Aaron Kennedy
EF5
Ok... I remember someone on here posted about their homemade snow machine (PVC construction). An archive search ended up with no results. Any ideas?
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Snow Machine
- Thread starter Aaron Kennedy
- Start date
Jeff Miller
EF5
Jim Hunt
EF2
Snow At Home has snow making devices and several detailed (& easy) plans...
http://www.snowathome.com/
http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans.php
http://www.snowathome.com/
http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans.php
Aaron Kennedy
EF5
Yep found the snowathome plans... was just wondering what our forum members' personal experience was (which type of machine did he use, etc.).
Gerrit Gulden
EF4
Bill Doms is the man to chat with. He made a snow machine with his son and they were able to create up to a foot or more. I too would love to find out what he used to make one.
-gerrit
-gerrit
Robert Dewey
EF5
Tim Gonyo had posted about his snow machine awhile back... he's another one you should get in touch with.
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/member.php?u=525
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/member.php?u=525
We did a hybrid of sorts using the internal mix method. We used a 1200 psi pressure washer and a portable air compressor for the water delivery. We definitely could use a better compressor but it works as ours barely can maintain 90 psi. Two things we learned last year. Atomizing the air/water mix as it leaves the "gun" is everything. If you look at the snowathome webpage, they give you this hokey plan of drilling holes in a pipe cap. Don't even bother as you will produce more ice than snow. We went a place which stocks carwash parts and found a jet used to spray the "no spot rinse" and figured out a way to plumb it into the gun. This really worked well as the spray is about as atomized as possible when it hits the air. The other issue was using tap water. The closer the water is to 0C when it hits the air the better and the more efficiently it operates. We ended up using a 100ft high quality garden hose looping back and forth on the ground to drop the water temp as much as possible. Ski areas usually have a pump in a pond with the intake just below the ice to help their cause.
Anyhow, the gun basically controls the pressurized water / air mix. Big thing is to prevent water from going down the air hose to the compressor. We used a check ball valve on the back side of a gate valve to make sure this didn't ever happen (always make sure air side on first when starting and turn the water side off first when stopping).
It takes a while to make a significant amount as our gun only uses one jet but we were able to put enough down in our back yard and the neighbors so the little kids could go sliding as we had no good natural snow until March. The photo below was taken less than 10 days after we covered the back yard with the snow maker.
This year I want to see if I can borrow a bigger compressor and build a multi-jet external mix gun. When the neighbors go to Florida for Christmas this year, I will have a little surprise for them when they get back if mother nature doesn't cooperate!
Anyhow, the gun basically controls the pressurized water / air mix. Big thing is to prevent water from going down the air hose to the compressor. We used a check ball valve on the back side of a gate valve to make sure this didn't ever happen (always make sure air side on first when starting and turn the water side off first when stopping).
It takes a while to make a significant amount as our gun only uses one jet but we were able to put enough down in our back yard and the neighbors so the little kids could go sliding as we had no good natural snow until March. The photo below was taken less than 10 days after we covered the back yard with the snow maker.
This year I want to see if I can borrow a bigger compressor and build a multi-jet external mix gun. When the neighbors go to Florida for Christmas this year, I will have a little surprise for them when they get back if mother nature doesn't cooperate!
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