Making Snow!

[OutCold]

I just made my first Tee Gun last night. Does anyone have any experience making snow? I'd really like to build a fan gun one day, but I thought I'd start slow and build up to it.

[toast21602]

justo and i had built a gun a few winters back. it was a success, but we needed an air compressor that would keep the pressure continuous instead of draining and then kicking back it. still fun to do.

[zaldon]

didn't skifreak sell snow guns?

[Dan-]

We have a set up in my buddies backyard. But we realized it hardly ever gets cold enough around Philly to actually blow snow. And when you can, it's at times like 3am...

[JFskiDan]

someones been to snowathome.com

 

cant you do it with a pressure washer as well?

[askier87]

Ideally, you need both an air compressor and a pressure washer I believe. I could be wrong though.

[jordan]

someones been to snowathome.com

 

cant you do it with a pressure washer as well?

you need both. You need equal air and water pressure blowing through a nozzle in order to make snow. You can do this without a pressure washer, but then you can't make much snow because you are limited by your domestic water pressure. You cannot do without a compressor, though unless you have another method of blowing air over the water particles, such as using a fan.

[Robert2]

I set the garden hose on mist and spray the yard until the hose freezes.

PASR NAX makes snow in Marlton NJ

 

Advice from NAX:

 

You might be on to something there as far as cooling the incoming water.

Last year I built a small pre-cooler for my T-gun. it consisted of a

5gallon bucket from home depot and about 25 feet of rubber hose and some

fittings. I know some people on the forum are also drying their

compressed air by pumping it through a series of old baseboard heaters.

with the heaters mounted on a wall, in levels - the compressed air gets

dried out as the air is forced from the top level down to the bottom. The

drier the air - the better quality snow you can make

 

 

So you picked up a pressure washer...the summer time is a perfect time to

start building a snowgun and preparing your water lines and hoses. reason

being, is you'll be able to get the rig all setup and the leaks worked-out

without provoking frost bite. The first thing that i would suggest, is to

build a T-gun (also called Y-gun). However - this gun does not use a

pressure washer. but it is essential in learning the fundumentals of

snowmaking. it is also a precursor to learning how the larger combo guns

work (SM4, miniSM4, and several others you will find at www.snowguns.com).

if you do a search for "T-gun". it may be obscure to find a direct parts

list on the website for the T-gun, so check out this link for a good

diagram and parts list:

http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans/SAH-SG1_y-type_internal_mix.php'>http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans/SAH-SG1_y-type_internal_mix.php

 

This is the gun that I started with. I think the plans say something about

hooking up a pressure washer to it, but I would not recommend doing that

with this particular gun. If you read up on the snowguns.com website, they

will most likely agree. the pressure washer is used for the combo guns like

the SM4 and the MiniSM4. with this type of gun, you should not set the air

compressor higher than your water supplly pressure, or the air will back up

into your house supply and rattle the hell out of your pipes.before getting

started with anything you should know what your supply pressure is, for

this particular reason. also by using one-way valves in your gun design,

you elimnate the possiblilty of backflowing compressed airinto your house

supply line.

 

 

a few things to consider before starting:

1.) read-up about the T-gun and build one www.snowguns.com &

http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans/SAH-SG1_y-type_internal_mix.php

 

2.) incorporate oneway flow valves into your gun design

(http://www.pressureparts.com/ - i order all of my spray nozzles and parts

that i cant find at Homedepot, here)

 

3.) use garden hose for your air supply line 3/4 or 5/8. Do not use the

standard 3/8 air line typically used with compressors. this small hose will

freeze up in a short period of time. it's inside diameter is just way too

small.

 

4.) get an air compressor if you dont have one. without this, you cant make

snow. you want to look at CFM ratings. typically you want about 5-6CFM

@40psi. this is the one that most of the guys on snowguns use. i have read

that it works well with everything but a fan-gun. so it will be plenty for

a t-gun and later on ...a combo gun, when you are ready.

http://www.eatoncompressor.com/catalog/item/733537/450646.htm

It looks small, but the CFM rating on this little beast is key.

 

5.) prepare your outdoor water spigot, as it will take some abuse during

winter use..on...off...on...off...freez....thaw....freeze..thaw...you get

the picture. make sure it is in good condition. i think homedepot sells the

freeze-proof ones...i forget exactly what they are called, but they are

supoosed to prevent freezeups. i use a shut-off valve directly insdie my

house in addition to the outside pipe. this i also have the pipe exposed

inside the house, so i can heat it with a hairdrier if it freezes and i

always shut it off at night when i go to bed, to ensure that i dont wake up

to an iceskating rink or worse yet pool on my downstairs floor. another

idea is to use that pipeheater radiating element for oil heaters. you wrap

it around the pipe and plug it in to an outlet...i thik it has a

transformer on it to step down to AC to a low voltage DC.

 

[JFskiDan]

"I know some people on the forum are also drying their

compressed air by pumping it through a series of old baseboard heaters."

 

 

i think they actually do that to cool the air. kind of like an aftercooler. air compressors have a nasty habit of producing hot air.