Which Side Of The Impeller, Does It Matter?

[Trillium Farm]

As promised, a few shots for entertainment...

They seem normal to me !

 

[leonz]

Again, it all depends on how much work you want to put toward it, and if you have time to putter and a place where you can lift the blower up to work on it or lots of blocking to raise it a little at a time to a work height on four good sawhorses.

As old as it is I would rather see you sell it and invest in a MK Martin single stage three point hitch mounted snow thrower as it has fewer parts and no second stage impeller to rob power.
It uses a single stage snow blower rotor and the snow blower rotor rotates at 600 plus Revolutions Per Minute to discharge the snow pack without having snow build up in front of the snow blower as is normal with 2 stage snow blowers.

 

[IXLR8]

How are you going to balance the impeller after adding the bits and pieces?

 

[Chaos USMC]

Don't have a clue... Probably won't even try.

Thinking if I drill a couple of holes in the same location on each impeller blade, and bolt on an identical piece of conveyor belt, hoping balance will not be to big of a problem.

Any other options you know of to insure a close balance?

Thanks.

 

[PILOON]

Don't have a clue... Probably won't even try.

Thinking if I drill a couple of holes in the same location on each impeller blade, and bolt on an identical piece of conveyor belt, hoping balance will not be to big of a problem.

Any other options you know of to insure a close balance?

Thanks.

Have to agree with you, after all not a turbine engine.
At 550 RPM you won't feel wobble.

I did exactly as U suggest on my 3 bladed fan when I replaced the fan blade supports.
In my case the parts I made were a considerable size (1/4 X 2 X 5) and involved welding.
No vibration at 550, nothing at 725 but noticeable at 1000

An did that 4 years back!

 

[bob 59912]

I pulled the impeller on my 74", 2 stage, 3Pt snowblower to line the impeller housing and chute with Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, due to all the gravel roads / driveways I do in my neighborhood.

Before I resulted to the torch, I purchased several 5/8" bolts of various lengths about an inch apart. The first was about an 1" longer than the original bolt that I removed with an impact wrench. The bolt head was center drilled so it would fit the centering piece of a 3 arm puller. PB blaster, threading the longer bolt into the shaft and using the puller removed the impeller relatively easy, using successively longer 5/8 bolts. Geting out the rusted key took awhile.

My four blade impeller is heavy. Using the longest 5/8" bolt it was possible to align the impeller to the shaft and then spin the shaft to align the keyway, while holding the weight using a come-along through the chute opening from by boom pole. Lots of anti-seize to make it easier to uninstall in the future if needed. Used the series of 5/8" bolts to push the impeller back onto the shaft.

Went to an industrial supply place to get replacement bearings for the auger while it was out. The shaft locks for these bearings used eccentric centers so they would have more contact area once installed on the shaft . Come-along / boom pole arrangement made removing and reinstallation of the auger easy, as well as positioning / aligning the sprocket for the chain drive of the auger easy.

 

[rScotty]

This is just to get me on the TBN list to get updates on this thread. We are high desert here & don't get enough snow to make a snowblower worthwhile, but I think they are fascinating implements & enjoy reading about them.
rScotty

 

[Chaos USMC]

A 'slip roller' is a tool that has 3 rollers mounted in a triangular fashion with one being adjustable as to the gap.
Generally manually operated via a hand crank. The tighter or closer the 3 rd roller is the tighter the radius of the metal sheet being 'rolled' will be.
Always make nice clean perfect circles.

As to distance attained by blowers the most important is the tip speed of the blower 'fan blades'.
The wider the chute (blade diameter) the higher the velocity hence the greater the distance.
BUT, blade gaps, resistance (rust etc) all will inhibit the desired results.

My blower is a rather poor older design, small diameter drum, 3 bladed and fair impeller gaps.
In my case I have 3 PTO speeds and I have been using my mid PTO (700 ish) speed and it doubles my distance and that without any ill effects.
I did line my chute with HD PVC and that helped greatly especially in the wet snow clogging dept, it's about resistance.
For volume I'd like to modify my fan to a 4 blade configuration. (another project in the making)

Hello again PILOON,

Instead of HD PVC, how about using identical sheets of fiberglass? Did you ever consider it?

Using the slip roller idea, did you actually have the product installed, and if so, any photos you can share?

Thank you....

 

[PILOON]

Hello again PILOON,

Instead of HD PVC, how about using identical sheets of fiberglass? Did you ever consider it?

Using the slip roller idea, did you actually have the product installed, and if so, any photos you can share?

Thank you....

PVC can be shaped easily with heat while fiberglass is brittle.
I'd also suspect that ingesting stones might just shatter FG.

From my aviation background I do know that HDPVC can take one heck of a beating since AC use HDPVC on the bottom of skis for the bush planes.
When the AC lands on snow the combination of weight and speed creates heat, enough that snow melts and subsequently freezes onto a metal ski bottom once stopped.
They coined the phrase "LDR bottoms" meaning low drag resistance.

I have not needed to re line my blower drum however I have seen it done over severely damaged drums.
The fabricator simply pounds out any inner jagged pieces and laws the new liner in place and completes a continuous weld at all seams.
The result is a mere reduction of probably 1/8 - 1/4 inch of the blower cage. (and closes that gap a bit)

 

[pmsmechanic]

So here are my thoughts. I'm of the mind that the piece of rubber should be bolted the the rear of the impeller fin. If it's bolted to the front then the snow needs to slide over the rubber on the way out and that will slow it down. No experience just what I think about it. If you are concerned about the rubber tearing out or folding back then it's quite easy to manufacture a steel support plate to use behind the rubber flap.

I once built a four blade impeller for an IHC 80 snowblower. It was quite easy to balance. I built it using a Browning taper lock hub. I took it to the tire shop and they balanced it in their tire balancer. I had measured all the length's of steel and welding rod and paid attention to how I welded it all together. I needed 1 ounce to balance the assembly.