• Snowblowers help ease the physical burden of removing snow.cleaning driveway image by samantha grandy from Fotolia.com
  
  Snowblowers have replaced shovels for many people. These machines blow the snow on sidewalks and driveways with no shoveling required. The part of the snowblower that does most of the work is the auger. This is the helical blade that turns under the snowblower to pick up the snow and throw it. The auger is made up of a shaft, the auger blades, a series of washers and shear pins.
  
  

Auger Shaft

• The auger shaft is the straight shaft that the auger blades are attached to. Both ends of the shaft are mounted and the shaft has a gear that is located in its center. This gear comes into contact with the gear box that turns the auger when the auger is engaged.
  
  

Blades

• The auger blades are attached to hollow tubes that slide over the auger shaft and attach using shear pins. A series of rubber and metal washers keep side-to-side motion of the auger to a minimum. The blades are designed in a helical shape and are attached in the shaft sleeve of the blades. Some blades are put together in sections along the shaft sleeve while others are solid pieces of molded steel or rubberized plastic.
  
  

Washers and Bolts

• The washers on the auger shaft prevent excess friction and allow the auger blades to spin freely while being attached to the snow blower auger cover. A galvanized washer on each end is installed on the exterior of the auger cover so that the galvanized machine bolts can attach the auger shaft to the machine. This system does not allow the auger to spin freely. The auger can only spin when the gear box is engaged.
  
  

Shear Pins

• The auger shear pins that hold the auger blades to the shaft are bolts that are designed to withstand a certain amount of friction, but will break if too much torque is applied. This is a protective measure for the gear box as a few bolts are a lot easier and less expensive to replace than a gear box. Depending on the manufacturer, these pins are either a smooth bolt with cotter pins, or machine-threaded bolts with lock washer and nut attachments.