Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

This is a Honda HS621 single stage snowblower.  It is at least 10 years old, I think more like 12 years old.  It had been in good service all these years.  However, most of these years it did not receive the TLC it should have gotten considering the caliber of this machine.  I thought it would only do justice it I to take on the task of making it look beautiful and fully functional again.

Things that were done in the last two years:

1. Auger housing completely stripped down to bare metal.  Primed and painted in black gloss.
   
2. Metal auger repainted also in black gloss
   
3. New set of OEM rubber paddles and augers
4. New OEM drive belt
5. New scraper bar
   
6. Replaced missing or rusted screws and various hardware
7. Repainted red plastic top cover and side belt cover with Krylon Fusion red paint
   

Things to be competed shortly, parts on order:

1. Replace wheels, washer, and cotter pin
2. Replace springs on the chute ratchet
3. Replace chute collar
4. Affix new Honda and warning/caution labels

That should pretty much covers it to bring it to full showroom condition and operational specs.  Total costs of parts ~ $200, $30 in paint supplies, and several nights of work. 

And now here are a few pictures. 

Underdog wrote:
The HS35 was Honda's first foray into the US market and it eclipses all single stage snowblower, IMO.  The majority of that beautiful engineering is hidden under the plastic top cover that most people will never see.  The engine mount, wheel mounts, handle mounts, and auger housing is one welded piece.  It is more of an automobile unibody  / space frame than a snowblower.

Check out this diagram and you'll see what I mean.  See item #4.

Auger housing.

It has control knobs on the console that is more fitting on an automobile than a snowblower.

Here is a longer video showing how well it handles the heavy stuff.  It doesn't throw very far, but the throughput and the pace at which it moves is quite impressive for a 3.5 hp engine.

HS35 Video

Hard to believe they could engineer this.  I never really looked that closely at the "chasis". I have heard that there is a clutch
that eventually goes on this machine and that this part is impossible to find. These blowers show up on CL
frequently for $70 to $80 in various condition.  Given their age, most are in pretty sad shape. 

U boys got me hungry for mooor power. 24" footprint with a GX270 doable ?

Underdog - was you mod done in a fashion with the cover back on ?
That's the only nuisance I see when doing mods like this....is keeping it looking *OEM*....

chefwong wrote:

The extra power in a small footprint is a nice balance. Any more and I think the frame would start to flex too much.
That and the fact that a single stage is supposed to be light and easy to push and pull around.  Which "24 inch footprint"
machine were you contemplating?
I was never successful in keeping the OEM "look."  I needed an extention for the exhaust/muffler
but I just resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to ever be able to resell it. Because of the narrower
width it will easily keep up with anything (as long as it is not frozen ice).  I liked the power/width radio of the
HS-80 over the HS-928, the 4" smaller bucket was better for that hp (in my opinion).  aa335's 621 is a
much more elegant design.  There are side by side comparisons of three single stage machines (including toro) 
somewhere on the net and the 621 wins hands down in heavy snow. 

My interest was peaked so I called Rust-Oleum just to see what their take was on the different finishing options.
They said not to use "rust metal primer" unless everything is rusty. If there is bare metal then the fish oil (I made up that term)
will not have a porous base to absorb into. This would mean that over time the oils would work their way toward the top coat
and it would start to peel. The tech also said that the "professional" spray cans were "basically the same" as the regular xo-rust
paint but packaged differently with more paint in the can and a more eyecatching display. That surprised me because
I thought the paint went on better.   The tech went on to say that people have good results with all sorts
of applications that the manufacturer never intended. After I hung up I did wonder if I would get the same answer if I called back
and got another tech. I called back anyway and asked about the etching primer. They said there was really no advantage to this
primer over the "clean metal" primer if the surface was clean and free of oils. The "clean metal primer" is available around these parts in
white only. This is a difficult color to use as a base for black paint. The tech said they market a "metal primer" with the
rest of the professional line that comes in a darker tan color but that paint is a little harder to find (although I thought I saw it in Home Depot.
Finally the last  primer I asked about was the "rust reformer" spray (not to be confused with the liquid junk they sell in a botttle).
I have used this stuff on the bare metal on the inside of snowblower chutes and it seems to take a lot of abuse.
But the tech said that it needs a rusty base to have good adhesion. Mine on clean metal  has held solid for a year and I like the result of the finish coat on it. 
I would just take all of this as one more opinion. We seem to have a lot of those when it comes to painting.  And I'm sure there are
that could'nt afford much less find. If someone gets a different story on these paints let us know. 

 

Nice work, aa!  Now to get off my butt and finish mine, some real snow will be here soon!

I've yet to dig real close but if I recall, while the blue engines were a great bang for the buck, seems to have plenty of power, the design/layout of things were never a exact copy/clone of their GX equivalent.
Nice Mod Underdog...not sure if I could pull that off by doing the cover. It would make me cringe everytime I saw it but that's more because I prefer things stealth....

Re: the paint, AFAIK, the rustoleum pro line has more solids in it...
And yes, the red rust paint requires much more rusty paint in order for it to work well.
You can literally feel the difference if you pick up a rust rust pro gallon can versus a black can. I'v
It's almost 2X  heavier...

I've never inquired about the spray cans, bearing I'm not sure how the forumlation is due to the fact it's a spray can and needs to atomize...
I just painted all my wrought iron work this spring and in my research, depending on application......the pro line was the most durable (in the color I needed - gloss black) which had self priming properties.

I plan to spray the exterior with the bucket thinned trough the HLVP gun, but I'm leaning on doing 3  brush coat on the exterior. If done right, when brushing, it looks pretty smooth with minimal wetand to flatten it to perfection.

chefwong wrote:

I could find gallons of the "professional" line rust-oleum but I could only find quarts of the standard "rust stops" paint. 
I don't think they sell the regular "rust stops" paint in gallons around here. I would have to stack 4 quarts of one on top
of each other to compare the weight and I have never done that. The labels on both paints recommend a primer
for maximum adhesion.  Like you, I would like to try thinning them and using them in a sprayer one day.  

As for the clones, I set my honda GX next to the clone and could not find any substantial difference. Maybe a slightly
different linkage on the carb but all the bolts lined uper perfectly.   In the case of the HS520 retrofit,the old engine was a smaller
GC engine with a overhead cam  (completely different layout) so I was not expecting any fit at all. I think in the HS621
would would be a perfect fit. But I have never tried it (yet). Its hard to  find a HS621 that needs a new motor, those GX engines
last so long. And in the case of AA335's maybe forever? 

alty wrote:
It's inevitable, today's consumers are very price sensitive.  Manufacturers are very price sensitive too.  Honda does not expect to sell too many of the HS621 at $850-$900, and neither does Toro expect to keep selling Snow Commander at $900-$1000.  Both of these models are no longer available in the US market.  However, the HS621 is still available in Canada.

I've said it before and I still believe it.  The HS520 was created to be price competitive with the Toro 3650 (good performer by the way).  The overall performance of the HS520 was improved over the HS621 in most cases.  More efficient drive belt, auger design, and bucket housing.

However, it was not as well built, a little skittish on packed snow, and lacks the grunt in heavy slushy snow.  The HS520 is long in the tooth.  It does need a redesign to keep up with the newer Toro 221 and 421.

Bill_H wrote:
You have a bigger project than mine.  My snowblower was in great mechanical condition (considering its age) so I just decided to hurry up to finish so it can see some snow action this year.  The big boy HS1132 also itching for some action too, bring on the 18+" of snow.

Good luck on getting it done before some serious snow comes down.