Gutter Cleaner

thingiverse

After my mom had a fall, my wife and I moved up to the grand farmhouse to help her get back on her feet. This has turned out to be a long-term change for us as our own kids have taken over the family home. So, I got cracking and sorted out all the little jobs that needed doing around a large house that had missed the capable hands of a handy guy like me. Some weeks later, I was sitting comfortably one afternoon, feeling smug about the numerous jobs I'd just completed when my brother came over from the neighboring house. "Hey, buddy, get off your duff and clean out those gutters!" he said, nodding his head towards the vast length of guttering two stories up, some of which was showing signs of quite mature vegetation sprouting from it. "You know I don't like ladders, don't you?" I replied, shuddering slightly at memories of standing two stories up on a wooden ladder with advanced rot and no concern for safety protocols. "Tough, needs done, go do!" he replied, never one to waste words when possible. He pointed towards the same set of wooden ladders that had tormented me some 30 years ago, this time with the rot long since fixed but evidence of their excavation very much apparent. He laughed and walked off. Right, I thought, and jumped straight onto Google to find a solution. Disappointingly, all I could find was either attachments for pressure washers (no way to get a hosepipe all the way around the house) or some £1.5M robot that couldn't turn corners. It was then that I decided to plunder Thingiverse for a tool, and while I don't decry the efforts of others, I was a bit disappointed by what was on offer. Where is the elegance, the style, the aesthetic? Fusion 360 leapt into view, with my brother standing outside holding a rickety ladder in one hand, pointing at me with the other while making mocking laughing noises, and I got to work. It's difficult to figure out how to loft an oval section to a rectangular section over a pre-defined curve (giving a 15-degree angle away from the wall) while a threat of injury looms; but I managed it. Enjoy, I hope it proves useful, and if I can save one life, then a beer is fair exchange. In use, you just hook it into the gutter and drag it along. If you get the angle right, all the muck is displaced and lands on the ground a meter or two away from you. Heavy or solid items can be shoveled out a little bit at a time. In my experience, the larger lumps of vegetation tend to break away and fall as a single satisfying glob. It's designed to fit onto the excellent Darlac pole saw pole but I'm sure the bottom part could be removed and made to fit onto other things.