DIY Plywood Presser Pusher For Leaves

Autumn! Good time of the year for improved leaf tasking! My blog topic is a DIY plywood leaf pusher. It's related to my raking leaves blog articles and parody videos (widescreen, scrolling text). My leaf pusher at the time of the parodies was a Rubbermaid dustpan, still flexible, uncracked, and unbroken after years of leaf pile gathering and compressing. (For smallish piles, I still use the dustpan.)

My inspiration for my plywood presser pusher is "How To Rake (Bag) Leaves - the EASY WAY!", starting just before the 5-minute mark, where he shows his leaf presser. He used plywood, drilled holes, and attached cabinet handles. BTW, I advise skipping the part about drilling holes in trash receptacle and also using plastic bags. (Plastic is not acceptable for yard waste or compost pickups.)

The Home Depot door handle I used is no longer available. You can view similar door handles on the web. BTW, I think each handle with one hole at each end is adequate and more economical than two holes at each end. Another suggestion: Rather than using the wood screws that come in the package, use machine screws and nuts for securing the handles to the plywood. (I used 3/4" screws, washers, and hex nuts.) 

My info is advisory. You can decide to skip using a template or preplanning. After mulling a few template shapes (rectangular, circular, octagonal, stop sign), I made the 11" x 15" rectangular plywood presser pusher so that it'd fit in a lawn/leaf bag that measured 11 1/2" x 16" but also fit into a typical round, 32-gallon plastic trash can.

If you choose to make your own plywood presser pusher for leaves, be careful about safety WRT power tools, splinters, sawdust, rakes, and tripping. Watch the video before and during the project, pausing as sensible. Good luck! Let me know what you made and how it's working out for you!

Plywood Resources

I referred to my plywood as being 3/8" thick. I recall that wood dimensions tending to not be actual measured sizes. A resource with table info is "Actual Plywood Thickness and Size". The actual thickness is 11/32". Not easy to measure 1/32" difference.

Additional plywood resources:

• "Types of Plywood" (with embedded video link)
• "How To Choose the Right Plywood" (short and sweet)
• "MDF VS. PLYWOOD (Which Is Better?? Pros + Cons!!)" (detailed and longer than above link)
• "Plywood Weight Guide: How to Choose Right" (dry reading but lots of details)