Hey, dcb (hey those are my initials, too), that's the exact same motor/switch that I bought surplus some time ago for converting a push mower, so it should be the same power range as what you are looking for. The only difference is mine came with a yoke to attach a blade.

Be sure to weld in a cross brace behind the motor and attach supports for that third mounting hole to it. It won't hold long just attached to the handle like that. Otherwise, it's looking good!

did you weigh it before and now after?
Looking at the pics it looks like you lightened it up a bit.

Cool project, dcb. Subscribed!

Minor progress, found a belt at grainger, a 3l390 , hopefully it is strong enough.
still need to weld pully together and beef up motor mounting.

Actually ran it for a tiny bit though (till the pulley unbolted itself) :)

http://opengauge.org/household/blower13.JPG

Will need some alignment tweaks too:
http://opengauge.org/household/blower14.JPG

They say the snow is coming so I dusted off the welder and sorted out the pully/motor arrangements.

The pulley was two pieces so I welded it at the seam, sort of, from the inside. First welding in many years.
http://opengauge.org/household/blower15.JPG

Then I held the pulley on the motor with a bolt and adjusted the runout and knocked it straight within a few tries and deposited much welding wire :) Tricky welding, gotta focus on the shaft since it is so thick.

http://opengauge.org/household/blower16.JPG

It should be mostly braces and alignment from here.

Ok, it is together enough for me to want to try it :)

This is your basic piece of threaded rod and a few angle brackets and a piece of metal strapping approach. It sounds faster than the original at top speed, starts up like an amusement ride. I'm a little nervous around it :rolleyes:, so will probably add a shield or just cobble the covers back on, but gotta try it.

http://opengauge.org/household/blower17.JPG
http://opengauge.org/household/blower18.JPG
http://opengauge.org/household/blower19.JPG

Cover Cobbled :)
http://opengauge.org/household/blower20.JPG
http://opengauge.org/household/blower21.JPG

That makes me feel a little safer, Now where is that snow?

Looks all ready to go. I hope it holds together. I wonder if it'll work better with the higher speed?

Alllrightee :D

Had a couple inches this morning, first test was quite manageable. I blew one circuit breaker and had to move to another circuit. But it is a lot quieter and smoother. It also has noticeably less torque :( , so maybe a smaller motor pulley would be in order, you have to use a fair bit of finesse to keep the rpms up, but I can live with it.

Followup,

The snow got a lot wetter towards the end. I was really overtaxing the motor, was packing snowballs on it to get it to quit smoking so much while trying to finish up. :p

This rig is overheating with 2 inches of wet snow. The blade speed is about right so it probably needs more motor. I managed to finish but had to let the motor rest a few times. plow stick would have been about as effective. Ah well, a $30 experiment :) Now I know, get more motor.