/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1730294
A 1979 built Sears Craftsman single stage snow blower I got for $5 at a garage sale years ago.

I just let the sun melt it off...

I live in California.

>>1730306
Well unfortunately the city would be up my ass so that’s not an option for me.

>>1730312
I’m sorry.

>>1730294
Cheapass 24" troybilt that I got for 80% off because it got damaged in shipping. The only thing All I needed to do was whack the cowling back into square so the auger wouldn't hit it. Literally 2 hits with a deadblow and I saved like $200.

>>1730294
Mid-80s snapper piece of shit that I've been nursing along for the last 10 years.
Runs well enough to warrant dealing with the yearly bullshit over spending $1500 on a decent new one or gambling on a used one of similar capacity.

a 2008 troybuilt 2410 that the auger gearbox shit itself half way into a storm last weak, leaving me to shovel for on and offlike 12 hours the following day. Bolt in the impeller shaft broke, couldn't get it out and ended up just buying a new brass gear and impeller shaft.
spent 2 and a half hours trying to buy a fucking grade 8 5/16 24 bolt today, tractor supply didn't have any fully threaded ones of the length I need, industrial supplies were closed, ace hardware was closed and home depot had fucking grade 8 nuts and washers but no fucking BOLTS and now I have to wait until monday because fastenel isn't open till then.

going fucking berserk

>>1730437
Yikes that sucks.

>>1730294
Nothing because we aint got shit in northeast oklahoma besides a dusting in a decade

>>1730461
At least you have plenty of meth.

>>1730472
kek

>>1730437
We’ll see how well this electric snow thrower holds up. Electric means less moving parts.

>>1730491
$20 on it having worst build quality than a gimicky ryobi tool

>>1730492
I inboxed it a few hours ago. It’s metal where it should be. Seems pretty sturdy but It’s not meant for big jobs. As long as it’s used within its limitations it should be ok. My uncle has a whole fleet of EGO products and they’ve all held up well. He mows a pretty big yard with their electric mower and we cut down a dozen trees with an EGO chainsaw earlier this fall. If I hadn’t seen his EGO products in action I wouldn’t have considered buying it.

>>1730507
Snow blower is next level compared to lawn mowers or a chainsaw given how much work it's doing, lawnmower is a spinning blade cutting grass, where a snowblower has to pick up and physically move heavy material.
Unless you got real light powdery snow I am pretty skeptical.

>>1730516
These guys had a great idea to take some snow blowers to an ice rink and have the zamboni collect a bunch of snow for them to test with. As a hockey player for most of my life I make an tell you the snow it collects is decently heavy and dense and it seems to cut through it just fine.

https://youtu.be/klNVTShQyt4

>>1730294
I just broke the bank on the Toro Powermax HD 928. Havent even taken it out of the crate yet. its a beast though. I have a big driveway and I needed a new snowblower that could really throw the snow far.

>>1730437
>bolt in the impeller shaft
It's probably a shear pin, or supposed to be one. Don't replace with a grade 8 unless you want to wreck your snowblower.

>>1730536
Does the impeller use shear pins? The Toro I bought doesnt have shear pins...so Im assuming it has a clutch? I was looking at a Cub Cadet, but everything I read said the shear pins are pretty much paper....no thanks.

>>1730536
If it was as easy as all 4 shear pins being broken, it wouldn't have even warrant mentioning because I'd just replace them with bolts for the day and not shovel 20 tons of snow.
The impeller shaft with the worm gear that goes into the auger gear box, and the other end has a single threaded hole to attach the pulley to run off the engine is what sheared.

>>1730519
That video is actually pretty impressive.

Im gonna melt it with a torch

>>1730294
Single stage blowers are fucking useless.

Good luck though, I’m done with snow. I was so happy when I was moving and didn’t have to pack my snow blower into the truck.

>>1730682
Miami is a shithole. Enjoy having to bring extra clothes with you everywhere you go because you sweat through the first set after five minutes outside.

>>1730540
Every snowblower I've worked on, (given that they've all been from the last millennium, and I've only done it recreationally, so go ahead and take my input with a grain of salt) has had shear pins in the impeller shaft, usually behind the impeller, but i can think of at least one that had it in front, that require you to split the blower assembly from the rest of the machine to access.
Shear pins are a good thing, because it prevents your gearbox from destroying itself if(when) it gets a big chunk of ice, or a newspaper, or a pair of mittens or something caught in the auger.

>>1730546
Oof. You sure it didn't just have shear pins that some troglodyte replaced with grade 8s? Seen a lot of junked blowers with grenaded gearboxes that had that happen.

>>1730784
It's been single owner since new.. It was all shear pins, I think maybe one broke like 8 or more years ago and was replaced with one of the spares kept on the machine. One was a little bent when I removed the blades, but given the basic maintenance principal for small engines around here is just put gas in it and check the oil until there is a problem it could've been like that for 10 years without anyone noticing.
I am not the primary user, it went when I was using it, but I consciously try to feather or pause the accelerator when under load, run it at the lowest forward gear and deliberately overlap previous passes by like 1/4 or half the width of the blade to prevent it from getting bogged down if it's heavy stuff.
So I suspect it's been a cumulative problem over the life of the machine when I am not using it because it just sort of stopped, I didn't hit or run into anything and at that point, the snow was pretty light, though it was the end for the driveway so it was a bit more wet. If it was a sudden pop, it'd more likely have large chunks still in the box, where as now it's basically just a paste and the whole gear was missing it's teeth, not just a large section.

>>1730784
>>1730808
thi s is one of the main reasons i wanted to try this electric model. no transmission or shear pins to worry about. if the unit gets overloaded it just shuts itself down to protect itself. should be very interesting to see how it holds up.

>>1730812
Perhaps, but with anything battery powered I suspect they will become the weak link while the machine is still usable. I'm not sure how lithium ion batteries are going to fair 11 years in.

>>1730815
true but batteries have come a long way and if you care for them properly by keeping them indoors and not storing them at a full charge they can last a long time. i'm also getting the ego leaf blower to replace the 25+ year old gas leaf blower i inherited from my father. it's always run great but every time i use it i have to wash the clothes i was wearing and take a shower so i don't smell like exhaust. i can use one of the batteries that came with the now blower to power it.

>>1730715
Fun fact: it never really gets above 90F here. Even the hottest days of the summer, you can find yourself some shade under a palm tree and relax in the ocean breeze and it’s perfect.

>>1730935
90f with insane humidity = sweat your balls off. a city full of fake people to boot.

>>1730941
With the ocean breeze, the humidity isn’t any worse than midwest summer. Living in the swamp is a little different than living on the Intercoastal though.

The fake people, I’ll give you that. It’s tons of New Yorkers and shit around me and they’re terrible, and Haitians are the dumbest group of people I have ever met, it’s like Pollacks mixed with Dindus.

>>1730943
>Haitians are the dumbest group of people I have ever met
you mean the same people that are literally eating dirt in 2019? no way, i dont believe you.

>>1730958
Man, it’s fucked up too because I don’t want to sound racist, but when you spend time around these people, you realize that it’s not simply a lack of education and schooling. They don’t have the reasoning skills or temperament of normal European people, and it isn’t something that can be fixed if they would just read more books.

And suddenly all that money the Clintons stole doesn’t seem so bad because all the green paper in the world wouldn’t pull those people out of squalor.

Shopping at the same grocery store as these people will make you way more racist than if you grew up in a whitewashed suburb and only saw them on TV. And not all of them are complete dindus, plenty of them are good people. And lots of them are nice but just retarded. I would say something like the top 1/3 of them could be considered “average” by anglo standards, but the bottom 2/3 are equivalent to like the bottom 5% or maybe 10% of white people (based on mental capacities and skills).

Sometimes I think maybe dealing with the snow could be better than dealing with them.

>>1730972
People fail to separate race and culture. Are they "inferior"? Yes. Is it because of genetics? No. You want examples? Look at those hillbilly white folk in the south. I lived there. Holy fuck. White as rice and dumb as rocks. Why? Because they have generations of dumbasses behind them. Same deal in these other countries. That is what happens when someone comes along and grinds you into the dust and keeps you there for a few hundred years. It takes generations to dig your way out and a lot of help. Look at South Korea.

>>1730992
>Is it because of genetics? No.
I can't even imagine being this disconnected from reality. Where do you think culture originates?

We value intelligence, but we do not put that value on a contingency plan for humans, we all have gifts and value, regardless if you can cash that in

>>1730294
>what does everyone else use?
My arms and a shovel. Although the most we get here in southern oregon is like 6in max during peak winter.

>>1730312
>.t. idiot zoomer
Half of cali is mountains, I would know, I lived in Butte County for 8 years. Try leaving your shithole urban sprawl once in your life.

>>1730994
>Where do you think culture originates?
It does not come from genetics, it comes from the cultural environment you grew up in. It comes from living with people. It is language, it is music, it is stories, it is the knowledge and experience passed on to you from your family. They can't teach everything in school. Even so, you can definitely tell the difference between a kid who goes up in a family that doesn't give a shit versus one that does. I'd argue that who you are as a person has as much to do with how you were raised vs any school you ever go to.

Just look at people who have been adopted. You put a baby with a bunch of meth-addled middle school dropouts and you are generally gonna have a future meth-addled middle school drop out regardless of their genetics. That is why poor neighborhoods stay poor and rich ones stay rich. Sure, you have the advantages of wealth and the disadvantages of poverty (wealth pays dividends, poverty charges interest) but you also have the fact that so much of your knowledge and experience comes from your family.

Broken homes and bad parenting generally produce children of lower intelligence. Bad schools produce adults with less knowledge and skill. Bad communities produce people prone to violence and lawbreaking. What do you think happens when generations of people in one place go through that? You end up with a "sub-human". It doesn't have to do with genetics. Just look at all the ignorant white folk running around the US. Breaking the cycle is very difficult and, like I said, you need help to do it. A lot of it. You can't just plop down a few schools and then wring your hands when the situation doesn't improve.

>>1730994
>genetics create "Culture"
My god, the absolute state of autistic liberal zoomers
Humans, interacting with each other, in specific bio-regions, create unique religious-social-political systems also known as CULTURES.

>>1731016
Chico or one of the shitty parts? Have you been back since Paradise burned down? Fuck me son the traffic here has been a huge problem since the fire. It added like 20k people to the city and we had road and housing problems before that. But hey, it added about $50k to the resale value of my house, so that was nice.

>>1730992
I’m not so sure that’s 100% the case.

>>1731136
So, why are there educated, productive Africans in America that can get shit done? It's a cultural thing. Take the person out of the culture and rais them right and the problem goes away regardless of genetics. Like I said above, you can't just sweep in, make a few changes or hang around for a few years and think it will fix anything. You have to come in and completely replace everything from the ground up and spend decades ironing out the ignorance. Unless you want to genocide all the adults and start with a generation of children you have to spend a lot of time overcoming the cultural memory. We're having the same problem with a lot of Boomers now. Some of them are too old and set in their ways so they are blocking real progress. The Boomers had the same problem with the 'Greatest Generation' back in the day too.

This is the same reason why some tribal lands in the US are so terrible. Generations of cultural destruction have left them basically worthless as people. Alcoholics, criminals, drains on the system. Then there are some tribes that got smart, developed casinos, had money rolling in. They built schools and hospitals, put in water and sewer, paved the roads, elevated themselves. It took fucking decades though (1979 was when the first one opened) and there are still systemic problems they are trying to overcome but they have made a lot of progress.

>>1731183
always gunna be a few bright boys

>>1731018
>Just look at people who have been adopted.
Minnesota twin adoption study would disagree with you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Twin_Family_Study
Look specifically at twins reared apart.
>>1731021
>not an argument
You’re both wrong about the amount of influence genetics has on culture. It’s the most dominant force. Everything you do derives from your nature and whatever xenoestrogen influence from the environment. The only thing that is most certainly nurture is how rampant sexual abuse at a young age warps adults to make them homosexual. We all have so much less free will than we think. It’s a bit unsettling at first.

>>1731183
>So, why are there educated, productive Africans in America that can get shit done?
Statistical outliers are not the norm, anon. Get it together.

>>1731183
>We're having the same problem with a lot of Boomers now. Some of them are too old and set in their ways so they are blocking real progress.
>progress meme
Make sure it's really a place you want to go.

>>1730294
An old toro powercurve 1800 I got off kijiji for $75 leafs. So many poor design choices, the wheels basically do nothing. It's a beast when you get the right kind of medium density snow, but sucks if it's too fluffy or too wet.

>>1731366
Is that a plastic auger? Yikes.

>>1731392
Due to retards, I don't think they make single-stage snow blowers with steel augers anymore.

When I was at Lowe's other day, all the bright and shiny new single-stage throwers just had plastic augers.
Of course 70% of the total machine was plastic too.

Seems only 2 or 3 stage blowers have steel blades anymore.

>>1731183
See >>1731359

I used to think that people from the hood acted like animals because of the environment they grew up in. As I grow older, I realize that the hood is so shitty because it’s basically a zoo.

>>1731366
Shitty as single stages. I fucked with one of those for like 3 winters before I broke down and got a decent 2-stage. The only way the one stage works is if you get out there when there is precisely 1.27” of fresh snow on the ground, which means you better be out there a dozen times in a big storm unless you want to shovel it all by hand.

>>1731526
>I used to think that people from the hood acted like animals because of the environment they grew up in. As I grow older, I realize that the hood is so shitty because it’s basically a zoo
What a surprise, Bepis hasn't put any thought into this """idea""" at all.

>>1731608
Reworded:

Fill the South Side with Mexican immigrants and there will be far less trash in the streets.

It’s an ignorance that can’t possibly be 100% cultural. Dumping 5lbs of trash from your car into a clean parking lot when there is a trash can 10ft away, that’s not cultural.

>>1731617
>Dumping 5lbs of trash from your car into a clean parking lot when there is a trash can 10ft away, that’s not cultural.
You are arguing with a limousine liberal. He’s never had any interaction with minorities.

>>1731409
The auger blades themselves might not be steel but on the halfway decent single stage products they use a steel shaft with semi rigid rubber auger blades so that they don’t explode the moment the touch a piece of uneven pavement. The blades don’t necessarily need to be steal but they most definitly should never be made of hard plastic that is weakened by the cold they’re supposed to be operating in.

>>1731685
>Dumb black person? It's genetic.
>Dumb white person? Nah son, he's just a "statistical outlier"
>10 million dumb black people? See, I told you.
>10 million dumb white people? Uhh, you see, the problem is, uh, that, uh, the guy making the claim is what you call a "limousine liberal"...

Left to their own devices, people are dumb. Why do you think so many anti-vaxxers are educated white people? Deep down we are all fucking balding monkeys that traded thumbs on our feet for some extra room in the ol' dome. Under all that gray matter we still have that greedy, stupid little monkey brain plugging along. Make someone think they are being let in on the secrets of the universe or that something is a conspiracy and they will lap it up. The Earth is flat? The Illuminati control everything? The government poisoning us with Fluoride? Climate change isn't real? Bullshit, the lot of it. Up in here quoting "statistical outliers" and all that crap to justify being a bigot when there is a mountain of studies from reputable sources that prove that there is no significant difference between people when they are starting from a level playing field. But do you know what universally affects people's ability to be intelligent and successful? Poverty. Poverty of wealth and poverty of culture. It's a double whammy. Millions of poor stupid black people in the US and "it's genetic" but millions of poor stupid white people and all of a sudden have excuses for them. Keep on justifying being a bigot for no other reason than you are hateful and ignorant. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

>>1731820
>anti-vaxxers
Why can't we have a conversation about the ingredients in vials we inject into the most vulnerable members of our society without liberals seething?
>government poisoning us with Fluoride
Coincidentally, the active ingredient in all anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication contains fluorine.
>Climate change
Please show me how destroying western civilization will stop climate change. Don't forget to account for the 6.7 billion people who don't live in first world nations and don't share your cultural value of environmentalism. (Protip: think about why you have that value, and why the rest of the world doesn't. I hope this is not lost on you).
>Illuminati
You really want to argue with the fact that jews are overwhelmingly, dis-proportionally represented at the highest levels of media ownership and government?
>Millions of poor stupid black people in the US and "it's genetic" but millions of poor stupid white people and all of a sudden have excuses for them.
No one is discounting there are millions of idiots, but in aggregate, on a per capita basis, there are more black Americans with a double digit IQ than whites. The mean IQ for black Americans is 85; for whites, it's 100. These are facts. There is nothing inherently wrong about it, and forcing everyone to play in your mentally warped fallacy of "everyone is the same" means we do a disservice to people who physically cannot live up to that standard. Education to the lowest common denominator makes everyone equally ignorant, just like communism makes everyone equally impoverished.
>Up in here quoting "statistical outliers" and all that crap to justify being a bigot when there is a mountain of studies from reputable sources that prove that there is no significant difference between people when they are starting from a level playing field.
Please read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Transracial_Adoption_Study
Your failure to acknowledge reality doesn't change it.

>>1731972
Um guys, I dont think this man is joking.
oof

>>1731392
>>1731409
>>1731783

I got the toro used and have been using it for a couple of winters now; the plastic augers held up fine, even when hitting chunks of ice left by the fucking street plows. I don't know what it is, the plastic really looks like the shitty brittle kind that would snap in the cold, but it doesn't.

The new ones are meant to be disposable any ways, they go on sale for like $150 leafs. Even if they last only a few seasons you wouldn't get too hung up over chucking it out and buying a new one. My only real gripe is the fucking extension cord hardening up and becoming a pain in the ass.

>>1730294
Just bought an old MTD 2 stage 10 horse with a Tecumseh engine for 200 bucks

Needed some lubing up but it's got electric start and should be a good unit.

>>1731972
You poor nigga.

>>1732060
>plastic really looks like the shitty brittle kind that would snap in the cold, but it doesn't.
Plastics can be tailored for a huge range of applications. The material might be low or medium density polyethylene with some glass fiber fill for surface toughness. It would feel like shitty waxy plastic, because it kinda is. But lower density PE does really well in the cold due it its low stiffness.

>>1730530
I took this beast out, put the few unassembled parts together and gave it a test run. Holy shit this thing throws some snow. Its superbly balance and super easy to move. My wallet still hurts but Im happy with the purchase.

>>1732307
I woke up to a decent amount of snow com8nh down this morning and was excited to try out the blower but it didn’t end up sticking. I am disappoint.

>>1732300
>It would feel like shitty waxy plastic
>>1732300

No the opposite, it's the really stiff and shiny styrene like material that was everywhere in the 90's before superior ABS and PE based polymers took over.

>>1731820
Genetics play a big part, twins reared apart studies establish this without any doubts.
Obviously environment is important too.

Toro 1428 OHXE 420cc engine with 14HP and heated grips, it is a fucking monster and eats enow like nothing else. Was expensive but I have no doubt it will last 20+ years.

>>1732784
Sorry but no way that plastic joystick holds up for 20 years.

>>1731183
>So, why are there educated, productive Africans in America that can get shit done? It's a cultural thing. Take the person out of the culture and rais them right and the problem goes away regardless of genetics.
t. never lived in a black neighborhood

>>1733643
It is for sure the weak link. It is more neat than needed.

>>1732784
>heated grips

>>1734038
I've got a new blower a few years ago and the heated grips are a major improvement. Quality of life when you've got a couple hundred feet of driveway in northern new england.

>>1734038
>girl

1987 Honda HS80 that i got used for $50. All it had was bad fuel and a cloggef carb. Id call that a win.

>>1734490
The amount of perfectly good machinery up for sale at scrap prices is staggering. Fucking sad that most people can't be fucked to do the most basic maintenance. Like draining the fuel tank and running the carb dry at the end of a season, for example.

>>1734602
If people did these things then we wouldn't have jobs, an economy and improvements in technology.

>>1734621
>Broken window theory

we're expecting up to 2" of snow by tomorrow morning, we have the Bread!Milk! pandemonium happening right now.

Gonna gas up my 70's Sears snow thrower.

>>1735149
>2"
>Not just telling yourself "it'll pack down" and not doing a damn thing.

got an Ariens Deluxe 24.
i don't know anything about snowblowers, but it does the job very well (250 meters from the house to the road in eastern Canada).

Still pissed that I haven’t gotten any snow yet.

>>1730675
I just wanted to update on this. Torch did not work. Snow only melts when it wants to do not try and force it

>>1736706
That’s because you didn’t cut off the regulator on a propane tank and use it like a flame thrower.

>>1736707
50 psi is more than enough. More gas is not always better. Must have good air/fuel ratio. I could get the flame going but it takes a surprising amount of time to melt snow compared to shoveling it.