Wear Bar Added to Snow Blower Skid

[whtbaron]

The last hard surfacing rods I bought were branded from Shark, they seem to work ok and were a little cheaper than the name brand ones. I've used Stoody in the past and found the 5/32 harder to work with than the 1/8, but I was welding on cultivator shovels which is thinner material than you have. I did some hard facing on the skids for the blade this year and wish I'd done more. Gravel roads are very abrasive as well.

[Don52]

The upper peninsula of Michigan gets a ton of snow. Here is a picture of ray snowblowing his driveway last week.


-Don

[Don52]

The last hard surfacing rods I bought were branded from Shark, they seem to work ok and were a little cheaper than the name brand ones. I've used Stoody in the past and found the 5/32 harder to work with than the 1/8, but I was welding on cultivator shovels which is thinner material than you have. I did some hard facing on the skids for the blade this year and wish I'd done more. Gravel roads are very abrasive as well.

I did purchase the hardfacing rods on EBay so they were slightly less than half price.

The hardfaced skids has lasted nearly two seasons. The hardfaced skid could go longer, but I would rather not wear the parent metal. The original skid without hardface only lasted one season. I don’t think that I will need very many rods to hardface the area in the red box.

Ray said that he will drop off the skids the next time he is in the lower peninsula of Michigan, which should be in a few weeks.

-Don

[whtbaron]

Manitoba gets it's fair share as well.... more in the forecast for this weekend.

[Don52]

Manitoba gets it's fair share as well.... more in the forecast for this weekend.

Very often when it snows in the upper peninsula, it just rains in the lower peninsula. I am guessing that your snowfall is similar to what Ray gets in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

-Don

[yesindeed]

Can either of you recommend a good stick hardface rod for this application?

-Don

Would the hardfacing leave more marks or scratches on the concrete sidewalk? Sometimes on my little 40 foot wide property i do my elderly neighbors' sidewalks also. its just as easy to do 5 or 6 houses at a time as it is to do just mine. some have paving stones for a front walk.

[Don52]

Would the hardfacing leave more marks or scratches on the concrete sidewalk? Sometimes on my little 40 foot wide property i do my elderly neighbors' sidewalks also. its just as easy to do 5 or 6 houses at a time as it is to do just mine. some have paving stones for a front walk.

I have an asphalt driveway and a concrete sidewalk. I haven’t noticed any marks on either.

-Don

[Don52]

So I finally stick welded some Stoody XHC hardfacing rods on Ray’s skid. I made a solid pad of hardface on the wear are shown above. I also added a bead of hardface longitudinally on the edges of the skid. I did this because the wear was most severe on the edge of the skid.

Skid showing the hardface that I added.


It took me a while to get nice looking beads. At $2 per electrode, I didn’t want to practice too much. The electrodes also behaved very differently compared to the Rockmount hardfacing electrodes that I previously used.

Here is the bottom view of both skids.


I painted the skids so they look nice. I used my 1000 watt shop light to help bake the paint.


-Don

[whtbaron]

I've had to switch brands periodically due to availability as well. Some just like it hotter than others, and depending on what the parent material is, that can be an issue at times. Sometimes it's hard to make them pretty... some brands just seem to attach in gobs. I haven't done much since I got the DC so I'm looking forward to see what it can do relative to the old AC buzz boxes.

[Don52]

I've had to switch brands periodically due to availability as well. Some just like it hotter than others, and depending on what the parent material is, that can be an issue at times. Sometimes it's hard to make them pretty... some brands just seem to attach in gobs. I haven't done much since I got the DC so I'm looking forward to see what it can do relative to the old AC buzz boxes.

So true. On the first hardcoating application, one of the Rockmount electrodes would weld fine for about one inch and then extinguish. I checked with Rockmount and they said that my voltage was too high, which caused the rod to burn up a into the coating causing a deep cup on the end of the electrode. I switched from my Dynasty 200DX welder to the Lincoln 210 MP and it welded fine.

This time I had the opposite problem. I had to increase the arc length as I welded along to keep the arc going out. I found that increasing the DIG function and the welding current from 125 to 130 amps helped. The longitudinal welds on the edge of the skid were the last beads that I made and they went much better than the previous ones.

-Don

[Denis G]

I don't know the first thing about snow blowers, so here comes a stupid question...

Since the skids seem to wear out in short order, isn't there some way to accomplish whatever it is they do with wheels?

Tim

I had a Craftsman 1032 Driftbreaker Snowblower that had wheels on the auger housing (like this one):

It was difficult to keep them from locking up with rust, so you had to keep up with lubrication.

[whtbaron]

So true. On the first hardcoating application, one of the Rockmount electrodes would weld fine for about one inch and then extinguish. I checked with Rockmount and they said that my voltage was too high, which caused the rod to burn up a into the coating causing a deep cup on the end of the electrode. I switched from my Dynasty 200DX welder to the Lincoln 210 MP and it welded fine.

This time I had the opposite problem. I had to increase the arc length as I welded along to keep the arc going out. I found that increasing the DIG function and the welding current from 125 to 130 amps helped. The longitudinal welds on the edge of the skid were the last beads that I made and they went much better than the previous ones.

-Don

I wasn't a big fan of the Stoody's, but again, the 5/32 rods I had were too big for the job. Others on here seem to like them, but I prefer the Shark's. A neighbor dropped off a box of another brand for me to try too. Up here $3 to $5 Cdn./rod isn't uncommon.

[mla2ofus]

I always liked the Stoody 31 rods. Lays down a thick smooth bead when you get the amps set right.

[Stick-man]

I had an Ariens 1336, 13hp and 36" wide. It had a starting battery mounted on the front. The steel side shoes would dig into the concrete, especially the right side because of the weight of the battery. I made up a set of wheels for it. I took a flat, welded on a round for the axle and used bogie wheels from a Yamaha snowmobile. They only stuck out 1.25 - 1.5"

[Don52]

I had an Ariens 1336, 13hp and 36" wide. It had a starting battery mounted on the front. The steel side shoes would dig into the concrete, especially the right side because of the weight of the battery. I made up a set of wheels for it. I took a flat, welded on a round for the axle and used bogie wheels from a Yamaha snowmobile. They only stuck out 1.25 - 1.5"

If you still have it do you have a picture?

-Don

[whtbaron]

Went back and checked my hard surface rod stash.... The Firepower and the Shark rods are the ones I've been using lately and they both worked well... the MG 769's are the ones I got for free that I haven't tried yet.

[Stick-man]

If you still have it do you have a picture?

-Don

Unfortunately, I do not. I kept the blower at my uncles house. When he passed away, my EX aunt gave MY $2500 Ariens 1336 blower to her F'n brother. And although I had the owners manual, with the serial number, and engine serial number, but no receipt because it was purchased over 20 years prior, the local police said I can't get it back.

However, I can describe exactly how it was done. A piece of maybe 1/8" flat bolted to the side of the blower where the shoe would bolt. The axle shaft was solid round, welded to the flat, in the diameter that fit the Yamaha bogie wheel. The axle had two grooves in it for snap rings to retain the wheel on the inner and outer. The axle was just long enough to keep the wheel as close as possible to the side of the blower.
Did it grab some of the snow because it stuck out......Yes. But it was much better than the steel shoes. If it was clean concrete, the steel shoe would grab on the right side because this blower had a lawn tractor battery on the front. It really sucked to have to fight it. The wheel did help. But now they run the poly shoes which I think would be the best choice if you can try them.