homemadesnowblowerproject
Homemade Snow Blower Project
Project details regarding design and construction of a homemade snow blower for my antique Midland/Motgomery Wards Plow-Trak walking tractor
The picture at the left shows the original Til-Trak snow blower as sold by MW (Montgomery Wards) in the 1950's era. After looking at this it became obvious that I could probably build something like this, and at the same time modify the design to work on my larger Midland/MW Plow-Trak walking tractor.
If you are interested in the walking tractors themselves, or their attachments, there are two discussion groups that you need to check out. These are at
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simplicity_walking_tractors/>
and
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simplicitywalkingtractors/>
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23 August 2008
While the Till-TraK is small and lightweight, my Plow-Trak is larger and quite a bit heaver. It has automobile sized wheels and tires, and sometimes sports a set of automotive tire chains for additional traction. This is why a snow blower for my tractor needs to be custom built to fit the tractor.
Looking at the snow blower picture on the left, you can see that the blower housing is apparently made from a wrap-around section of sheet material with flat end-plates. The rotor is a simple shaft with hubs on each end that support arms and blades to push the snow. The exit port for snow is just a break in the blower housing with triangular vertical pieces supporting a tilt-type output deflection plate.
The next step is to do some CAD (Computer Assisted Design) drawing work for part layout and cutting patterns. As part drawings are developed, they will be posted to the left, under the initial picture of the Til-Trak snow blower unit.
Blow-by-blow construction & assembly information will be posted in this column, with drawings and pictures in the left column.
PLEASE BE PATIENT
THIS IS AN ONGOING PROJECT EFFORT
UPDATES TO THE WEB PAGE WILL BE MADE AS WORK PROGRESSES
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Basic sheet metal layout shapes are now shown to the right. No measurements yet, as this depends on rotor diameter and length.
While original plans were for the body panels to be bent up from aluminium sheet, recent observation indicates that sheet steel may be available as salvage from discarded appliances (washers, dryers, water heaters, etc.) and could be welded together with a MIG welder instead of having to rivet or bolt aluminium parts together. There is also the possibility of using a salvaged hot-water heater tank for the blower body.
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Til-Trak Snow Blower
Til-Trak Tractor
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Plow-Trak
Sheet Metal Body Shapes
- CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE -