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Make an Ultralight Potty Trowel Mk1 / Mk 2(50g+/-)
See Also: Mk3, Mk4, Mk5, Design Evolution I was inspired somewhat by the Helix Potty Trowel which seemed a little over-engineered and a little heavy at 4.5oz. I thought I'd try something a little more focussed. BackgroundMy first potty trowel (Mk1) is shown on the left of the picture. It was bought from a DIY store as part of a 'bargain' pack for a few pounds. It works OK but weighs in at 90g. Chopping most of the handle off reduced it to 65g. An alternative is just to use a V-stake. That is hard work but weighs only 13g. In the middle is my first aluminium potty trowel (Mk 2) and weighs 50g. It's worked well until I tried to dig through solid clay - when it bent and the weld fractured a little. I've now created a Mark 3 Trowel which weighs only 41g. See here. Materials (for the Alu one!)
Construction1. Cut the L-shaped alu in half to create two pieces of 12.5cm 2. Taper the entire length of the pieces two pices so that they taper from 25mm to 16mm. The easiest way to do this is to clamp the pieces back-2-back, cut using a hacksaw and then use a flat-file along the length to get a clean smooth edge. 3. Create a small cradle out of some crap aluminium. The idea is to creat a shallow v holder into which the two pieces can be placed so that they too form a 3. Cut a 25mm slot into the Aliminium tube. 4. Prepare the two pieces as per the instructions with the kit. 5. Place the two L pieces onto your cradle so that they rest together. 6. Heat the pieces and meld together CAREFULLY. Allow to fully cool 7. Do the same for the handle using teh same cradle. Warnings1. It is very difficult to weld Aluminium. It does not change colour before it melts - it just melts. 2. The Techno-Weld stuff flows at around 400c and Aluminium melts at 750c. 3. The Techno-Weld stuff will fracture when stressed wheras Aluminium bends. 4. My potty trowel didn't do too well with solid clay. But hey - 40g saved...
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