Ted Lee’s homemade backyard digger has propelled him into a semi-final contender for the $25,000 grand prize in Princess Auto’s national Ultimate Figure It Outer contest.
The St. John’s man’s entry is a bike backhoe, constructed from various parts, including quad, trike and exercise equipment.
From his video, Lee’s blue machine is functional, sturdy and well put together, with its parts welded in place. The device is driven via the motorized bike on the front, and then the seat flips over so the person can switch to controlling the digger on the back.
“I’m the only Newfoundlander in it,” Lee told The Telegram of the contest.
He works in electronic design at Memorial University and was once a fisherman, but describes himself as a life-long tinkerer.
“Outside of work, I’m always poking around with stuff,” Lee said. Some of his creations include a set of electronic drums.
But for the Princess Auto competition, he used a device he’d built to do some landscaping at his summer home.
“The device is made out of an ATV trike, two quads, a woods trailer, the front section of a little backhoe and some exercise equipment welded together,” he said.
When the contest came up in a Princess Auto email he subscribes to, Lee decided to go for it.
“I put in for it for a bit of fun,” he said. “My daughters said, ‘You are going to win it.’”
But he noted the competition is pretty stiff, loaded with the imaginations of other able creators.
“I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me,” he said of the rivalry.
The contest is hardly the stuff of Red Green — the Canadian TV character famous for manufacturing and repairing things with duct tape.
There were several hundred entries when the contest opened early this year and there are now 19 elaborate, crafty devices in the semi-finals.
Among them, a contraption for moving massive tanks, such as grain bins or commercial oil tanks; a machine that hauls people and gear over land and water to fishing camps; a coffee roaster controlled by a computer; a rotisserie that turns 360 degrees for restoration purposes; and variations on a snowblower and a hovercraft.
As for the number of online votes, Lee’s chief contenders so far are contraptions from Ontario — the world’s biggest Segway, a remote-controlled lawnmower and a hydraulic-controlled lawn roller that rolls bumps out of lawns in the spring.
As of Wednesday, Lee had more than 3,300 votes, with Ontarian Glen Perrault’s world’s biggest segway nipping at his lead.
But it’s not just voting that determines the winners.
According to the contest rules, a panel of judges determined the semi-finalists on criteria such as mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fabrication, woodworking, welding, uniqueness, safety, ingenuity and quality of submission.
The contest allows each supporter to cast only one vote per day, and people must register before voting. The online votes conclude June 22 and will be tabulated June 23.
The top three semi-finalists will then advance to the finalist stage in Winnipeg, Man., where judges will preside over an elimination-style, head-to-head competition in August.
The finalists’ prize — $3,000 each — includes their trip to Winnipeg.
The competition will test each finalist’s ability to plan, build and solve a variety of projects.
There are also some competition prizes.
Lee said the final competition is expected to be televised.
“I don’t know what I’m getting myself into,” he quipped.
While the online voting is going on, his wife, Alana Dunphy-Lee, is the organizer in drumming up support, Lee said.
Lee gave his wife a T-Shirt with a photo of the machine on the back and the slogan “best project manager ever,” he said.
“My family and my wife are getting more of a kick out of it than I am,” Lee said.
His video of the bike backhoe got about 8,000 views.
Not much of a social media person, Lee was surprised.
“I said ‘G’on b’y.’ I was shocked with that,” he said.
The winner will also appear on the 2019 version of the Princess Auto product catalogue.
Anyone can vote daily on the Ultimate Figure it Outer contest website.
