DIY Electric chute rotator

[PILOON]

Wow that is interesting, have any idea where to look for these items? Wayne

Garage sales and scrap yards!

I was lucky as a client asked (well payed) me to remouve his old dish so I sold off the steel and kept the actuator.
That is why I can say for sure that it works on 12 volts.

Some trailers and mobile homes also use 12 volt electric actuators to pop out the 'expandable rooms'.
Also they make 12 volt trailer tongue lifts (to replace the crank versions)

You just need to visit recycle/scrap yards more often. LOL!

An example is once with the wife doing garage sales I came upon (nice, new bagged with Deere PN, no less) a window wiper assembly foe a mere $20.
That was a 'kit' with adjustable arm, blade and instructions sheet.
Hate to price that new at the dealer!

 

[WayneB]

I do a bit of yard sale searching, and we have several electronic surplus places around, but it is tough finding actuators at any of them and when you do they are looking for big bucks. Most of the trunk auto closing devices use a linear actuator and also car power door locks and power seats use either linear actuartors or rotary actuators all can be configured to do neat things and are all 12 VDC!

One persons junk is another persons gold, So I have been told. Heck for a good period of time when I would go to the dump (now transfer station) I would bring more stuff home than I was taking.

Have a good one.

Wayne

 

[Al 2]

Hello everyone.
Just mounted a new $40.00 winch on the blower and it works fine. I took the spool off the winch and mounted a 8" sprocket to it and used # 40 chain attached to the chute. It was trial and error and took a few days to get it right. I would suggest using a cable instead of a sprocket and chain as a cable is a lot easier and more forgiving to work with. My set up got a bit more involved than I planned. Since I have done mine , I have seen another winch set up that would take at most , 2 hs to install. The winch was bolted to the bar (in this case) that the crank handle is attached to and the guy drilled another hole in the spool and attached the cable in the same way as on the crank and then to the chute. No picture. About the only time I didn't take one.
Al

 

[Wyld Bill]

I do a bit of yard sale searching, and we have several electronic surplus places around, but it is tough finding actuators at any of them and when you do they are looking for big bucks. Most of the trunk auto closing devices use a linear actuator and also car power door locks and power seats use either linear actuartors or rotary actuators all can be configured to do neat things and are all 12 VDC!

One persons junk is another persons gold, So I have been told. Heck for a good period of time when I would go to the dump (now transfer station) I would bring more stuff home than I was taking.

Have a good one.

Wayne

LOL! must be a N.E. thing. I have fond memories of going to the dump with my Dad & spendng an hour or so looking around grabbing stuff.
We'd get home & my Mom would say "I thought you guys went to the dump??"

 

[WayneB]

LOL! must be a N.E. thing. I have fond memories of going to the dump with my Dad & spendng an hour or so looking around grabbing stuff.
We'd get home & my Mom would say "I thought you guys went to the dump??"

Yes it is a NE thing! But, just got back from the transfer station and there is nothing to put in the bed of the truck.........must be hard times and everyone is beating me to the good junk!

 

[moeh1]

I managed to get a couple pics of my setup, hope it helps illustrate what I did. I timed the rotation, with the sprockets I had it is about 15 sec to rotate 180 degrees.

 

[Wyld Bill]

Gonna keep this going. Today in Mal*Wart I saw a ATV winch for $70. It was rated at 1500# & I think it had a slower speed than most of the other ones on Ebay & such.
Ok I think I was thinking today. I'm gonna totally pimp out my snowblower.
I'm going to go all electric.
Here is my master plan:
Install a plastic PVC electrical box on the snowblower. In the box mount my relays, fuses, & wiring connection points.
Put a camper/trailer round towing plug in on the back of my tractor.
This will feed +12V power (and ground) to the blower, +12V common back to a switch box in the cab, switched circuits back TO the blower for rotation, deflection, hight adjustment, & safety flashers.
Put a electrical 5 or 6 conductor plug with cord on blower.
Mount & wire in on the blower:
linear actuator to control chute deflector
chute rotator
two linear actuators on feet to adjust blower hight off from ground
two oval amber LED lights on the two corner wired though flashers.

All said & done if I shop around & get stuff at my work I can probably do everything for less than $600 total. It won't hurt too much or alarm the wife because I'll pick stuff up here & there over time.

 

[Wyld Bill]

I managed to get a couple pics of my setup, hope it helps illustrate what I did. I timed the rotation, with the sprockets I had it is about 15 sec to rotate 180 degrees.

Sweet thanks!
Nice set up. I can see why it takes so long now thoguh. It is the type of rotator you have It like a worm gear. It takes a lot of revolution of the crank handle to rotate the chute very far.

 

[PILOON]

Your 'snow shield' is clever. Need to add that on my 'to do list'

I also use chain/sprockets on my set up and find that ice occasionaly clogs the chain enough to load the motor and blow fuses. (on mine the drive sprocket is horozontal with the chain wrapped around the shute base)
My routine has been to squirt oil liberally before laying up the blower after a storm.

One other thing that I did was to fab a large custom washer from PVC sheets I had that is below the snow shute where it sits on the main frame.
This way the shoot rotates on PVC rather than metal on metal- helps a lot!

I also find (on mine) that the cheap joggled press steel guides that loosly guide/clamp the shoot to the deck are a bad design in that they tend to jamb rather than guide the shute while rotating.
I have seriously been thinking of replacing them with sealed bearings and body washers.
(On my to do list-too cold right now)

Nice work, and satisfying to boot, isn't it!

 

[moeh1]

Yeah I worried about snow building up on the chain too. The plexi shield was a scrap piece that I heated up with a heat gun (slowly from both sides) and bent sandwiched between wood blocks. It is held on with a couple wing nuts for quick removal. Knock wood, snow build up hasn't been an issue since I got it going. Used it for 2 hours yesterday cleaning up.
Havahappy

 

[Spudland_Dave]

All said & done if I shop around & get stuff at my work I can probably do everything for less than $600 total. It won't hurt too much or alarm the wife because I'll pick stuff up here & there over time.

I thought you wanted electric because it would have been cheaper? Whats the rear SCV kit cost for your tractor?
Rear SCV Kit for my 3520 was 300.00, Hyd motor was 25.00 used (100 bucks gets you a new one from Surplus Center) 100.00 worth of hoses at NAPA ....
Im no math wiz but pretty sure Hydraulic would be cheaper when its all done & said.

 

[Wyld Bill]

I thought you wanted electric because it would have been cheaper? Whats the rear SCV kit cost for your tractor?
Rear SCV Kit for my 3520 was 300.00, Hyd motor was 25.00 used (100 bucks gets you a new one from Surplus Center) 100.00 worth of hoses at NAPA ....
Im no math wiz but pretty sure Hydraulic would be cheaper when its all done & said.

reread then post.
$600 to have: motorized chute rotator, motorized chute deflector, & motorized adjustable snowblower hight shoes.

I want to see you do all of that hydraulic for less than $600,..heck I'd like to see you do all of that hydraulic period!

 

[Bedlam]

I also reviewed the post and went back to the beginning.
Ive gotten allot of ideas from here. In the past people have posted how they did it with a winch but it usually uses the cable wrapped around the chute method.
And as for the spin? Well i believe the winch would do just fine as it has been posted.If I ever have problems with my windshield motor i'll definitely go winch. In fact if it weren't that I had the wiper motor i'd go winch to shaft.
For me the chute could be simple,Id invest the 100 dollars or so for the actuator, and if I were cheap I would buy the winch. and mount it to open(pull down on the the back if the chute)
Id use a heavy spring such as a garage door spring to pull heavy steady tension on the it .Simple but effective
OK now the cost.

Harbor Freight winch 2 @$50 $100

Switches and misc around $25

Total without labor 125 dollars.

I know there will be work to build it this way and you might be able to cut the costs with 'laying around' material.

I still believe this is far cheaper and easier to connect and maint. than going all hydraulic. But thats my opinion..

 

[Spudland_Dave]

reread then post.
$600 to have: motorized chute rotator, motorized chute deflector, & motorized adjustable snowblower hight shoes.

I want to see you do all of that hydraulic for less than $600,..heck I'd like to see you do all of that hydraulic period!

No need to re-read... I'd take you up on that challenge...BUT, I really see ZERO point to adjustable shoes....I put them 1" up in the beginning, and at about this time (2 weeks ago actually) I drop em down to Zero...they'll stay that way till I'm done blowing snow. Why would I need power adjustable shoes?

Chute Deflector, I could have it working in 10 minutes by buying the right cylinder from Surplus Center... $90.00, Hoses & Couplers: $50.00 = Deflector Done for $140.00
Already have a working Rotation setup (Assume $200.00 if you bought new motor, I have $125 in mine because of my pre-owned motor).

Just thinking about it now, If I REALLY wanted to, I could put hydraulic shoes on it for the cost of a Cylinder and a few bits of steel, and a few 7018's rods for my welder and I'd say that $200 tops gets me adjustable shoes.

I was throwing you a bone on the rear SCV's because you had to buy the rear SCV's...realistically you shouldnt factor them into the cost because they stay with the tractor. Rear SCV could be used for MANY things...Hydraulic Top Link, Hydraulic Angle Landscape Rake, Rear Blade, etc...

Bedlam....I'd say there is pretty much ZERO Maintenance with the Hydraulic setups...what is there to maintain? No cables to tighten/replace/adjust, no wiring to work loose, no worries about excessive draw on the tractors electrical system, No worries about frozen chutes, etc.

Good luck on the Electric setup.....If it were truly cheaper & better, every blower MFG out there would offer their blowers with electric rotation & such instead of Hydraulic.

 

[PILOON]

While I have electric that works well, I do admit to some drawbacks.

The main being in VERY cold weather (like -25-30 C) icing is a real time problem as even my wheelchair motor lacks the brute torque to break loose.
My solution is to melt with plumbers torch those few times as well as liberally lubing with a squirt type oil can.
The links in my chain will even clog with ice in those colds.

 

[WayneB]

While I have electric that works well, I do admit to some drawbacks.

The main being in VERY cold weather (like -25-30 C) icing is a real time problem as even my wheelchair motor lacks the brute torque to break loose.
My solution is to melt with plumbers torch those few times as well as liberally lubing with a squirt type oil can.
The links in my chain will even clog with ice in those colds.

Hey if it's at -25 to -30 C or F I am not thinking about going out and blowing snow. It will warm up a bit and then I would be out there fighting the elements!

If needed I would then take the torch out and heat up the rotator plate and be off and blowing snow.

Actually, with the electric linear acutator I have ran it at -15 below with no problems. Same goes for the winch I have connected to the rotator. Plenty of torque for both of them to break free the ice freeze-up!

 

[WBWI]

I bought a winch yesterday to "power" my chute rotation. I was disappointed because I expected an output shaft off of the gear motor that I could work with. Instead it has a female splined socket and the wire spool has a male splined gear integral to the spool. Is there a split chain sprocket that can be clamped the spool or am I going to have to find another option. Any ideas? There is a solution because moeh1 has a similar setup to what I will have to use. I did PM him today but thought I throw this out for discussion.

 

[PILOON]

I bought a winch yesterday to "power" my chute rotation. I was disappointed because I expected an output shaft off of the gear motor that I could work with. Instead it has a female splined socket and the wire spool has a male splined gear integral to the spool. Is there a split chain sprocket that can be clamped the spool or am I going to have to find another option. Any ideas? There is a solution because moeh1 has a similar setup to what I will have to use. I did PM him today but thought I throw this out for discussion.

Think you'll have to cut a sprocket in half and either weld it on or devise a way to clamp it to the spool (drum).
If this will be dedicated to the task of shute rotation then cut and weld would be simplest I think. (all the winches I have seen have steel drums).
Since I use sprocket/chain drive I suggest deffinately bigger than bicycle type chain as I know from my setup that the chain can stretch over time hence it starts skipping. (not sure but think a good size is #40)
If your planned setup allows it a short length of the winch cable could be simplest method.
Instead of clamping the cable end, clamp the center of the cable length and wrap equal numbsr of turns either direction on the drum as well as the driven part.
That will allow bi-directional operation as when winding will then unwind the other side and so on.
The bi-directional winding method would allow you to wrap the cable around the base of the shute as the factory did only that you would need to mount the winch vertically.
Just make sure you have enough turns on winch drum (in both directions) to allow 360 deg of the shute.

I would suggest cable wrap on shute might be best as you are essentially replicating factory drive but with power instead of a hand crank and no parts to buy or fabricate.

Good luck.

 

[moeh1]

Sorry Jonathan,
I was off on vacation. I did custom make a split sprocket, but I bolted it together and that generates good clamping pressure ( similar to a split collar for a shaft). I bored the sprocket to the winch diameter on a lathe. I drilled the holes before I cut the sprocket in half, then tapped one side and re-drilled the other side to allow screw clearance. I also put a screw in the set screw hole that went into the winch where the cable was locked in, so I'm certain it won't go anywhere. The whole operation isn't hard if you have access to a lather or a frinely machinist, it took just a bit longer than this note...
I hadn't thought about welding it in place, I was still in experiment mode and my setup didn't harm the winch's original funtion at all.

 

[GUS FINK]

Do you remember where you got hydrawlic motor