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Craftsmen have come up with many different hand tools that make it easier to work in the garden and in the garden. One of them is the miracle shovel Mole, which consists of two opposite pitchforks. The working part is movable and the handle is attached to it. Loosening the soil occurs during pressure on the shovel handle from top to bottom. In this case, the entire load does not fall on the back of the worker, but on his hands.
Get acquainted with the design of the Mole
If you look at the appearance of the tool, then the ripper shovel resembles a wide pitchfork bolted to the frame. The moving part is the working fork. They always have 1 pin more than the number of teeth on the bed. Usually there are 5 pins on the fixed frame, and 6 of them on the working element, but there may be another number. The teeth are located opposite each other and when the working part is raised, they meet.
A foot rest is attached to the back of the frame. It is made in the shape of an arc and resembles the letter P, only upside down. The front of the stationary frame is slightly raised. It also serves as an emphasis for a shovel. The teeth of the working forks are at least 25 cm long. They are made of hardened steel. In general, the number of teeth depends on the size of the miracle shovel. In the store version, the tool is found in widths from 35 to 50 cm, but no more.
Despite such a mass, working with the Mole miracle shovel is easy. After all, a person does not have to wear it around the garden. The tool is simply dragged to a new place, where further loosening is performed.
Many craftsmen are used to doing everything with their own hands. Miracle shovel Mole is easy to cook. It does not require complex schemes and drawing skills. You just need to find a square tube for the frame and steel rods from which the teeth will be made, and the handle can be removed from another shovel or you can buy a new one.
On the video, watch the process of assembling a miracle shovel:
Why Mole is better than a regular shovel
Reviews about the miracle shovel Mole are different. Some people like the instrument, while others hate it. Let’s see why this invention is better than a bayonet shovel. Let’s start with fatigue during work. Firstly, in order to stick a bayonet shovel into the ground, you need to make a lot of effort with your foot. Secondly, a person needs to bend over, pick up a tool with a clod of earth and turn it over. From these actions, not only the arms and legs suffer, but also the back, abdominal muscles and hip joint. After several hours of work, a bent man leaves the garden, feeling terrible pain in his back.
When working with Mole, the load falls only on the hands, since the lump of earth does not need to be lifted up, but it is only necessary to press the handle of the tool down. There is practically no load on the legs. The teeth of the fork penetrate the ground more easily than the bayonet of a conventional shovel. Often there are even reviews of older people, which talk about the ease of use of the tool.
The second positive point is related to the number of actions performed when cultivating the land. To begin with, the entire area is first dug up with a bayonet shovel. Large clods remain on clayey and damp soil, which must be constantly broken with a bayonet during work. After digging, the soil begins to be leveled with a rake. This action is aimed at loosening small clods of earth. Miracle shovel Mole performs all of the above actions at once. When a clod of earth passes through a ripper of teeth, a fully prepared bed is left behind the tool for planting garden crops.
There are areas where the use of a miracle shovel is impossible. This includes virgin lands heavily overgrown with wheatgrass. Here, you first have to walk with a bayonet shovel or walk-behind tractor, and then you can use the Mole. On rocky ground, the miracle shovel, in general, will have to be abandoned. On clay hard soil, the Mole will be even harder to work with than with a bayonet tool.
Mole Guide
Mole is not the only option for a miracle shovel. There is a tool called Plowman, Tornado, etc. The design of all these shovels has minor differences, but the principle of operation is the same.
The miracle tool works on the principle of a lever. First, the shovel is installed in the area that is intended for digging. In this case, the lever, which serves as the handle, is raised to a vertical position. The teeth of the working forks also become perpendicular to the ground and sink into the ground under the weight of the frame. The depth of self-immersion depends on the density of the soil. If the teeth are partially embedded in the ground, the worker presses with his foot on the back stop or the metal bar of the working forks where the pins are fixed.
The next action is to press the handle with your hands, first towards yourself, and then down. The frame of the Mole does not load due to the stops, and the working forks lift the layer of earth, pushing it through the counter teeth of the ripper. Further, the tool is simply pulled back along the bed, after which they continue to repeat similar actions.
During loosening, weed roots are completely removed from the soil. They remain whole, as well as completely cleared of the earth. A person can only collect them in a bucket. The big plus of Mole is that all the fertile soil does not go down, as happens when turning the earth over with a bayonet shovel. The soil is simply loosened, remaining in its place.
The pros and cons of using Mole
The practical application of the tool revealed many positive and negative aspects. This is all based on real user reviews. Let’s take a look at the pros first:
- Mole’s work speeds up the digging of the garden. In 1 hour, it is possible to process a plot of up to 2 acres with minimal fatigue.
- The tool does not require refueling and consumables, as is the case with a walk-behind tractor. For storage, it is enough to allocate a small corner in the barn.
- The mole causes less harm to the health of a working person, since the load on the musculoskeletal system is minimal.
- During loosening, the fertile layer of the earth is preserved. At the same time, the roots of even invisible weeds on the surface are removed.
Of the negative sides, one can single out the impossibility of using Mole in low greenhouses, as well as for loosening narrow beds, if the width of the working part of the tool exceeds the dimensions of the processed strip.
Self-made Mole
To weld such a design, you don’t even need a drawing. You can use a good example, and choose the sizes from your own preferences. For those who recognize the work only with the use of technically competent documents, we suggest looking at the photo for a drawing with the dimensions of a miracle shovel.
The presented scheme is more suitable for the Plowman or Tornado model, where the main difference is the shape of the rear and front stops.
So, for the manufacture of the frame and the stops of the structure, you need to use a square metal tube. The teeth of the movable fork are made of hardened steel. One of their edges is sharpened with a grinder at an angle of 15–30о. A jumper from the pipe is welded onto the stationary frame, and the teeth of the oncoming forks are attached to it. These pins can be made from rebar, and there is no need to sharpen the edges. The two parts of the pitchfork are connected by a hinged mechanism. It is made from steel strip. To do this, bend two arcs, drill holes, and then connect the parts with a bolt.
A piece of a round pipe is welded to the bar of the movable fork. A stalk from a simple shovel is inserted into the nest. For ease of use, a T-bar can be attached to the top of the handle. The height of the handle should reach to the chin.
The finished design needs to be tested. If it is convenient to work with it, then you guessed right with the dimensions.
Reviews
Now let’s take a look at user reviews of this tool.