Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Making a new snow-blower chute
First step is to warm up the shop.
So fire up the wood stove.
Take a 2 foot long piece of 1/4 inch wall, six inch diameter PVC sewer pipe saved from what was left on my lawn by the road crew when they re-did the sewers mains 6 years ago.
Run it through the table saw and take about an inch and a half out of it lengthwise.
Set in on the cross cut slide and make two cuts five inches long, perpendicular to the original lengthwise split, twelve inches up from one end.
Like so
Using the plumber's torch heat up the remaining area at the last cut to soften it and force the thing in to a 20 degree or so bend. Drill and bolt corners to hold bend. Some additional heat was needed to bend the corners and make it all fit. Caution burning PVC gives of some nasty and likely poisonous fumes.
Drill and fit to snow-blower.
Try and cut though four foot tall frozen snow bank left by plow truck across you driveway.
Reward yourself with home made chicken and cilantro sauce pizza.
Nice shop, I like the way you work and then reward yourself....yum!
ReplyDeleteYes Doc, got have some good food other-ways things start getting bleak.
Deletethe pizza was a good reward for the hard work!
ReplyDeleteYes Jaz and there was even some beer to go with it.
DeleteGood work Mike, I like your barrel stove, make it yourself? Ah! Pizza, one of my favorite foods to eat.
ReplyDeleteYea the stove is one of those Voglezang kits where you get the feet the door and the flue collar and you provide the barrel. http://vogelzang.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=59_105
DeleteI think I paid about 75 $ for it when i bought it
I figured after ten years of use I'd have had to replace the barrel but it has held out just fine.
Good reward. Few things beat homemade pizza! I'm forever glad I don't have to own a snow blower!
ReplyDeleteA snow blower is indispensable here. Its either that or a plow truck and that's a bit pricey. When we bought it, the house had a jacuzzi where the back deck is now. I sold that for 2K$ and used the funds to buy the blower and the riding mower. They both have served me well but now 10 years on they need mending on a fairly regular basis.
ReplyDeleteImprovisation can be handy and save a lot of money. It's amazing how something that appears to be scrap or junk sometimes turns out to be exactly what you need for an important job.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell Harry, the chute I broke was also a home made one as the original broke long ago and underwent a number of repairs til I could no longer make it work properly. It had so many patches it would not let the snow flow smoothly without clogging. So I made one out of the same sewer pipe and it held well. I figured it was stronger than the original as it was thicker. I was really surprised when it shattered. Good thing I saved the green pipe in my scrap pile. When I saved it I had no idea how handy it would be. Every one needs a junk pile to source materials for mending and building things.
DeleteYou may not be a Yankee by birth, but you've certainly acquired the ingenuity.
ReplyDeleteYea mark, necessity is the mother of invention, or you can be a cheap-prick like me and just refuse to spend 40 $ on a new dinky Crapsman made plastic chute only to have it shattered again a year later. So far cost on the home made version is nil, and I have enough material for 2 or 3 more. Would like to make one out of 1/4 inch aluminum plate that I have a bunch of also scrounged from a dumpster, but I am not sure if it would work as I could go though the trouble of TIG welding it up and then have it not work due to slop snow freezing to it.
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