Blade Angle?

[85Hokie]

skeets,

I have seen it done a couple of ways, but believe it or not the friction of the pipe closing itself around the blade is rather tight! When taking a piece of PVC pipe through a table saw to "slit it" is not fun either. The internal strain on the pipe constantly wants to bind on the kerf that the blade left behind! Once you get to the end of the pipe, it has closed right back up! Getting the thing on the blade is now fun - sliding it over one end and give it a little love tap to slide it down. I have seen some "cap" the ends so it cannot slide off, but most of the time the bottom "flattens" out and then snaps in half. Very cheap to do, even if you are cutting with a circular saw. I have found that cutting on a table saw is not all that bad if you leave the logo of the company up as a line to see if it is tracking down the fence properly. I have seen some people allow the pipe to be longer on the ends, slide a bolt through(not through blade) to bind it, however, this can be snapped off if the end catches a hard spot. Cold PVC snaps quickly!

 

[ipz2222]

I seems to me that the round pvc would just ride up on the snow, but if it works, it works.

 

[Parshal]

So, I played around a bit with the upper arm and I was able to get it to skip a bit less but it still did it. I took the experience of other posters on the thread and got some 2" PVC and put it on the bottom of the blade. Wow, that really works. I can remove most of the snow and what's left melts off with the sun. If you haven't tried the PVC you should give it a shot. It was easy to cut with a table saw and a 2.5 lbs. hammer helped me tap it on the blade.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

AWESOME! one of my theories worked out.... now just to see how long it holds up for!

 

[Parshal]

My driveway is sand right now so it ought to last a very long time. We hope to put down gravel in the summer.

 

[85Hokie]

Aw yes, cheap technology at its best!
I would like to compare a 2" pvc versus say 1 1/2" pvc or even 3" pvc....
I would think that the 1 1/2 would work better than 3", might be harder to place on the blade.
Even if it only last a "few" snow scrapings, at the cost it is a nice way to move most of the snow without screwing up the gravel etc.!

 

[Parshal]

I almost went with 1.5" which I think might have worked better as well. I hadn't measured the thickness of the blade which is why I went with 2". Once this one wears out I'll replace it with the 1.5" just to see.

 

[85Hokie]

I almost went with 1.5" which I think might have worked better as well. I hadn't measured the thickness of the blade which is why I went with 2". Once this one wears out I'll replace it with the 1.5" just to see.

you would have a lot of use for pushing snow, I wonder in the midst of pushing snow the pvc breaks and you had another one ready to go, how long would it take you to swap out? 10 minutes?

If I was gonna do this, I would go to lowes, buy a 10' , cut in half ( assuming you have a five foot blade) run 'em both through the saw, and have that backup ready to go!.

I would like to know the "life" of a pipe! Rubbing on gravel and asphalt, concrete etc ought to wear a flat spot on the bottom quickly!

 

[Parshal]

I actually have an 8' blade. It took about 5 - 7 minutes to hammer the PVC on the blade once I got the tractor moved out into the open. Interestingly, I cut mine to 7' by mistake and had to cut another 12" piece so I have a "seam" on the blade near one end. It will be interesting to see how long that stays without pulling away if I catch the corner of the blade on something. It hasn't moved at all so far and I can barely tell there's a seam there.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

You must have different snow there in Colorado, if I were to drag a piece of PVC pipe across our snow, I one would have a ski slope groomed drive, and it would probably melt completely off somewhere around June.
I'm willing to bet you don't have any Ice on the ground and your grounds not frozen a foot deep either.

Right now I have 3" or so of Ice on the drive and the road, It was snowing sleeting when the temps dropped to -15 a couple weeks ago.

 

[Parshal]

Our snow is more like Boise where it melts in a couple days and we typically have sunshine right after a snowstorm. It stays in the shady northern exposures a bit longer. The driveway outside the garage is unfortunately shaded but does eventually melt. With the blade and PVC I get a hardpack which I can drive on.

Northern Idaho is more like Montana where there's a real winter.

 

[Parshal]

After a few more uses with the PVC I've found the PVC has cracked and come off the blade. I'm thinking I need to use larger diameter PVC so as not to stress it so much given the thickness of the blade. Or, figure out how to cut 1/2" from the tube rather than a single saw line down the tube.

 

[olthumpa]

Or, figure out how to cut 1/2" from the tube rather than a single saw line down the tube.

Dado blades and a table saw. If you do not have a set of dado blades or do not want to buy them, for your purpous of cutting a 1/2" out of a PVC pipe, you could use 2 or 3 regular blades with washers in between then to keep the blade teeth form hitting each other. This is not a recommended way to make a cut but will bet the job done.

Just a thought

 

[Parshal]

Good idea!