would hold the tube over your hole, drop a seed in (from a little cup attached to the top of the tube), and then angle the tube away from you to augur the next hole. You then moved forward, covering and tamping the seeded hole with your foot as you moved, lining up the tube on the next hole you’d made. And so on.
I made a drawing of it and sent it to Mother Earth News. I was floored when they published my letter and design and had one of their professional illustrators re-draw it. I wish I still had the issue and could show off the first “maker project” I ever had published. I need to find someone with a MEN collection from the 70s.
Chief Executive of Yahoo! – Marissa Meyer , is recommending people to start freelancing from home… Something that I have been doing for over 2 years now. My profit, for this year alone is $53k so far and all I needed was nothing more than my laptop and several hrs of free time each week at home working online job over internet company, despite that i have a full-time employment beside it. Great thing is that even newbies, can get $50/hr with no trouble and the earnings can go even higher over time… This is where i started. dcl..
http://www.MakeaWish.ru.cm
I have DVD going back that far I think.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/store/product/mother-earth-news-archive-1970-2014-multiplatform-usb-drive
It would have been 73 or 74, I believe. I assume you can do a search? It would be a letter to the editor from “Kevin Maloof, Chester, VA” (don’t ask :-).
I’ll have to find the discs…