SSQA FEL snowplow build

[dstig1]

I decided to put the build all in one place, so it is easier for others to find if they want to reference it later on.

Here's what it cost me. I did well more than was absolutely necessary, but I will keep it for a lifetime, so I prefer to do it right now.

Plow Used	175
Cushion valve, hoses, fittings Surplus Ctr	165
Angle cylinders - Baileys	125
Cutting edge & rear shoes Northern	175
SSQA Plate- Lang Equip, Wisc	200
Steel	85
Sandblast media	40
Moldboard - St Croix Fab	120
Paint	90
Oxygen 2 tanks	80
Hardware, parts - Fleet Farm	85
Total	1340

And here was the donor plow. An old rusted Meyers ST90 7.5' plow that came without the hydraulics/pump/etc, which was why it was so cheap.

 

[dstig1]

Some of the problems:
Moldboard was pretty rotted out. I ended up cutting it out and replacing it:



The frame was bent in a few spots. Here is a bad bend in the sector (the end on the left) I had to straighten. It was worse than the pic shows.



Peeling off the moldboard skin with the torch was nasty work:

 

[dstig1]

I sandblasted everything. That was another learning experience.

Here is the basic tent I used to help contain the mess.



And the sector, A-Frame, and moldboard frame blasted and cleaned up nicely.



Sandblasting is dangerous work, and you need to protect your lungs properly. Here is the Full face and P100 filters I used for this. Worked great and I could not smell or taste any of it while I had the mask on. The white hood was just the cheapo that came with the sandblaster, but it kept the main grit off of me. I had the respirator on under that.

 

[dstig1]

Next up, I needed to get a new skin for the moldboard. I had a local shop do it as they could roll it to fit. I dropped off the frame and let them do it when they had time. It was not much more than it would have cost me for a sheet of 11 ga steel, so it was well worth it. Besides, you ever try bending 11ga steel by hand? Not fun. Here it is lying on the frame before welding. The frame was still warped so it took some serious clamping to get it all together during welding. I just worked from one side (cutting edge side) to the other in stages.



I made some changes to reinforce the sector to eliminate the potential to bend again like it did before. Straightening the bend:



Adding more support. I saw a similar setup in another TBN member's plow, and it looked good to me, so I duplicated.



Here is the mess the PO had done that had failed badly. I should have cut this out before blasting, but no biggie.

 

[dstig1]

Designing and building the mount

I started with a heavy duty 3/8" solid SSQA plate from ebay. No sense reinventing the wheel, and again, I could buy the steel for this price. I had shortened the A-Frame by about 4-5" and welded a new crosspiece from angle back there, since I had plenty of it. I also added tubes to mount rear skid shoes and did a really awful job of torching out the holes and welding them in :ashamed: Here is the back view with the plate tacked in place that shows all that.



To reinforce the mount on the front I coped in a couple pieces of 3/8" thick 3x3 angle around the stop section of the A-frame. These were very time consuming to fit, but I got them in pretty well. I had to adjust them back at the suggestion of member LD1 so they didn't interfere with the sector movement. (thanks LD1!:thumbsup

 

[dstig1]

Then I primed it, especially areas I wouldn't be able to get to later, and welded it all up. Not the most horrible welding, but could be plenty better. Need more practice... Given the way it was designed/braced and the welds beveled, I am not worried about strength. Here's a close-up of the good welds. I won't show all the others... :laughing:



I didn't take any photos of welding up the moldboard skin, but I fully welded all the seams to keep water out. It doesn't need all that weld for strength, but I wanted to seal it up so it doesn't rust inside the ribs like it did before. Rust just poured out of the ribs once I freed the old skin from it. I'm trying to avoid that. I had to build up weld on the center ribs as the frame was bent enough to not sit flat there. It took me a full day with setup and everything to weld on the moldboard. I'm sure others would be faster, but it was a lot of work. It was probably over 40-50' of weld bead, especially with the extra build up I did for the center ribs.

Then it was on to final paint in my makeshift garage paint booth. It is an explosion of Orange!

 

[dstig1]

And finally today I got it fully assembled and mounted over at my friend's place (where the tractor lives at the moment). I still need to make the hoses a bit longer as I miscalculated and they can be damaged if someone pushes the plow to full dump, so I will extend those another 2' and add a decal that is on order just for giggles. Other than that, it is ready for snow!








I'll add final pics once I get the decal in place, but that may be a couple weeks or more.

 

[94BULLITT]

Nice thread. The plow looks good on the tractor. What kind of decals are you going to get for it, kubota?

 

[dstig1]

Thanks! Yeah. Getting a kubota sticker off ebay

 

[JCByrd24]

Very nice job on the build. Personally I would have used a chain to keep any excess down pressure off the plow shoes/cutting edge, but your loader mounted shoes are a great alternative. I can't tell front the pics but makes sure your shoes are adjusted so the sector is level when everything is floating so you don't gouge with the corners of the plow when angled.