Tubing for spraybars

Hi! - and greetings to everyone, since I've just joined "Gardeners' Corner"...

I have a lot of weed control to do and it takes forever even with a knapsack sprayer. I'd like to use a towed sprayer, but my pockets aren't really deep enough to consider an Agri-Fab or similar at over �£300. I can get all the bits to make one - even the 12-volt pump - apart from the perforated tube to make the spraybars. Does anyone have a source of supply or a design? Help much appreciated!

 

Could you not make a spray bar from small bore copper water pipe drilled with 1mm or smaller holes?

 

Hi Hyla
If you plan on using a 12v pump similar to a shurflo type, you could use standard black irrigation pipe (12mm-16mm dia) and install spray nozzles into it.
You`d need to do the sums to match the nozzles to the pressure and flow of the pump but it`s certainly possible.

 

Thanks for replies, fellas! I'd thought of using water pipe - but I wondered whether simple holes would give a proper spray, or if the holes need to be special in any way - though the ones in my sprinklers don't seem to be, I admit. The plastic idea may work - I've seen the nozzles advertised. My concern with those was whether they'd take the pressure. Do they take mains water pressure in use? (I've never used an automatic watering system, though I've got a few ideas using solenoids from s**** washing machines and a cheap timer...well earthed, of course!!!)

 

Eyup!! Why the asterisks??? Ah, yes, of course... I meant life-expired domestic white goods for component recycling... LOL!

 

The nozzles will give you a choice of spray patterns: fan, hollow or full cone are the usual ones.
A simple row of holes in a pipe will deliver a row of direct jets depending on the pressure.

Nozzles usually work from about 2 bar (30psi) upwards and are available for mains pressure (6 bar ~90psi).

If you decide to go for the simple row of holes make a pipe into a circle (ie: closed loop) and feed it via a tee fitting.
This helps keep the pressure even, with a straight pipe the water might not make it to the holes furthest away :D

 

Thanks, Hex - a highly useful and informative post. Time for some experimentation! Maybe drilling holes first - set the tube up carefully in a cradle in the drill press. If that's no go, then import some nozzles from the UK - stuff like that's very hard to find here.... We can't even get plain, simple seed trays!! (Nice to have a contact in Lincs, too - I'm a yellow-belly myself!)

 

If it`s just for large scale weed control it may be easier to use a cda sprayer.
They cost around �£100 new but you can sometimes pick them up off ebay. I bought my ULVA+ for �£20.

They use a battery operated spinning disc and produce a very fine mist which does a great job of coverage without using much liquid.
They also do a 5 litre tank conversion kit which is easily homebrewed
An ideal solution for your particular application
perhaps?

Worth a peek:
http://www.micron.co.uk/product/ulva

 

Thanks, Hex - yet again! Another useful idea. It may be an answer, but as we have a beeeeg area - nearly four acres by the house and another eight "down the valley" - you can see why the idea of towed sprayer was appealing! (Not all of it has to be sprayed for weeds, of course, but it might be useful for fertiliser as well. We haven't yet finally decided how to use it all!)

I have a couple of contacts who own garden centres in the UK who are interested in buying plants - maybe even water lilies, since we have a warm climate, a south-facing slope and soil that's clay with lumps of rock in and therefore a pain to cultivate - but it's mostly growing cereals and sunflowers at the moment while we renovate the house... Watch this space!!!

 

Wee Hee!! Guess what? Doing my occasional trawl on Ebay I've found a 20-gallon sprayer that will fit beautifully in my mini trailer and spray a four-metre swathe at a time... and it's well under half the price of the AgriFab or Westwood kit. Also has a lance. So with a Shurflo pump at around �£70 and all the other tack I'd need, it would be pretty well the same price to make one. So it just has to be the answer. Problem solved, but a huge thank you to Hex in particular but also to anyone else who posted or gave it some thought. :D