Yet *another* Snowblower chute conversion.

[SensibleNick]

At this time last year I was axles deep in snow. Now it's just rain.

Just had time to bolt on the bits I made to convert my snowblower's chute to electro-mechanical rotation and erm... whatever the name is for the other motion

Parts are cut from 5mm stainless steel plate, the rollers are turned from 50mm barstock POM plastic (Polyoxymethylene) with phosphor-bronze bushings in them.

The linear actuator (not got it's motor on it at the moment) is from an office desk (but I shortened it by about 150mm to get it to fit). The Bosch motor on it is 24VCD, but runs happily on 12, and although slow, will lift me off the ground.

The other motor is to all intents and purposes like a windscreen wiper unit, but was from a garage door opener - Already fitted with a handy sprocket and with a crucial difference: it is not "negative earth". :thumbsup:

It's not the fastest when it comes to movement, but then again it's not the most expensive system either

I've made a sort of joystick to control it, and I'll try to get that rigged as soon as possible. And according to the forecasts, it probably won't snow this year.

 

[yelbike]

Wow slick set up!:thumbsup: Want to make another one??:ashamed:

 

[rsewill]

Very nice!

 

[SensibleNick]

Right.... I've finished the Joystick, and got the wiring mostly sorted. It is an incredibly simple setup really.

The chute takes 7 seconds for a 180degree sweep, and the top bit takes 5 seconds from fully down to fully up. Far from speedy, but the childish part of me (95%) wants to be able to accurately pile snow with the blower... so smooth slow movements are preferable .... (managing to convince myself that slow = good )

This is how the wiring's done... and yes, there's a fuse in reality

The Joystick has 4 micro-switches in IP67 housings. (should be jet-washable in theory, so a bit of snow and wind will be fine)

The wiring joints (dead simple) in a wee plastic box... and that's currently full of resin to "pot" it and make sure it never shakes loose or gets water problems.

And the whole joystick assembly ready to be bolted somewhere handy

 

[harleyboy]

NICE!
Did you use a water cutter to cut the plate?
I hope you get to try it. We are snowless here but I know it will come.
HB

 

[SensibleNick]

Yup: I've got a waterjet at my disposal at work It's a "Beveljet" from WaterJetSweden. (capable of 48 degree cuts and taper angle control in materials up to 160mm thick)

It really opens a new world of capabilities and possibilities: the only problem is encouraging people to *think* in 2D and to design things that can be made with it - the tendency is to still design things that need to be milled from blocks of material when it would be faster, cheaper and more fun to fabricate from cut plate and attack it with a TIG

If you look closely you'll see the rings are made from 2 arcs welded together: it is far more sparing than cutting 2 huge parts and wasting the disk in the middle

This time last year it was taking me 6 hours to clear the driveway with FEL bucket and back-blade .... and now it's 8 degrees above freezing with no snow on the forecast... I want to PLAY!!!!!

 

[yelbike]

Six hours???? To clear snow? How much snow do you get over there? How long is you driveway?:confused2:

 

[SensibleNick]

Six hours???? To clear snow? How much snow do you get over there? How long is you driveway?:confused2:

200+ meters, but it's not really the volume of the snow that's the problem, it's the way it drifts. This place is pretty flat, and windy... the result is inevitable. Look closely in the photos... you can see bare grass in some areas, yet piles if snow elswhere :licking:

I didn't have a snowblower last year... And once I'd made a nice channel for the snow to drift into, it all went brilliantly wrong

The problem came really when I could no longer pile the snow higher with the FEL, and the snow then froze solid.

It's all good fun really

 

[yelbike]

That won't happen now that you blow the snow. My neighbour uses a plow on an atv. Last year we had a good snow year. By the end of the snow season hit couldn't move with atv. I had no problem with that......more fun for me, when I'm done my drive then I clean his.:laughing:

 

[SensibleNick]

That won't happen now that you blow the snow. My neighbour uses a plow on an atv. Last year we had a good snow year. By the end of the snow season hit couldn't move with atv. I had no problem with that......more fun for me, when I'm done my drive then I clean his.:laughing:

Yup... I know I created the problem, but it was my first winter with the tractor and I thought I could get away with it I also spent a lot of time fixing my neighbour's place too.... on the back of last winter he now has an ATV with a snowplough ....

I get a lot of my fun from helping others, and was a wee bit gutted when I had to pass on my neighbour's plea for help when I couldn't even get out with the tractor.

But this is the horrible thing... This snowblower has yet to see snow, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that we'll get any snow this year