Rear Blade Edge for rear blade

[Baby Grand]

I got interested in doing the squeegee thing to my new 7' rear blade after reading this thread, but couldn't find any substantial belting at the local TSC, so I gave up and went home. That afternoon, The Plant Manager asked me to move the old tires up in the loft over the garage down so we could put them out for trash pick up. I said "are any of them big"? She said "yes, ones pretty big". So I drug down the tires to the street, except for the big one, which measured about 30" in diameter. Cut the sidewalls off with a reciprocating saw and slit the resulting loop of tread to get an 8x80" strip of 1/2" thick rubber. Took the cutting edge off the back blade and used it as a template to locate the bolt holes with a marking crayon. Drilled eight 5/8" holes through at the marks with Grampa's old brace & bit then ran out to the hardware store for 8 5/8-11 2" grade 8 plow bolts. Made it before they closed. Bolted everything back up and it looks great.
Total cost: about $28.
Satisfaction: priceless.

 

[MJPetersen]

how about a picture of your "creation?" I suppose that with a tire that there would be less of a tendency for the bolts to pull through the rubber, because of the plies in the tire. But in my opinion you probably should have a backing plate to "sandwich the rubber. Maybe you used your cutting edge for that.

Satisfaction is worth a lot in these things.

Mike

 

[Baby Grand]

Mike-
It was a sandwich job: tire tread between the moldboard and cutting edge. That's why I needed to get longer plow bolts.

I have yet to figure out how to post pictures, but I'm working on it ... So far I have some pictures on a Picasa site. Next chance I get I'll try uploading.

-Jim

 

[MJPetersen]

I have yet to figure out how to post pictures, but I'm working on it ... So far I have some pictures on a Picasa site. Next chance I get I'll try uploading.

Good deal!! The only bad that I can think of of using the cutting edge is that you have a bit more rubber exposed that would be normally necessary, but it should work.

About pics--it is supper easy. You have already resized the pics to post them to Picasa and therefore you can directly upload them to the TBN site. Scroll down a bit when you are posting a reply and it says "additional options" One of those options is to "attach files." Click on "manage attachments" browse to where your pics are located, when you have all the slots full (or as many pics as you want) then hit "upload." After a bit it will report what files you have uploaded. I "preview" my post at this point to see how the pics look, and then post.

Mike

 

[sld]

Well, we finally got around 4 inches of snow night before last. I didn't even know it until I was leaving for work. Walking to my garage I thought I might as well start the tractor and clean the driveway.

The composite deck board scraper I made worked well. It glided over the cement and really moved the snow. After I was done, I did my neighbors. When I inspected the edge, it had worn down some, maybe 1/8 inch or so. It will work for a residential type snow blade but would not last too long with a lot of use. Part of the problem was I pushed the snow across the asphalt street to the other curb (no houses there) and the asphalt is rough.

All in all, for the money it is okay and I can probably handle about 4-5 snows before it wears out. That is about all we get here in southern Kansas.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Here is how mine ended up. still have enough mat to make another one. Please note that you end up with two pieces to get the width but it does not matter since it is sandwiched between the steel.. I cleaned 7 drives this morning. very little wear so far.

Tom

 

[Baby Grand]

Mike,

Thanks for the help with pix posting. Used the blade a lot in the past few days and it worked out well. No apparent wear so far.

-Jim

 

[2manyrocks]

What kind of recip blade did you use in your saw to cut the tire? Do you have any suggestions how to make the cut so you get a straight edge?

I just ask because it seems like used tires are not hard to find, but they do have to be cut.

 

[MJPetersen]

Very nice Jim. That is taking what you have and putting it to a very good use. Did it seem like th erubber bent back enough to allow the metal cutting edge to ever hit the ground? I am curious be cause the rubber must extend a long way below the mold board to clear the cutting edge without support.

On mine I made a special retaining strip that was the same length as the mold board and therefore the rubber extended only as far as the original cutting edge. I need to post a picture to show what I am talking about.

Mike

 

[Bedlam]

thatguy if you have a circular saw. Wal mart has the metal cutting blades for 3 at about 6 bucks . Ive cut a 8 foot schedule 40 steel pipe lengthwise with one blade. Then followed with a chisel and wood splitting maul to split it open to the width to go over the metal edge. (I was too cheap to make the second cut.) lol