I’ll wait until I can 3d print my own. I’m not paying for a hunk of plastic.
But a rake is not powerful, you want proof? It barely makes any noise!
Not gonna 3d print a rake.
Based on how it works, (not how they say it works) you need a different geometry depending on the frequency. So it’s only going to work at select rpm.
It squashes the fundamental and certain harmonics and fractional harmonics.
Since I probably won’t be able to patent the idea myself anymore, maybe I’ll publicly disclose.
Lol what do you put into your 3d printer?
A string of plastic, not a hunk =D
Fair!
Why do leaf blowers exist in the first place?
To blow leaves.
I often see those things with a sack on public workers here. They suck leafes. 🤯
Some leaf blowers are also leaf suckers but it can get a bit messy since they usually mulch the leaves, too.
And clean up after mowing.
I also use mine when starting a fire. Way easier then using a pot lid of blowing.
Ha! I have the smaller work bench cleaning “blower” for my fires. It’s awesome.
Back when I used a Weber charcoal grill I’d bust out the blow dryer.
So annoying twats can be annoying.
The best invention against leaf blowers so far is the scrapyard.
Somebody tell Kate Blanchett
??
Electric is so much quieter. They have them in Singapore
This thing influence how air moves through it, so it would make electrics more silent too
This was designed for electric leaf blowers, not gas leaf blowers.
Electric leaf blowers are much much better, but they’re still loud, and that’s what these students were attempting to address.
The video in the article shows them testing with an electric leaf blower.
The gardener in my last apartment replaced all of his powertools (mower, blower, trimmer, …) with electric ones powered by an accu-pack he carries on his back. This is an absolute game-changer! I could actually sit outside again and even do stuff for work, when he was there.
Pretty sure when I saw the original post talking about the design, they said the students were only working with electric leaf blowers. So this was designed to make electric leaf blowers even quieter.
Companies know they can make tools quieter. They didn’t do it because louder sounds more powerful to consumers.
For the stupid maybe.
Turns out they number around 70 million in the US…
They do the same thing with vehicle air intakes to eliminate annoying sounds and make the car sound more throaty. Don’t forget about cars that have engine noises come through the stereo. People think they need to “feel the engine” in order to drive. I would rather it be completely silent, not that’s not possible because of tire noise.
Let me help you with the correct wording: ‘Power to noise’-converters. You’re welcome.
I still say replace them with rakes.
I get what you’re saying, but leaf blowers are also commonly used for cleaning up extra grass clippings from the roads, etc.
And sand/dirt after a windstorm, at least in my area. They’re really quite useful.
seems like snake oil. whe using my electric leaf blower all the noise sounds to be coming from the big fan at the top of the device and not the nozzle
Now pretend your electric blower is actually a super loud and inefficient two stroke motor.
The movement of air isn’t noisy, the motor is.
Yeah, I thought this was for those pieces of shit.
I’m sure electric ones are being used around my city, but that’s not the ones I notice.
Ah spring! Flowers blooming, bird songs… BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA… Goddamn leaf blowers.
If it were me that designed this, I would license out the design for manufacturers to use in their production models instead of making some kind of attachment that is unlikely to work on all models. That seems much more likely to achieve the goal of reducing noise from leaf blowers long term. Get like 3 manufacturers on board that could even charge a premium, and you have reduced the noise potentially forever while still making a tidy profit.
It was a collaboration with the company. They probably helped fund it for exclusive licensing to start.
Good. I fucking hate leaf blowers.
MAKE GAS LANDSCAPING TOOLS ILLEGAL
Give away free electric tools if they trade in their gas ones. It’s so bad for health to be huffing 2 stroke fumes all day every day.
“Electric leaf blowers are already far quieter than their gas-powered peers, but they still aren’t the kind of thing you’d like to hear first-thing on a Saturday morning. Looking to improve on the situation, a group of students from Johns Hopkins University have successfully designed a 3D printed add-on that manages to significantly reduce the noise generated by a modern electric leaf blower without compromising the amount of air it’s able to move.”
First two sentences of the article.
They already are in many communities. Enforcement is an issue.
I don’t know mate, I wouldn’t replace my electric tools–drills, grinders, saw… with gas ones. But these outdoors tools are a different kind of beast. I’ve only used an electric chainsaw and it was an absolute crap, maybe there are better ones but it was crappier than the smallest and shittiest gas chainsaws I’ve used, and a cord around you in that setting isn’t great either.
Look again! I have a dewalt chainsaw, and I love it. I burn about 13 cords of wood each winter as it is our primary heating source. It runs and runs and runs.
I think the key is to keep the chain sharp. I use the timberline sharpener, and it gets the chain razor sharp, which means less stress on the motor and longer battery life.
The problem with electric gardening tools is they aren’t that feasible for contractors.
Batteries don’t last long and take a long time to charge, so it’s just not an option when you’re working all day. Corded means at every location, you have to figure out outlets, extension cords, fuss with tangles and obstructions, etc.
If you’re doing your own lawns, yeah, you can probably get into a workflow that works for you. But a lot of people hire out for landscaping.
Not true, keep extra batteries and put a solar panel on your rig (vehicle or trailer) to charge the dead ones while you work. Maybe keep a battery generator for cloudy days.
Gas being a better energy source than batteries in every way except for the health and environmental issues is a real bitch and why this is such a problem. Cords are a hassle and you will need a lot recharging batteries all the time, so you notice the downsides immediately and acutely. These are solvable problems though. Even running an efficient gas generator would be better for the health of landscaping contractors than being around 2 strokes all day.
Fuck that shit, all the gas lawn tools should be backwards converted to run on hydrolysis-produced rocket fuel, feasibility and efficiency and safety be damned.
Swappable batteries resolve this issue pretty well. The energy density is far from comparable, but if you’re already hauling a van or trailer to the job site, then a dozen spare batteries isn’t an issue.
Except being very expensive, wear out after a few years (at best), and being sensitive to being in the hot sun all day every day. All in a profession mostly worked by under privileged people where frugality is a necessity of life.
Most batteries have 5 year warranties.
Are the majority of people who use leaf blowers regularly really going to buy/use these?! I think the leaf blower droning is almost a relaxing noise to me but those god forsaken commercial mowers are a little annoying
The leaf blower is the worst sound ever created and you are literally Satan.
I prefer Lucifer 🤣 just saying chain saws and weed eaters are pretty rufff
So it’s taking some of the air out of the stream, slowing it down, and putting it back in the stream… How does this not affect the performance?
Because that isn’t how it works. I’ve been working on this idea in my spare time for a patent, for months. I have the CFD models to prove it. I learned ELMER and perfected the solvers and meshing process.
It grinds my gears that they stumbled upon it, get all the credit, and apparently don’t know how it actually works.
Never been scooped before. But man it doesn’t feel good.
Did you put your information somewhere they could find it before you got the patent? If you have authorship doesn’t that mean you have grounds to sue?
I want the stl!