Improving a snow shovel

[JRMichler]

Using a snow shovel is more work than necessary because much of the work is pushing the shovel across the pavement. Reducing the friction of sliding the shovel reduces the total work of snow shoveling. Plastic shovels are better than steel shovels, but tend to wear out fast.

So I added a UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) wear strip to my snow shovel. UHMW is one of the most wear resistant plastics known, and has very low coefficient of friction. The reduction in effort while pushing is amazing. It slides along with almost no effort. Lifting and throwing is unchanged.

The wear strip is 0.25" thick by 1.25" wide with the leading edge cut to a 45 degree angle. UHMW is easy to machine using normal woodworking tools. Sharp edges are chamfered using a hand plane because sandpaper does not work. This material is too abrasion resistant to sand. It must be clamped down to drill because the drill bit wants to self feed.

I fastened it on using copper belt rivets. If I did not have the belt rivets on hand, I would have made rivets from shingle nails.

[pinballlooking]

They put this on Subcompact snow plows. It works well. So I bet it will work good on a shovel.