Home made trail tools, what have you made?

Flow-Rider

Flow-Rider

Burner
Thought I would make a thread to help people and share ideas of homemade trail building tools. I enjoy tinkering with old scrap metal and repurposing old things to give them a new lease on life.

This is my little project where I make a multi-use trail hoe from an old scraped plough disk, got the inspiration from a product already on the market but I've tried to make it as simple and easily as possible with backyard friendly tools. It doesn't take a lot of hard work or time to make and it's a very versatile tool to use.


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Very nice ! the Rogue Hoe Travis https://roguehoe.com/product/70ar-travis-tool/

Great job, better than paying $200 :oops:

What did the head weigh in at ?

I also found the handle makes a big difference to the balance and feel of the tool. Bunnings do a Chi lightweight shaft that makes the tool feel really spritely where I have also fitted 2 with a red gum shaft and they feel pretty cumbersome.

Total I have made now is 12, the first two were trial and error, finding that the tool head weight also makes a big difference, the final 10 tools all came in at around 1050g to1170g. The last 6 I changed the handle holder to a thicker solid piece, this added a little bit of weight and negated the need for the support tings, but they looked funny without them so I welded them in.

Final 10 tools were made out of 4mm Hardox 450.

We now have a set for the 3 of us both here at home and at Melrose.


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ozzybmx said:
Very nice ! the Rogue Hoe Travis https://roguehoe.com/product/70ar-travis-tool/

Great job, better than paying $200 :oops:

What did the head weigh in at ?

I also found the handle makes a big difference to the balance and feel of the tool. Bunnings do a Chi lightweight shaft that makes the tool feel really spritely where I have also fitted 2 with a red gum shaft and they feel pretty cumbersome.

Total I have made now is 12, the first two were trail and error, finding that the tool head weight also makes a big difference, the final 10 tools all came in at around 1050g to1170g. The last 6 I changed the handle holder to a thicker solid piece, this added a little bit of weight and negated the need for the support tings, but they looked funny without them so I welded them in.

Final 10 tools were made out of 4mm Hardox 450.

We now have a set for the 3 of us both here at home and at Melrose.


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I see what you did there :D;)

@ozzybmx, what do you use for the handle holder? Is it something off the shelf that can be tacked on to the tool head or did you have to get it made to order?

Very cool tools @ozzybmx and @Flow-Rider!
 
Great work Ozzy.

I wondered about the handle, only bought the cheap one from burnings (35mm), might change it later on but hopefully it will do for now. The steel is quite strong and frightening how sharp it is too, the pick end should blast through the hard stuff.

ozzybmx said:
What did the head weigh in at ?
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Don't know how accurate the scales are but they say 1.05kg.
 
Labcanary said:
@ozzybmx, what do you use for the handle holder? Is it something off the shelf that can be tacked on to the tool head or did you have to get it made to order?
Click to expand...

The easiest way is to go and buy the wooden handle the go to a Steel shop and get them to match it up with their tubing.

I was splitting the first tubing (bottom picture) and cutting a 'slice' out to make it a custom size, the last 6 tools its a standard tube to accommodate the lightweight Bunnings handle.
 
Flow-Rider said:
Don't know how accurate the scales are but they say 1.05kg.
Click to expand...

Thats a great weight, it makes for a nice balanced tool. My first one was about 1350g IIRC, its an absolute battle axe with very sharp cutting edge but too heavy to swing around for a long time.

Here's the first attempt, the head was too big, too much metal and the superlight fiberglass handle made it feel like all top heavy.

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Labcanary said:
I see what you did there :D;)

@ozzybmx, what do you use for the handle holder? Is it something off the shelf that can be tacked on to the tool head or did you have to get it made to order?

Very cool tools @ozzybmx and @Flow-Rider!
Click to expand...
Mine is different to theirs, the rake is offset so that I have a larger pick end, and plus it was free:p.

I resized a bit of old water pipe for the handle holder, it's easier than it looks.
 
ozzybmx said:
Thats a great weight, it makes for a nice balanced tool. My first one was about 1350g IIRC, its an absolute battle axe with very sharp cutting edge but too heavy to swing around for a long time.

Here's the first attempt, the head was too big, too much metal and the superlight fiberglass handle made it feel like all top heavy.

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Not sure why everyone makes the handle cradle so tall other than to give the timbre a bit of protection from hits, I had a look at a few chipping hoes we have here and they are all very short.
 
deano said:
This probably should be in the hacks thread. Bunnings $5 shovel with head cut off, galv pipe and joiners, some bolts, angle grinder and drill. Backpack-able, works way better than it should.

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Good work & stealth set up for the backpack. I really like the collapsible handle.
 
moorey said:
I like the theory, but that handle looks it would be brutal for anything other than taking?
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I has a tendency to vibrate, it’s a trade off for the price and portability. I also have a military entrenching tool with a wood handle if I need to hoe hard into something. This thing is certainly not perfect.


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moorey said:
I like the theory, but that handle looks it would be brutal for anything other than taking?
Click to expand...
It looks heavy but it would get the job done. You can buy the shovel-hoes with the collapsible alloy handles on fleabay fairly cheap, not sure how strong they are though.
deano said:
I has a tendency to vibrate, it’s a trade off for the price and portability. I also have a military entrenching tool with a wood handle if I need to hoe hard into something. This thing is certainly not perfect.


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Fill the pipes up with expanding foam and slide some radiator hose over the top parts of the handle.
 
Ah yes, my hack was inspired by something I saw on the internet that was hideously expensive (and much more well made), can’t remember if this one or not.


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Nice one.

It was maybe here that Acko seen them and got an order going on the old AMBC page.

They do a good job within their limits, definitely wouldn't go chopping roots with it.
 
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