I've yet to attempt motorizing a surfacer in DIY fashion but if I were to attempt I would not be going crazy thinking I need all the huge gas motors involved. Bars weigh hardly anything and there is no friction forces linvolved like found in a scrubber situation. A tiny little gas weed eater motor or even one of the portable hand tools with rechargable battery packs should suffice easily. Is just a matter of shafting and gearing the union correctly. I picture a small thin bicycle type gear sprocket that is tapped out npt and simply incorporated between union and bar. Just have a hole in top of surfacer deck that the power sources drive shaft can reach down to another sprocket or better yet make the whole union and sprocket setup sit up above the deck. My original diy surfacer/union setup sat up as such and already had enough shaft length to do this. Was all npt too! Maybe I shouldn't have went to standard flat configuration with short shaft and slower union.
So but two identical sprockets for a 1 to 1 ratio probably work for some power tools to drive the bar. I like the idea of chain drive due to less hassle of tensioning and water issues.
...wonderng if somebody makes a small portable drill press/guide for hand drills that I can weld on deck to make such a monstrocity quikly.
