Following your project with interest as I built a 58" two stage blower of my own back in the early 90's. I don't have photos right off but will get some soon. I still use it from time to time, but to be honest, it is too big and clumsy for my purposes for the most part. It does come in handy when we get a big storm though and it was great to have when we still lived at our previous place!
I started out with an existing single stage blower that was about 38" wide, but had a 16" auger. I wanted to make the housing taller as well as wider and made it into a two stage unit. I first made the housing taller by cutting it in half horizontally just above the auger center line, then added 10" in between the two. After that was complete, I split it in half vertically right in the middle and widened her out by 20". The next step was to build the 18" fan and housing, then mate it to the main housing. Widening the auger was pretty straight forward as I had access to some 16" repair flights for industrial augers. The PTO on the tractor it was going on was also a 2200 RPM system, so I had to do some reduction using #50 chain and sprockets to get the fan speed down to about 650 RPM. The gearbox for the auger was donated from a smaller unit, but I was able to make it work by mounting it behind the housing and using a cross shaft and another chain to drive the auger from one end, which worked very well. The last thing built was the spout with power rotator (wheel chair gear motor) and hydraulic cylinder on the flipper at the top.
The end result is 3 point mounted on the rear of a Simplicity Pow'r Max rated at 20 HP. My first tests with it were impressive, it throws snow almost too far and I have to be careful about where I aim the spout. The real test came in early spring when the snow was starting to melt. I blew a stretch of old snow drift, along with water and slush from right along the curb line, about a block long. I was blowing more water and slush than snow but I took the entire pass without ever plugging up.
The only equipment I had at the time for building this monster was a drill press, wire feed welder, stick welder, electric drill, sawzall, and the usual hand tools. I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with a design engineer at Loftness, a company that builds snowblowers and other equipment, and learned many tips before I started my design. I am most thankful to that gentleman for his advice on the fan and housing design and the transition to the spout. They were key areas in the performance of the blower.
Anyway, enough about that, I don't want to take away from your project! I'll be looking forward to seeing the end product as this progresses.
I started out with an existing single stage blower that was about 38" wide, but had a 16" auger. I wanted to make the housing taller as well as wider and made it into a two stage unit. I first made the housing taller by cutting it in half horizontally just above the auger center line, then added 10" in between the two. After that was complete, I split it in half vertically right in the middle and widened her out by 20". The next step was to build the 18" fan and housing, then mate it to the main housing. Widening the auger was pretty straight forward as I had access to some 16" repair flights for industrial augers. The PTO on the tractor it was going on was also a 2200 RPM system, so I had to do some reduction using #50 chain and sprockets to get the fan speed down to about 650 RPM. The gearbox for the auger was donated from a smaller unit, but I was able to make it work by mounting it behind the housing and using a cross shaft and another chain to drive the auger from one end, which worked very well. The last thing built was the spout with power rotator (wheel chair gear motor) and hydraulic cylinder on the flipper at the top.
The end result is 3 point mounted on the rear of a Simplicity Pow'r Max rated at 20 HP. My first tests with it were impressive, it throws snow almost too far and I have to be careful about where I aim the spout. The real test came in early spring when the snow was starting to melt. I blew a stretch of old snow drift, along with water and slush from right along the curb line, about a block long. I was blowing more water and slush than snow but I took the entire pass without ever plugging up.
The only equipment I had at the time for building this monster was a drill press, wire feed welder, stick welder, electric drill, sawzall, and the usual hand tools. I was fortunate enough to be able to chat with a design engineer at Loftness, a company that builds snowblowers and other equipment, and learned many tips before I started my design. I am most thankful to that gentleman for his advice on the fan and housing design and the transition to the spout. They were key areas in the performance of the blower.
Anyway, enough about that, I don't want to take away from your project! I'll be looking forward to seeing the end product as this progresses.
![[Image: coffee2.gif]](https://www.machinistgazette.com/Smileys/fantasticsmileys/coffee2.gif)
Terry
Making stuff with old machines.