# Snowshoes!



## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 25, 2016)

not much machining related here and I haven't finished my other projects, but the snow's not going to be around forever and some our East Coast buddies might appreciate this 

my wife bought a 2nd hand pair of DIY snowshoes off CL a while back and I tried them out a couple of weekends ago in crazy deep snow. I couldn't figure what everyone was complaining about until I put them on my daughter and then I realised how awesome they are. Hence I need to make 3 more pairs!

bought 2x10ft of 3/4in PVC pipe (the thin walled stuff, should have bought sch40 pipe) and a 90deg elbow for each shoe.

Sophie measured out the halfway mark on each and cut them


We then packed them full of kitty litter (didn't want to buy a bag of sand just for this and our kittens $hit like it's going out of fashion) and plug the end


Then she helped me bend them with the heat gun. First one didn't come out so well, but we learned and the following 3 were much better. We used the treadmill flywheel for the round form and cut the end bend into a chunk of pine.


Glued the ends on with PVC cement



Now we need to cut out the middle bit using an old treadmill belt, then bolt it in place over the sides of the frame. We'll get to that this week sometime. Fun stuff!


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## middle.road (Jan 25, 2016)

Watch the "old treadmill belt" I salvaged one a while back, didn't realize that it was like a steel belted tire only much finer. 
Cut the palm of my hand. Kicker was I had one glove on but I grabbed the piece with the hand that was doing scissor duty.


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## ch2co (Jan 25, 2016)

I always keep at least one pair of snowshoes in my car in the winter. Highly recommended safety equipment in places where the snow might get deep and help might miles away.

CHuck the grumpy old guy


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 25, 2016)

Good tip Dan, thanks. I didn't have any idea what it was made of, so this will make me extra cautious.

Good point Chuck, hadn't thought of that. I keep a box of kitty litter and a fold up shovel in there, might as well do the same with the snow shoes too!


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## brino (Jan 25, 2016)

mattthemuppet said:


> Hence I need to make 3 more pairs!



Hi Matt,

I have plans to build some traditional bent-wood ones for my family, but this looks like a decent project for Scouts.
For several years I co-led Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops. I was always looking for projects that produced something useful and also challenged the boys.
Officially I am retired from being a leader, however, I am busy cleaning up my shop as it's almost time to have them come out to build their Cub Cars and Scout Trucks.

I am watching this thread and am very interested to see how you finish them.

Thanks for posting!
-brino


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## Ulma Doctor (Jan 25, 2016)

great idea Matt!


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## f350ca (Jan 25, 2016)

Neat project Matt. Traditional snow shoes are woven with some material (hide, lacing, stainless wire), if you cover them with a solid belt you may end up with ski's. The lacing gives traction.

Greg


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## Rob (Jan 25, 2016)

Interesting link on making them.


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## David VanNorman (Jan 26, 2016)

Nice snowshoes. I could have used them this week.


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## mattthemuppet2 (Jan 26, 2016)

brino said:


> Hi Matt,
> 
> I have plans to build some traditional bent-wood ones for my family, but this looks like a decent project for Scouts.
> For several years I co-led Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops. I was always looking for projects that produced something useful and also challenged the boys.
> ...



funny you should say that brino, I was talking to our admin person and she said that her son had built PVC pipe snowshoes in Cub Scouts! This would be an awesome project, just use sand instead of kitty litter and go with the Sch40 pipe not the thin wall stuff. We'll get back to these this weekend as I'm busy making a temporary pulley for my lathe so i can rebush my spindle pulley



Ulma Doctor said:


> great idea Matt!



thanks!



f350ca said:


> Neat project Matt. Traditional snow shoes are woven with some material (hide, lacing, stainless wire), if you cover them with a solid belt you may end up with ski's. The lacing gives traction.
> 
> Greg



good point Greg, much appreciated. The DIY ones we bought and the commercial ones my friend has have bolted on paddles on the bottom, so I'm going to duplicate that. Plus I'll leave the through screws their original length, so that will provide a little more bite too.



Rob said:


> Interesting link on making them.



very handy, thanks!



David VanNorman said:


> Nice snowshoes. I could have used them this week.



thanks, I'm feeling for you all on the East Coast. I used to live in central PA, so I would have been in it (if not as bad) if we'd still been there. Here it was 13C the day the storm hit you


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## mattthemuppet2 (Feb 3, 2016)

sadly no progress, work and family stuff took up all of last weekend and I'm off for an interview this weekend so it's 16h days to do my job and prepare for the interview! Fingers'n'toes crossed!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Mar 15, 2016)

interview didn't work out so well, but now it's Spring Break and I grabbed some time to work on the snow shoes! Finished one completely and used that to cut the patterns for the others so they went much faster. Just have to lace up the remaining 3 and we're done!








cleats were made out of some random brackets a friend at work gave me, all the bolts and most of the washers were salvage from various things I've stripped down (the ss bolts were from a laser spectrometer!) and obviously the black stuff was from a treadmill belt. No steel reinforcement that I could determine, just fiber and rubber. Perhaps the steel containing one was from a pro grade machine?

Anyway, the belting arrangement, although fiddly, should hold the boot well. I'll lace 'em up before leaving and get the kids to step into and out of them, to save fiddling with them in the snow. Speaking of which, there's still some left (another friend went up last weekend and snow camped in a snow shelter!) so we'll head up this Sunday and try them out!


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## JimDawson (Mar 15, 2016)

Sorry the hear the interview didn't go well.  But the snowshoes are looking good!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Mar 15, 2016)

No worries, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Doesn't matter how good you do, if someone else does that little bit better, or has another paper published, or doesn't require visa sponsorship, or isn't (and this is more of a stretch) a white male in a white male dominated industry, then they get the offer and you don't. Anyway, I have another interview, which I should be preparing for now , on Friday in central PA just down the road from where I lived before. Fingers crossed I'll know by the end of next week.

As for the snowshoes, I'm totally pumped to try them out with the kids, I think they'll have a blast! It's always fun to start with a pile of materials and an idea, then end up with something useful


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## mattthemuppet2 (Mar 15, 2016)

that didn't take long 



new ones on the left, a borrowed pair in the middle and the original DIY pair my wife bought off CL that started this whole thing  All in, including the original pair, the poles and the materials, total cost was ~$30


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## Ulma Doctor (Mar 15, 2016)

nice work Matt,
Good Luck on the next interview!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Mar 15, 2016)

thanks Mike, working on it right now  Fingers'n'toes crossed!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Mar 22, 2016)

snowshoes worked a treat! Admittedly it was fairly hard packed due to the warmth, but they still helped. Have to wait to next winter (if we're still here) to try them in fluffy powder.


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