Hey all. Now that summer is over it's time to remove the MMM and get ready to install the snowblower. But as anyone who has an MMM knows (particularly the 60 inch!), it's ridiculously big and heavy off of the tractor. All of us need a good way to store this beast in our garage, and perusing the web I've seen some of you guys come up with great solutions. Particularly Larry and his moweraxle solution, and the rest of you natural fabricators!
Well, I'm not one of them! I do not own a welder or lathe or steel cutting apparatus, so I wanted to build something using off-the-shelf, big box store parts, and I think I got it done. Here's how I did it.
What you'll need:
4 x 5/8 in. pneumatic (or solid) tires - 5/8 in. hub. Got mine from Harbor Freight, part # 69385, on sale for $3.99/ea
2 x 5/8 in. threaded rods, 1 foot lengths from HD or Lowes ($2.24 ea I think?)
4 x 5/8 in. hex nuts ($.35 ea)
8 x 5/8 in. lock washers ($.32 ea)
2 x 1/2 in. x 6 in. black steel pipe nipple (roughly $2/ ea)
A Dremel and a round file
First steps are elementary:
1) Attach a wheel to the threaded rod using lock washers and hex nuts. *Note, the hex nut you see on the inside of the hub will actually not fit when this thing is fully constructed, I just put it there for the picture.
Another view
2) Note that, out of the bag, my 1/2 in. iron pipe would not fit over the end of the threaded rod
This is because there's a seam ruanning along the length of the pipe on the inside, and an internal seam right at the very ends of the pipe on both ends
3) You will need to buzz out the end seams with the Dremel and the length-wise seam using the round file. I'm not sure of the name of the Dremel bit I used but it looked like this
**Continued next post!
Well, I'm not one of them! I do not own a welder or lathe or steel cutting apparatus, so I wanted to build something using off-the-shelf, big box store parts, and I think I got it done. Here's how I did it.
What you'll need:
4 x 5/8 in. pneumatic (or solid) tires - 5/8 in. hub. Got mine from Harbor Freight, part # 69385, on sale for $3.99/ea
2 x 5/8 in. threaded rods, 1 foot lengths from HD or Lowes ($2.24 ea I think?)
4 x 5/8 in. hex nuts ($.35 ea)
8 x 5/8 in. lock washers ($.32 ea)
2 x 1/2 in. x 6 in. black steel pipe nipple (roughly $2/ ea)
A Dremel and a round file
First steps are elementary:
1) Attach a wheel to the threaded rod using lock washers and hex nuts. *Note, the hex nut you see on the inside of the hub will actually not fit when this thing is fully constructed, I just put it there for the picture.
Another view
2) Note that, out of the bag, my 1/2 in. iron pipe would not fit over the end of the threaded rod
This is because there's a seam ruanning along the length of the pipe on the inside, and an internal seam right at the very ends of the pipe on both ends
3) You will need to buzz out the end seams with the Dremel and the length-wise seam using the round file. I'm not sure of the name of the Dremel bit I used but it looked like this
**Continued next post!