The heart, and femur, of the beast

This weekend, after a long Sunday that included my first aluminium anodizing experience as well as my first powder coating experience, I started the disassembly of the old snow blower. This will be the heart of the beast… assuming I can get the damned auger off of it.

I started with this ugly pile of plastic:

Before...

And ended up with something else entirely. I have to say, I was surprised at how small the actual engine is. The case could shave been much smaller and less “bulgy.”

After...

Eventually I’ll get the auger off, but my frustration with it was getting the better of me and I decided to call it a night. Before I did, however, I discovered the perfect joint for the upper portion of the legs:

Universal joint

This universal joint was part of the deflector assembly on the snow blower. The original plan called for a series of ball joints and pins (thanks Frankie) to move the legs, but this should work better, particularly considering the significant weight I want to support. The universal joints will be attached directly to sprocket for each leg… This is getting too cumbersome to describe. Look for a sketch in the next post!