My Winter Hobby

[tpenfield]

Ive used cobalt bits on heavy stainless steel and it goes though it like s### through a goose.

Yup, I just wish they'd stay off the golf course

It is a snow blower again. . .



I ran the engine for a while last night and engaged the auger. All seems good.

Just got to do an impeller modification, as the gap between auger and housing seems a bit big.



Watch it not snow for the rest of the winter :facepalm:

 

[82rude]

Looking real good .

 

[Big Gee]

Watch it not snow for the rest of the winter...

I'd be OK with that. :joyous:

Your Toro looks great! :thumb:

 

[tpenfield]

All done. . . .

I did the impeller mod and put the remaining stuff back together. I ran the machine for a while and did some demolition of the melting snowbank at the end of the driveway

Bring on the snow !!! . . . except it is going to be in the 40's and 50's this week :facepalm:

 

[tpenfield]

I picked up this Ariens ST824LE today from a family member. He was having trouble with the engine and a mechanic told him to get a new machine. I told him that I would try to fix this one up and we could sell it.

It has the 318cc flathead 8HP Tecumseh engine. . . . it does run poorly, so I'll see what I can do.

 

[tpenfield]

Quick Update . . .

I had thought that winter was pretty much done, but with last week's nor'ester (9" of heavy/wet snow) and tomorrow's prediction of 12"+, it looks like winter is not done yet.

I ordered a new carburetor and a muffler for the Ariens. Those seem to have remedied the engine issues. I ran both a compression test (120 psi) and a cylinder leak test (4%) so the engine seems to be good. The engine runs much better and hangs in there under load.



I sort of wish I was a couple weeks ahead of where I am on this machine, as I could probably have listed it for sale at a decent price with the succession of storms coming our way.

I had to order a new bearing for the impeller and some color matching paint to finish the bucket re-furbishment. When done, the machine should look like new and run well.

 

[GA_Boater]

The way this winter is going, you may still have opportunities to sell the machine! :smow:

 

[tpenfield]

UPDATE:

I finished the machine re-build. In total, I ended up getting a new (and adjustable) carburetor, a new muffler, new starter motor, and a new impeller bearing. Plus the rust reforming spray and Ariens paint. Overall cost of the refurb was about $150.

I put it on CL to see if it will sell before the flowers bloom.

 

[jakedaawg]

Well, if all you are anywhere near me you will be able to put all those pretty blowers to work...

 

[tpenfield]

Well, if all you are anywhere near me you will be able to put all those pretty blowers to work...

I think we may be done with snow for the season, but I was also thinking that about a month ago, then we got 3 storms in a row. I'll leave the Ariens pristine to sell in the Fall.

 

[tpenfield]

It has snowed a couple of times this week, but the temps are too warm for it to accumulate much . . . just melts as it hits the ground. I'll be doing the summer layup work soon, I guess you could call it 'summerizing' which would be analogous to winterizing a boat.

As I have been working on snowblowers over the past couple of years, which included both older and newer machines, I have wondered about the design changes over the years. Primarily, the most noticeable change (to me) has been in the chute that guides the snow on its journey off into where ever you want it to go.

Older machines have shorter chutes that barely extend above the height of the engine, whereas newer machines have chutes that extend up to and even beyond the height of the handle bars. So, a modern-day machine may have a chute that is 50-100% longer than a machine from 25-30 years ago.

I assume that the manufacturers have made this change for performance reasons. Many folks who have dabbled in machine modifications have come to realize the longer chutes do in fact result in the snow projecting significantly further than the same machine with a short chute.

I'm sure there is some physics behind the phenomenon, but I have not found anything definitive that pinpoints the science. . . just wondering what it is about the longer chutes that contributes to the longer throwing distance :noidea:

Maybe it is compacting of the snow as it is contained in the chute for a longer distance/time so it becomes a better projectile ?

Or maybe it is something else . . . just not sure :noidea:

 

[sam am I]

I think the effect is that that the longer chutes creates/forms a much higher consolidation of the masses of particulates (snow flakes) into a tighter stream with more directed energy in a narrower path (as opposed fanning out). Similar to the selection on a garden hose nozzle of jet verses spray or using a shot gun with full choke to decrease the spread of the shot in order to gain better range and accuracy.........

I'd bet that perhaps they could achieve the same effect if they could somehow narrow the stream of snow sooner along its path out, similar again to like a shot gun's choke like setup or garden spray nozzle but, using a longer chute perhaps gives the same result with only a slight bit more running fiction, so it works just as well with less cost of adding more junk......Just guessing though :noidea:

 

[tpenfield]

Dusting off my thread from last year regarding snowblowers . . .

I sold off 2 snowblowers from my 'fleet' of 5. I sold an Ariens ST824LE and a Husqvarna ST224, both for pretty decent $$$. So, now I'm down to 3 machines, which feels rather scant as compared to last year.

My Toro PowerShift 824 (OHV) is going to be my primary machine, the Troy-Bilt 2410 will be its back-up . . . and I relegated the 'tricked out' Toro 521 to the summer house on Cape Cod.

I wanted to put a headlight on the Toro 824 as it does have the electrical connector for a charging system. Similar to the challenges that I had last year, there is just one electrical lead coming out from under the cowl. I'm getting a somewhat odd looking sine wave from the connection, but it is about 30 volts peak-to-peak, so it should be able to run a decent LED utility light.

I have an Optronics TLL30FB light in mind . . . haven't bought it yet, but it is a 12 volt @ 0.75 amp load. Based on my prior year's experience of tapping into the Briggs 305cc power system on my Troy-Bilt, I decided to see if I can get a full wave rectifier to work in the circuit instead of just a simple diode.

My plan was/is to try to put in an isolating (i.e. 1:1) transformer and 'float' the secondary, then tie the '-' lead of the rectifier to chassis ground. I'm not sure this will work, so I thought I would post the schematic for comment.
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I had a spare 120v/12v transformer on hand, so I sacrificed its 'iron' to the cause and made my own isolating transformer with center tap on the secondary. I used 24 GA magnetic wire and did 175 turns on the primary and 175 turns (87/88) on the secondary windings, then re-assembled the iron and casing. I tried a couple configurations of the above schematic . . . 1 with grounding the center tap . . . and another with letting the whole secondary float, grounding only the '-' output of the rectifier.

So far so good, as I'm getting 15 volts DC on my oscilloscope, yet my regular volt meter seems to think it is 30 volts DC :noidea:

I think my next step would be to put a decent load on the output and see if the voltage holds up, etc. Just wanted to see if any electrical guru's out there had any comment or ideas.

I have no idea of what the spec'd power output of the engine's stator (generator) is . . . I have seen some spec'ed at 18 watts and others spec'd at 60 watts. I have a feeling this one is 18 watts, so my plan was to design to a 10 watt load.

The engine is a 1999 vintage Tecumseh 318cc OHV (8 HP)

 

[tpenfield]

Here are a couple of pictures of the transformer and components stuffed into an electronics box, which is about 3"x 4". I'll have to find a place to mount it on the blower. Next step is to order the headlamp . . .
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No snow in the forecast yet, but it certainly has gotten cold enough around here. We did get 8" of snow on November 15th and it lasted for 2 weeks. The final few snow piles melted this past weekend

Just another project to keep me busy during the winter months

 

[sam am I]

Dusting off my thread from last year regarding snowblowers . . .

Hmmmm, not sure but, If I was going to add lights and wanted/required full wave rectification AND was stuck with a frame grounded/referenced stator winding, think I'd lean one of two ways(see below)......Be easy to add a active regulator to either if ya wanted as I'm not sure how much Vout is going to swing from idle through full rev un-reg'd?

Might go from super dim to POOF!!

Might blow out LED's if it deviates too much eh? Tungsten filament might withstand the higher Vout deviations better....

Else and as a work around to active regulation AND with only using/wanting LED lighting, could always add a sealed lead acid batt, that'll hold/clamp Vout down as your xfmr will current limit/saturate roughly at a few amps and the batt will act as a pseudo reg if Vout states to exceed say 14-15 VDC ........

 

[tpenfield]

Thanks for the ideas sam am I . I will see if the FW rectifier works and if not, try one of these designs.

Question . . . where would I ground to in order to achieve the 'isolated' ground, since the stator is grounded to the engine/frame?

BTW - I ordered the Optronics TLL30FB (12 volts @ 0.75 amp load). I think it needs 9.6 volts minimum to operate.

 

[sam am I]

Question . . . where would I ground to in order to achieve the 'isolated' ground, since the stator is grounded to the engine/frame?
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Just follow the schematics (note the two types of grounds I have drawn, gnd #1 and #2 if you will), e.g., the primary side of your xfmr's low side is referenced/grounded (grd 1) to the blowers frame and obviously, the high side of your xfmr's primary side ties to the stator's AC output.........Anything on the secondary side (iso side) of your xfmr is and has its own ground (gnd #2/isolated gnd).You can just make a isolated ground buss bar if you like for anything that lives on that side.

Running a xfmr and tying the two grounds together through either full wave rec configs and/or re-referenced with a bridge rec as in your original schematic above might work, not too sure but, looking at it (just by inspection only, haven't ran a spice simulation), I'm leaning towards its not going to, I think half the bridge is being shorted (or not conducting) out half the cycle and will require, as I've drawn/suggested, both grounds/returns directly reference their own sources and remain isolated from each other.

 

[sam am I]

Below are non-isolated (single point) ground simulations (Sorta kinda can give some insight, might just have to prototype as you have been to be extra sure)

The Center Tapped XFMR Full-Wave config non-iso ground (ground everything to same point) appears to behave.........Might be able to get away with single point ground here.



The Full-Wave Bridge XFMR config non-iso ground (ground everything to same point) appears to NOT behave, not sure whats going on.........As stated above, might just have to prototype as you have been to be extra sure if you're heart set on a full-wave bridge single point ground.

 

[tpenfield]

sam am I what simulation program is that ? Looks interesting :thumb:

 

[sam am I]

Yes, good stuff! Been using it since forever ago. Lots of manu's (more and more nowadays) are all including these spice (LTspice) models along with their data sheets, eval stuff, etc so you can run sim's on the products before you buy. The spice sim's AREN'T always going to behave like the real deal BUT, they'll get ya in the ball park somewhere most of the time.....

https://www.analog.com/en/design-cen...simulator.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTspice