# Has anyone tried a custom scraper bar made from plastic?



## Mikeinator (Jun 28, 2020)

Hi all,

I was talking with my dad who used to be a shop foreman and he was telling me they used tivar plastic in some scraping applications and had the idea of getting the same thickness and dimensions as the metal scraper bar but this way the plastic would wear down instead of having the metal scrape along my driveway.

I haven't looked too hard into any pros/cons of the metal parts wearing/rubbing on the pavement, but wonder if something like a sturdier plastic would be better.

I know people have used the poly roller skids, so this seems like something along that line of thinking.

Has anyone tried something like this?

Thanks in advance.


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## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

There are some single stage snowblowers that have a plastic cutting edge.


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## Clutch Cargo (Dec 27, 2015)

It would be an interesting experiment. The only concern I would have are the stress risers where the ends make a sharp bend to form the bolt tabs. There is no way to make any sort of fillet or gusset to lessen this. Not familiar with Tivar. Perhaps it is strong enough. Maybe Delrin or Peek, but the latter can be expensive.


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## Toro-8-2-4 (Dec 28, 2013)

If you add a couple more bolt holes on the bottom near the bend it may support it enough so that it can hold up to any stresses it may see.


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## Preacherman (Dec 20, 2020)

I was actually thinking this as I have a piece of HDPE I use to make belly skids for Quads/ and A PreRunner truck I have tested this stuff in the mountains of Pa and have never had a failure. I have made a few for some GNCC racer guys, it’s more durable than Aluminum. When I remove the bucket I may try this at some point.


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## WrenchIt (Dec 6, 2020)

The plastic scraper bars on my little Toros - paddle type S-200 and rubber auger powerlites - last about one season, maybe a bit less. I'd imagine you would get the same type of life out of a thicker and heavier plastic scraper on a bigger machine. Its my understanding from the Honda Service Manual, that the scraper bar is not supposed to touch the pavement - I set it with an air gap when the tires are properly inflated between the bar and the garage floor.


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## Preacherman (Dec 20, 2020)

WrenchIt said:


> The plastic scraper bars on my little Toros - paddle type S-200 and rubber auger powerlites - last about one season, maybe a bit less. I'd imagine you would get the same type of life out of a thicker and heavier plastic scraper on a bigger machine. Its my understanding from the Honda Service Manual, that the scraper bar is not supposed to touch the pavement - I set it with an air gap when the tires are properly inflated between the bar and the garage floor.


I just read the manual for the Ariens and it says that if on hard surface you can adjust the skids so-the blade just touches the surface so it will scrape clean which makes sense. If you make it so it can be adjustable (slotted) then as it wears it could be adjusted just like the ariens steel scraper. Might not work for everyone but it’s worth a try I think.


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## hawkerxj (Feb 18, 2015)

I have a scraper and skids made of 1/2" thick Tivar 1000. I didn't cut the edge at the bottom of the scraper to match the ground plane, so it took almost a season to wear into a cutting edge. They seem to work ok and slide pretty good. Tivar 88 would be better though. Tivar is just a brand name, the material is actually UHMW-PE(Ultra high molecular weight poly-ethelyne), the Tivar 1000 is made more for food processing while the Tivar 88 is used more for wear liners in industry. Both are nice and slippery and slide good on the pavement.


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## DetroitAC (Nov 3, 2018)

Tivar 88 is a little bit better grade of UHMW polyethylene, and a lot more expensive. Good quality skid shoes are generally made of UHMW. I think a scraper blade made of Tivar but in the same dimensions as steel would probably be too thin, get deformed by hitting obstructions. I'd think ideally the snowblower should be designed to use a thicker scraper, or maybe you make the Tivar scraper thicker shaped behind the cutting edge? I personally don't think the extra cost of Tivar would be worth it compared to the slightly better wear characteristics. Tivar is good for a dump truck liner where the cost of material sticking when the dump bed is raised might be tens of thousands of dollars to fix a tipped over dump truck. Can justify the best material made there. It's pretty easy to change out a worn snowblower scraper bar or skid shoes.


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