Post by Dewie on Feb 17, 2012 16:40:31 GMT -4
Well I've been wanting a snowblower for a while for my tractor. Because of the gearing of my tractor I can't back up with the typical style (reverse is geared somewhere between 1st and 2nd) and I only have a single stage clutch... When my father bought his tractor 20 some odd years ago it came with a homemade snowblower that you drive forward with; I opted to go this route.
Initially I started with a water expansion tank that I got from a scrap yard. It had about the size of barrel I wanted so I went with it. I opted to cut one end off to use as the back of the blower (I lucked out cutting it apart the way I did as I really had no idea what was inside)
I then measured and cut the rest into 3rds to use for my wings:
... set everything in place to get a feel for how it would look:
... realized my wings were a bit short so I cut pieces off the last 3rd and extended them 6" or so:
I needed something to tie everything together so I went to the scrap yard. I found a piece of good heavy angle which filled the requirement. I also bought some pieces of angle and box tubing (all from a scrap yard) to make the 3-point hitch arrangement from. I needed the opening at the tractor to be above the height of the main pieces of angle to make room for the drive-shaft (pictures will better explain that later). I also took and welded a piece of round tubing between the main pieces of angle to maintain distance, hold a bearing, and tie everything together at the back:
Here you can see the main part of the 3 point hitch arrangement (on upside-down) holding everything in place where I want it:
Once I got the main pieces of angle all in place I trimmed the wings to fit at the bottom. I welded some lighter angle to the backs of the wings to help give them some strength. I then tacked them in place where I wanted them with light angle. Light angle was also welded along the top edges of the wings to give them strength/tie them into the main barrel:
Welded on the base for the 3 point hitch arrangement:
Apparently got excited and made up a bunch more of the 3 point hitch arrangement without taking any pictures... Here it is mounted to the tractor for the first time:
For the back bearing I got a piece of 1/2" plate and turned it round on the lathe. I then cut a hole out of the back of the barrel for the plate:
I pre-drilled and tapped holes to hold the bearing in place on the plate and cut a hole for the shaft. I then welded the plate in place:
After looking at materials around I knew what I was building my drive shaft out of (some shaft, an old VW axle, and an adapter) the whole assembly was built to fit snugly inside this piece of square tubing, which I welded 6" pieces of channel to for may paddles (tacked in place here):
I then cut off the round tubing near the back and filled in the holes in the wings:
I also went over-kill with my top point on my 3-point hitch assembly, mostly because I could, also because it looks cool :
Capped the box section after loosing some tools down one, looking for half an hour for them only to find them wedged in there against the pin in the bottom...
Welded up the paddle assembly:
Next I had to make up a mount for my front bearing. Started with more box section:
Welded a plate to it to give me to material to tap to hold it on:
Drilled and tapped my holes:
Pillow Block mounted:
I wanted to do a bunch of welding on the bottom of the whole thing, so I suspended it from ratchet straps. I then welded flat-bar to the cutting edges of the wings. This made everything really strong (which I was hoping for) and made it more square. I may eventually mount some cutting edges from a grader blade on here:
I wanted to beef up the leading edges of the wings, so I bent some flat-bar using the vice and adjustable wrench:
... clamped it in place:
Welded it on (tied into both the angle along the top edge and the flat bar on the bottom edge):
The ratchet straps were great because it allowed me to tilt it at all angles:
I then made up and welded in some braces for the ends of the wings to help hold them in place:
Next I had to go visit my father and have him turn down the shaft for the back of the drive-shaft and the adapter for the front:
For making it up as we went we got the whole thing surprisingly true (machined down the shaft/adapter to fit in the tubing which was the VW axle, tack weld it in place, then weld it)
Once I had the shaft together I threw some paint on it. I was then able to use it to calculate how much of the box section I needed to cut off to mount my front bearing:
(Notice it cut off at the bottom..)
With everything in place I tacked it:
Then welded it:
There was some slight massaging that had to be done where one wing met the barrel as it had gone out of round, was an easy fix hanging upside down though!
When everything was said and done I slid the drive shaft through the paddle setup, drilled a hole and put a bolt through to act as a sheer bolt, mounted it up to my tractor and found my drive shaft from my fence-post auger was too long...
It needed to be shortened anyways, so today I finally got a chance to do that and try it out:
Annd a quick video:
I have yet to build the chute, I need to paint everything and line the wings with some kind of plastic to aid the snow in sliding, but thus far I'm happy it works! Comments welcome; I am no professional anything and yes I realize my garage has some safety hazards
Initially I started with a water expansion tank that I got from a scrap yard. It had about the size of barrel I wanted so I went with it. I opted to cut one end off to use as the back of the blower (I lucked out cutting it apart the way I did as I really had no idea what was inside)
I then measured and cut the rest into 3rds to use for my wings:
... set everything in place to get a feel for how it would look:
... realized my wings were a bit short so I cut pieces off the last 3rd and extended them 6" or so:
I needed something to tie everything together so I went to the scrap yard. I found a piece of good heavy angle which filled the requirement. I also bought some pieces of angle and box tubing (all from a scrap yard) to make the 3-point hitch arrangement from. I needed the opening at the tractor to be above the height of the main pieces of angle to make room for the drive-shaft (pictures will better explain that later). I also took and welded a piece of round tubing between the main pieces of angle to maintain distance, hold a bearing, and tie everything together at the back:
Here you can see the main part of the 3 point hitch arrangement (on upside-down) holding everything in place where I want it:
Once I got the main pieces of angle all in place I trimmed the wings to fit at the bottom. I welded some lighter angle to the backs of the wings to help give them some strength. I then tacked them in place where I wanted them with light angle. Light angle was also welded along the top edges of the wings to give them strength/tie them into the main barrel:
Welded on the base for the 3 point hitch arrangement:
Apparently got excited and made up a bunch more of the 3 point hitch arrangement without taking any pictures... Here it is mounted to the tractor for the first time:
For the back bearing I got a piece of 1/2" plate and turned it round on the lathe. I then cut a hole out of the back of the barrel for the plate:
I pre-drilled and tapped holes to hold the bearing in place on the plate and cut a hole for the shaft. I then welded the plate in place:
After looking at materials around I knew what I was building my drive shaft out of (some shaft, an old VW axle, and an adapter) the whole assembly was built to fit snugly inside this piece of square tubing, which I welded 6" pieces of channel to for may paddles (tacked in place here):
I then cut off the round tubing near the back and filled in the holes in the wings:
I also went over-kill with my top point on my 3-point hitch assembly, mostly because I could, also because it looks cool :
Capped the box section after loosing some tools down one, looking for half an hour for them only to find them wedged in there against the pin in the bottom...
Welded up the paddle assembly:
Next I had to make up a mount for my front bearing. Started with more box section:
Welded a plate to it to give me to material to tap to hold it on:
Drilled and tapped my holes:
Pillow Block mounted:
I wanted to do a bunch of welding on the bottom of the whole thing, so I suspended it from ratchet straps. I then welded flat-bar to the cutting edges of the wings. This made everything really strong (which I was hoping for) and made it more square. I may eventually mount some cutting edges from a grader blade on here:
I wanted to beef up the leading edges of the wings, so I bent some flat-bar using the vice and adjustable wrench:
... clamped it in place:
Welded it on (tied into both the angle along the top edge and the flat bar on the bottom edge):
The ratchet straps were great because it allowed me to tilt it at all angles:
I then made up and welded in some braces for the ends of the wings to help hold them in place:
Next I had to go visit my father and have him turn down the shaft for the back of the drive-shaft and the adapter for the front:
For making it up as we went we got the whole thing surprisingly true (machined down the shaft/adapter to fit in the tubing which was the VW axle, tack weld it in place, then weld it)
Once I had the shaft together I threw some paint on it. I was then able to use it to calculate how much of the box section I needed to cut off to mount my front bearing:
(Notice it cut off at the bottom..)
With everything in place I tacked it:
Then welded it:
There was some slight massaging that had to be done where one wing met the barrel as it had gone out of round, was an easy fix hanging upside down though!
When everything was said and done I slid the drive shaft through the paddle setup, drilled a hole and put a bolt through to act as a sheer bolt, mounted it up to my tractor and found my drive shaft from my fence-post auger was too long...
It needed to be shortened anyways, so today I finally got a chance to do that and try it out:
Annd a quick video:
I have yet to build the chute, I need to paint everything and line the wings with some kind of plastic to aid the snow in sliding, but thus far I'm happy it works! Comments welcome; I am no professional anything and yes I realize my garage has some safety hazards