Redneck Backyard Zamboni Ice Resurfacer

What's the best thing to do with an old riding mower?  Make a home made ice resurfacer with it!

This old riding mower had a blown engine so I built this one doing the following:

1. Stripped off all the old mower decking and non-important parts and repainted it purple.
2. Put on a small surplus engine.
3. Made a scraper blade by grinding an edge into a piece of steel and mounted it to the lifter handle that was used for the mower deck.
4. Found an old water tank and mounted it on the back.  Then took a piece of copper pipe and drilled little sprayer holes into it.
5. Added a squeegee mate that could be raised and lowered.
6. Studded the tires with short stainless steel screws.
7. Added some front and rear lighting for night-time driving.  No Zamboni is complete without the blinking light!

Enjoy!

Comments

[Lorddrake]

brilliant.

[web4deb]

Thanks! don't forget to vote for it in the Redneck contest right here on Instructables!  https://www.instructables.com/contest/redneck2012/?show=ENTRIES

[mikemehak]

hey, great build.

Does your blade have down pressure? Do you find the blade does much?

My plan was to do a spring loaded blade, to cut out any high spots, but I'm afraid it might scrape up too much ice and cause too much slush.

On the other hand, I feel that with no down pressure the blade won't cut much

[web4deb]

It doesn't have a lot of down pressure. Basically I put about 30 pounds of dead weight in blade area to keep it from bounding around on the ice. It doesn't really shave everything, just sort of hits the high spots in the ice and breaks of any knobs that are on it.

[macdavisonsmith]

How much use does the blade see before resharpening?

[coronan1.]

Can you post more pics of the scraper blade? Is it oriented vertically or 45 deg to the ice??? I'm not sure if i want to go this route or the "Ice Mower"

Thanks!

[web4deb]

It's mounted vertically. The blade was ground down to have a 45 degree edge so it's pointing right into the ice...basically working like a scraper.

[fogbert]

Great project and video. I am starting one today! Including the skating at the end of the video underscores the quality of the finished product.

[bellinghammakerspace]

That is so cool.... hahah cool.

[cchase4]

REDNECK ZAMBONI WE CAN DO THIS

[JesseJames92x]

LOVE THIS! I just acquired a 1970's Int'l Cub Cadet 85 myself. I grew up with a backyard rink....so your Instructable is bringing back childhood memories of skating in the backyard colliding with my newest motorized toy in the garage, great idea!

[Lokisgodhi]

FAIL.

If it were a real redneck Zamboni you'd have figured a way to install a blown big block Chevy in it. ;-)

[wanna beco]

lol thats so "cool"

[TheTunaMan]

LOVE this! Where were you when my knees still allowed me to play pond hockey? Great job on this build! I can't believe that you allow skates with toe picks on your SWEET surface! LOL

[bertus52x11]

Very nice! I just voted for you.
Good luck in the contest.

[Dr Qui]

Brilliant, I recently spotted an old ride on converted to a land leveler to scrape stones into pot holes on a gravel lane.

[noahw]

This is awesome - have you thought about posting a full step by step? Writing an Instructable helps people understand what you've done much better then just a video posted alone. You could of course post your video inside the Instructable as well.

[web4deb]

I didn't really keep track of the process as I did it except taking a few extra pictures. It is so specialized that I didn't really think other people would want to build one! ;-)

[jaceone]

is this a 70's / 80's toro whirlwind? i have the same exact mower!

[web4deb]

yup! This one was made by Sears. I call it the Forrest Gump mower. ;-)