Build your own snowblower?

Has anyone tried to make their own snowblower? I work at a company that has lots of metal fabrication equipment and there are 4 of us working here that have skidsteers and would like to have blowers. We could certainly fab up a copy of a Bobcat blower, but I am thinking the buyout parts would be too expensive to make it worthwhile - controller, motor, gearbox etc. Has anyone tried it? cheers, Creek

Depends on how far you go, you really only need a hydraulic motor, diverter valves, cylinders and an auger/blower.
If you have the gear, i can't see it running you that much.
The controller, it depends what machines you have already, if it's just a standard machine with analogue outputs, it's just switches, no need for a fancy box of voodoo.

I have considered it, but I was going to buy an old blower and modify it to suit. When you start adding up the cost of all of the hardware involved, many times you can buy a fixer-upper cheaper. Unless you are doing it for the entertainment value, of course.... When I thought about the amount of time that it was going to be sitting, and how much storage space it was going to take up ( I am anal about keeping things inside!!), I decided to go with a larger material bucket instead. My $0.02.