Any of y'all ever make Snow at Home??

SSWaters said:
Very cool, I'm gon'na try this.
One question about the yard/air compressor version.
What size and how many holes did you drill in the tip?
Found it on the website 7/64". I might try to tap it for pressure washer tips.
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At the very end of the year last year,I bought some raw Pressure washer tips,that were all thread at the end.I think they were the .40 ones.Worked way better than drilling holes in the end cap.
 
Decided to give this a go. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but tthe snow yesterday made me realize that the time is now. I went to Lowe's with my list and got busy. I ended up having to use brass since they didn't have any of the stuff I needed in steel. I went with the 2 valve idea. I was disappointed to find the smallest check valve they had was 1". This drove the cost up a little bit. I had to adapt the 1" valve back down to 1/4". No real big deal. In the outdoor power equipment department, I found a replacement pressure washer tip that has the twist thingy to adjust from a straight to fan spray for $14. It was a NPT 1/4" thread so it works perfect. Pics of the assembly.

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The stand I threw together.

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What I want to try and bury with snow.

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My little girl and I can't wait for the temps to drop tonight and see what happens.
 
You are looking at the Wet Bulb thing right?There is a link on the main page of snowathome.com.I am actually gonna run two of them this year,the one from last year and I made a new one.I can't wait to see everyone's pics!
 
retroedaddy said:
You are looking at the Wet Bulb thing right?There is a link on the main page of snowathome.com.I am actually gonna run two of them this year,the one from last year and I made a new one.I can't wait to see everyone's pics!
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No, but I think I need to. About an hour after test firing, I went out to blow out the water left in the nozzle and it blew ice chuncks.
 
willness33 said:
My current wet bulb is 30. It says I'm 3 degrees from making snow!!!!!
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Try to get the Mist as fine as possible,with no water droplets at all.It's easier after dark,using a flashlight across the stream.Also if you are gonna start making it right at 27 Wet Bulb,then point that rig up.Straight across like you have it will probably just make the ground wet.I used to point mine about 60 degrees up until the wetbulb got down closer to 24 or 25.
 
retroedaddy said:
Try to get the Mist as fine as possible,with no water droplets at all.It's easier after dark,using a flashlight across the stream.Also if you are gonna start making it right at 27 Wet Bulb,then point that rig up.Straight across like you have it will probably just make the ground wet.I used to point mine about 60 degrees up until the wetbulb got down closer to 24 or 25.
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Will do. I've got multiple holes drilled in the 2X to adjust the angle. I'm still 1 degree from blowing snow and the wet bulb is at 28*. Right now if I kick the angle up, snow will go everywhere with the wind blowing the way it is. Going outside now to angle it up!
 
I just found out that you can't run the compressor at 125psi. That puts a ton of pressure back into the house via the garden hose.lol My nozzle tip sucks. I cant get a good mist without water splashing. I've pretty much iced up the whole area around the gun at this point.
 
Ok, my rig fails. The pressure tip is waaaayyyyy too small. I'll try again tomorrow with a proper sized tip.
 
oh man... this is probably the coolest thing since BACON and SEX!!! I will be making one of these soon! THanks for the idea!

:D
 
Yeah like I said in the PM and I guess I should say here.It's best to start with 100% Water and no air,then slowly introduce air without the water stopping.If the water ever stops,you have to turn the air off and start over.Also having a pitcher of warm water helps,the rig will freeze over sometimes.Anyways slowly introduce water until you have a consistent mist,then I always used to have to back the water down because it would over power the air.It takes some getting used to,I guess I got lucky,my very first night I made a bunch of snow and that gave me the drive to fight it all January last year.It takes some getting used to but once you have the mix right,you can pretty much walk away from it and let it do it's job.Oh also as I said,if the wet bulb is right at 27 angle the rig up about 60 degrees.As it cools off outside you can point it down.While it's pointed up be mindful of trees.I blew it across a branch all night one night last year and when I got up in the morning it had iced the largest branch on my big Oak down to the point of failure.It took out a lot of my Christmas display when it fell.
 
Used to use these to make some backyard ski/snowboard rail setups. Last year we had so much snow in Boone there was no need. The homemade guns definitely take some trial and error.
 
Anybody done it yet?

I want to see pics.
 
I posted pics from last year when I made it at the beginning of the thread.This year I am fighting an issue with my compressor.
 
retroedaddy said:
Yeah like I said in the PM and I guess I should say here.It's best to start with 100% Water and no air,then slowly introduce air without the water stopping.If the water ever stops,you have to turn the air off and start over.Also having a pitcher of warm water helps,the rig will freeze over sometimes.Anyways slowly introduce water until you have a consistent mist,then I always used to have to back the water down because it would over power the air.It takes some getting used to,I guess I got lucky,my very first night I made a bunch of snow and that gave me the drive to fight it all January last year.It takes some getting used to but once you have the mix right,you can pretty much walk away from it and let it do it's job.Oh also as I said,if the wet bulb is right at 27 angle the rig up about 60 degrees.As it cools off outside you can point it down.While it's pointed up be mindful of trees.I blew it across a branch all night one night last year and when I got up in the morning it had iced the largest branch on my big Oak down to the point of failure.It took out a lot of my Christmas display when it fell.
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I pretty much followed this "start up" procedure yesterday afternoon and got a great mist with just a little pulsing. It, of course, was still too warm to make snow, but I have a lot more confidence in my home made tip than I did with the pressure washer tip. Wednesday night is the next night I have off from work and I'll get the gun up and running then. I made a few different sized tips to see what works best. I haven't tried anything but the 7/64" and it seems to work great. I may give the 1/8" tip a try and see what happens.
 
You are definitely on the right track.I just set mine all up to run it this morning and realized I took one of the adapters for an air tool or something,So I am running to Lowe's right now.It's gonna be cold enough to make snow most of the day today.
 
I need to put one of these in the back of my truck for tailgaters. Its guaranteed to make 50% of NC drivers fly straight into the ditch the instant I turn it on.
 
dieselfuelonly said:
I need to put one of these in the back of my truck for tailgaters. Its guaranteed to make 50% of NC drivers fly straight into the ditch the instant I turn it on.
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lol. good one.
 
Well I Fought an Iced Up Hose and a new sprayer Nozzle but the Snow machine is out there running.It's only been 15 and I already have a larger patch of White On the Ground!!!It's hard to tell a little from the crappy cell phone pics,but if you look to the left of the big tree you can see the mister.If you look to the right you can see how white the water already is as it falls to the ground.
 

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Oh for the guys making them at home.The Pressure washer type tip I got didn't work worth a crap.I spent 25 minutes trying to get the mist dialed in.I went back to a regular cap with two 7/64 holes drilled in it and had the consistency I wanted almost instantly.
 
retroedaddy said:
Oh for the guys making them at home.The Pressure washer type tip I got didn't work worth a crap.I spent 25 minutes trying to get the mist dialed in.I went back to a regular cap with two 7/64 holes drilled in it and had the consistency I wanted almost instantly.
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I had the same results with the pressure washer tip. I got up early today (2:30pm) and checked my wet bulb. It was at 27* so I thought I might be able to get something going. Well, just like my well head this morning, my garden hose was frozen solid this afternoon. I took the hose inside to thaw it out and I'll drag it out in the morning and see what I have going on.
 
Here are some new pics.This is after less than an hour of it running.As you can see the ground is pretty well covered.I am gonna let it run all night tonight,I will post more pics in the morning.
 

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Well My compressor kept kicking off for some reason and after I blew 3 of them up last year with no back flow valve,I decided to turn it off for the night if I am not gonna be up to monitor it.It was right after I dried the mixture out a little,I think my air lines began freezing.Oh well it was pretty successful night.I will try to get pics up in the morning.
 
Nice coverage for just an hour. How many nozzles on your rig? On the air line freezing, I wonder if an inline dryer would work?
 
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