POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[dkemppai]

Tis just a little snow

Yep! lol.

Which is fine, until all the mat melted weeks ago. Now using the blower on all the new gravel is like trying to rake leaves out of the yard with a bulldozer...

 

[woodchucker]

Just keep the front high. Or make a set of wheels that won't freeze solid, or an inclinometer to keep your manual tilt true.

 

[dkemppai]

Just keep the front high. Or make a set of wheels that won't freeze solid, or an inclinometer to keep your manual tilt true.

Yeah, been thinking about the problem. It's gonna take more thinking. Blower is front mount on the tractor, 72", 1500lbs. It really needs a removable skid plate made with a UHMW or similar skid surface. Something that slides well, with a wedge and leading edge that takes the bottom 1.5" of snow and packs it down, while blowing the upper umpteen inches away. Have some ideas, just need of find time to make it.

Right now I have a 2" round sch 80 pipe split and attached to the bottom. Problem is the point loading is high enough that the drag on the snow bunches up a block of snow and gravel ahead. Until it stops than rams into the blower. The thing works fine on grass or hard packed dirt. Not so much on loose gravel. And the UPS guy goes so fast on it he makes washboard, which the blower happily trims flat, throwing the rest into the yard.

Doesn't matter what I do. I'm sure I'll loose this battle somehow. lol

 

[woodchucker]

Full size tractor, right? Not a lawn tractor. Isn't it using the front end loader hydraulics?

 

[dkemppai]

Full size tractor. Kubota, mid PTO, 4pt front mount hitch with blower. Hydraulic lift, down pressure, and float, shoot angle adjustment. No tip/tilt adjustment in the design. That's really the biggest problem.

This isn't mine, but the same thing:

https://www.kubotausa.com/images/default-source/features/0215_l3560_cab_snowblower_7037.jpg

 

[woodchucker]

Full size tractor. Kubota, mid PTO, 4pt front mount hitch with blower. Hydraulic lift, down pressure, and float, shoot angle adjustment. No tip/tilt adjustment in the design. That's really the biggest problem.

This isn't mine, but the same thing:

https://www.kubotausa.com/images/default-source/features/0215_l3560_cab_snowblower_7037.jpg

can't you just lower it to 2-3 inches above the ground.

 

[dkemppai]

can't you just lower it to 2-3 inches above the ground.

You'd think so. If the driveway was perfectly flat that would be fine. The problem is the blower is cantilevered out so far that it swings up/down with any uneven ground. You end up with a little bump, front tires hit it, and go up. Then the blower goes up twice that much. Then the back tires hit the bump, causing the blower to drop twice as much. The next bump the blower just created is even worse. So each dip/rise gets worse, it's a positive feedback loop. You end up twiddling the joystick constantly trying to stop that.

What the blower really needs is a flat pad that glides on the snow, and will keep the blower 1.5" to 2" above the gravel. The pipe works fine on grass. The blower without the pipe works fine if there's any mat built up. It's just getting that first mat, or when it all melts in the spring.

The biggest problem with the pipe is it's steel, so it doesn't slide at all. Works fine on grass, that's pinned down better than the gravel. On the gravel it grabs and pushes gravel/snow.

A solid flat pad of something slippery, would reduce the PSI loading on the snow that the gravel would stay put. If the nose were angled up 1.5"-2" it would never grab gravel. Painted steel might do the trick too.

I've been dealing with this for 11 winters now. Someday I will fix it! Usually just pack the first few snowfalls with a roller. That makes 2" of mat, and then it's good for winter.

 

[woodchucker]

got it, makes sense now. I had a feeling it was the unlevel ground. rolling it definitely makes sense.

 

[rabler]

@dkemppai, almost better off with the loader bucket, where you can set the angle of the bucket and float the arms. That's how I've done it here the few times we've had enough snow to worry about. Definitely slower having to pile it though. And yes, I'm guilty of mowing my lawn yesterday.

Got the cross DRO scale in place. Have secured the wire harness even though this picture was before that. Decided to wait on painting the mounting pieces until I've had some time to run/test it in use.


Old lathes tend to be a little messy but this one was out of control at the change gear end. You can see the cat litter on the floor trying to stay ahead of it. Originally thought one of the headstock shaft seals was leaking, but after a lot of messing around, it looks like the oil was coming from the QCGB, which is an open bottom total loss design. Oil that drips straight down ends up in the tray underneath, but some was getting caught up in the change gear train and splashing up on the belt guard on the left in this picture, then running down that guard to the floor. I'm attempting to caulk a piece of rubberized fiberglass matt, that I originally bought as way cover, to that belt guard so that the oil running down gets redirected into the tray. Maybe I need to be a little more stingy with the oil in the cup for the QCGB too, although that seems potentially troublesome.


Also, while digging through the box with the cross slide scale, I found this long missing "E D C" label for the QCGB. Presumably a victim of the move to the new shop, as the scale was still in the other building. A little spray paint and a few drive screws and it is once again clear which order things go in for the gears. My intiution was always that it should be in reverse order "C D E".


This plate is old and not the easiest to read since it sits below belt height, but this thing does have a nice selection of threads/feeds:

Somehow though I doubt I'll ever use 92 TPI threading.

 

[rabler]

No tip/tilt adjustment in the design. That's really the biggest problem.

Replace the top links with turnbuckles like what is used on the top link in a rear mount 3pt hitch.