The official how to make you own snowmaker thread

JeremyClarkson

JeremyClarkson

Active member
we all know its summer =( so i was thinking on making a guide to make your own snowmaker to give you something to do during the summer and take away some of those blues =)

Alright first lets cover some basics.

you need three things to make snow. a snowmaker, air compressor and water. basically when you combine compressed air and water when temperatures are around freezing you will make snow. i will go into more detail on this later.

Your water supply

your water will need to be under pressure. 40 psi is a good pressure. most cities and towns have water from the garden hose under pressure. but make sure your water pressure isnt greater than your air compressor pressure otherwise youll have water being pushed into your air compressor tanks and that could cause some damage.

Your air compressor

You need an air compressor. Without it making snow will be impossible. When looking for air compressors your number one concern is CFM. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute. The absolute bare minimum CFM you can have to make snow if 3 CFM. so if you dont have an air compressor that does that youll need to buy one that does. Most models of air compressors show the cfm they produce.

another concern is run time. you cant run them forever but here are some things to look out for. oil lubed air compressors are good because oil usually carries heat away from the engine. air compressors love to run in the cold. but they dont like being stored in the cold. When your not using it leave it in your basement or your maintenace closet. here is the rule of thumb i would use. a 2 hour run with a 30 minute cool down.

another concern is cost. if you want my opinion your probably better off investing in a nice big air compressor that those tiny little ones at home crappot or elsewhere. i would highly recomend the eaton compressor. its cheap, realiable, oil lubed and is the best compressor ive ever had.

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

Materials

ok. so it goes without saying you need parts for a snowmaker. some of these names you may not be familiar with. but go to home crappot or lowes and im sure you will find them. you will need:

4: 1/4" nipples that are about two to four inches long

2: 1/4" ball valves

1: 1/4" cap (your cap needs to be brass)

1: 1/4" close hex nipple

1: 1/4" garden hose adaptor

1: 1/4" quick connect hose

1: 1/4" brass tee

one you have all those materials you should have something that looks like this:



I have color coded everything for you. on a side note the close hex nipple isnt labeled there. its the crucial part in between the tee and the cap that connects the two.

The Cap (nozzle)

the cap is going to become your nozzle! the cap to your snowgun is the most important part on your snowgun. it is where the water and air mixes together to form snow.

when you buy a cap at your hardware store there wont be a hole. duh yeah you know that. to drill a hole your going to need a drill table. if you dont have one im afraid youll need to ask around or find someone that does.

next is your drillbit. you will want to buy a 1/16" drill bit. attach it to your drill table and drill your cap.

The ball valves

these handy dandy trinkets will help you control the amount of air and water coming into your snowgun. these are essential because in any conditions you will need to control the amount of water and air due to temperature.

The type of metal

the type of metal you choose is important because wear and tear can and will happen: brass although expensive will be subject to less wear and tear. it also looks good =). if your on a budget however cheaper metals arent the worst.

Using your snowgun!

first you will want to connet it to a stand. you dont want the stand too high. a stand thats about 2 feet, no higher will work well. then connect your air line from your compressor to your quick connect on your snowgun. then connect the garden hose to your garden hose adaptor on your snowgun. turn on your air compressor first! slowly open the ball valve. then turn on your water. slowly ajust the amount of water coming out. you will want a fine mist coming from your snowgun.

once you have adjusted you need to do whats called a glove test. hold out a glove about a foot or so away from the nozzle. if you see small flakes of snow then your making snow!!! if not keep adjusting either the air or water until you do.





that is my tee gun running =)

Temperature

now we come to the temperature needed to run. belive it or not in snowmaking humidity is more important that the temperature. with the right humidity you can make snow in temperatures up to 40 degrees farenheight!

its this thing called wet bulb temperature. when you combine normal temperature and humidity together you get wet bulb. with a tee gun the absolute highest temperature you can make snow on is 29.5 wet bulb. below is a link to a wet bulb calculator. just enter the temperature and the humidity and if your result is 29.5 and below. go make some snow!

http://www.the-snowman.com/wetbulb.html

How much will it make?

the age old question which everyone wants to know. there is no clear cut answer because every situation is different. But under ideal conitions with an air compressor that gets 5 CFM and water running at .3 gallons per minute, i would say you will get about 1 inch of snow in a 10 by 20 foot area in about an hour.

well this about finished my guide. i really hope you found this useful. hopefully now there will be more early and late season edits than usual. also i cant be held resposible for any injuries you might get from snowmaking. its can be dangourous and you assume the risks.

and lastly have fun. snowmaking isnt going to work or school on monday after a night of partying.

happy snowmaking!

-derek
 
I have always wanted to make one but never have. Nice tutorial. now i just have to save this thread all summer.
 
I've done this.

1. Keep an eye on your air compressor, look into adding a check valve to keep water from going back down into your tank and ruining it. This is important. (unless you dont care about your compressor)

2. Takes alot of water and energy to make a small amount of snow.

Cool science experiment, not really practical for even backyard use. I've got some pics on an old computer, i'll see if i can dig them up, might take a few days.
 
I built a snowgun last summer from a different, more complex plan. It was hard but it paid off. Here is the plan that I used: http://www.snowathome.com/free_plans/SAH-SG3_e-type_external_mix.php

1233586857-736638-600x450-1233579498Pictures_070.jpg


That picture was taken after two nights of use.
 
can i just use a power washer when its cold out? you know how it prays out and ends up looking like mist? can that mist just freeze?

 
power washers wouldnt work. the droplets are waaay to big to even freeze in mid air. also if you want to be all sciency about it. you need to have compressed air to oinize the water and you dont get that in a pressure washer.
 
This was about 3 years ago... I was able to make snow but progress would have been very slow to make anything that would add up. There are better designs out there then the T gun.

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yeah I have 2. This summer im planning on building a fan gun also.

To the guy who asked if a pressure washer will work, no it wont. The reason is there needs to be something to nucleate the water i/e compressed air. There are forms of being able to make snow without c/a, but there are none for home use and require expensive mixtures and whatnot.

If anybody has a pressure washer, I highly reccomend making a combo gun, they are more complex and harder to run, but you can run them with ALOT more water. Il post plans within the next 10 mins.

Great thread
 
From snowguns.com

Sm4

Lets start off with what exactly is a "Sm4" snowgun? - It can have very many different designs but, its got one thing in common. The Pressure washer or (high pressure pump) supplies all the water needed for the snowgun. Rather then something like a teegun then 2 pressure washer nozzles above the gun. If you needed to describe a simple Sm4 it would be a snowgun consisting of 2 tee's, a ball or gate valve, 1-4 misting nozzles, and a nuc nozzle.

[*]The first is the water inlet. It must be high pressure in order for this type of snowgun to work. Typically when snowmakers refer to high pressure its anything above 350psi. Typically a Sm4 will work good at about 500psi. anything over 700psi and its overkill. You can run your sm4 with a decent size stand with water pressures under 450psi. It all depends on droplet size.

[*]Next is the Misting nozzle. Many many people have a lot of problems with, "what nozzle should I get" etc... well your saved. Go Here and this will solve your problems. One thing I want to leave you with choosing the misting nozzle, Before you order your nozzles what does it do in the wintertime? December, January, and February are the windiest months for ohio. So I want lower pressure, bigger droplets, less drift. So I want something around 2gpm, 450psi. That would be a 06 nozzle. Since teejets are measured at 40psi. so .6gpm would be about 2.01gpm @ 450psi. So I'd rather go with a 05 since I don't want something to big or else the droplets will be to big to make good snow at higher temps.

[*]Next is the ball valve or gate valve. Now people, you can also use a valve called a 'needle valve'. What's important about this valve is it mixxed the water and air. If you didn't have this valve you would backflow the water from your gun into your air compressor and would blowup your a/c. So the more percise flow adjustments you can get on this valve the better. Needle valves have been known to cause freezeup problems. Especially if you are going to leave your snowgun outside, it needs to always be blown out with the compressed air after use so no water is left in the gun. Commercial Snowguns use a check valve for the nuc nozzle instead of a adjustable valve. The check valve is a swing check valve with a rubber seal, not metal to metal, and a small hole is drilled in the center of the check valves swing arm which allows a tiny bit of water to pass through the opening, creating a perfect, unadjustable mixture of nuc. The advantage of this is you do not need to adjust the nuc nozzle and also when your done, they just turn off the water and unhook it and the check valve opens and all the compressed air is able to back flow into all areas of the water line and blow things out so no freezeups occur. It is a nice setup but has not been tried at the home scale because a rubber sealed swing check valve is expensive!

[*]Now were down to the air inlet. You ask why is a garden hose attachment? Well if you used regular 3/8" air hose the compressed air keeps a TON of moisture in it from humidity and its HOT! So when the air is traveling down the hose it cools off, that alows for condensation to form. And when its below freezing on the hose walls this condensation forms ice. After some time your hose will ice up completely, restricting the air passage. Also, don't even think about using quick connects. These for an air line are 10x more likely to freezeup quicker because they are metal fittings and heat conductive so they will be colder then the insulated rubber hose. Even garden hose quick connects are a really bad idea, the rubber o-ring does not do a good job of creating an air tight seal, it may not leak for water but it will with compressed air, and leaking air is inefficient and costly if you plan to run your snowgun many hours.

You also ask, What compressor should I have? Well the best kind of compressor is oil-lubed. Since oil-less aren't meant to run continously for hours on end. Plus you will need at least 4cfm @ 60psi. I would highly recommend the EATON contractor compressor. It gets 6cfm @ 40psi or something and it works great for this gun. I run my gun @ 60-80psi depending on the temp. Any eaton compressor or bare pump will work great for your snowmaking needs.

[*]Next is the most important part of the snowgun. The Nucleation nozzle. It is where the air/water mixxed and is released out the gun to mix with the upper misting nozzle's water. You say, a pressure washer looks like a snowgun why can't i just use that? Well when air is compressed then decompressed a transfer of energy takes place. When it is decompressed, or i.e. exiting the nozzle, the air cools very quickly. If you have a teejet nozzle run in the summer around 80psi you can actually see a vortex where the air is decompressing out the nozzle orifice, this is where that cooling zone takes place. HKD Snowmakers has cited that a nucleator nozzle at 125PSI with around 32*F air temperature will produce an air temperature of -40*F when exiting the nozzle! When you introduce water into that mix the expanding air takes all the tiny droplets from the water and cools the water, below freezing creating ice crystals and making snow, Then that is mixxed with the water from the misting nozzle to make a bigger flake and more snow. So it is prettymuch IMPOSSIBLE to make snow without a aircompressor at the home scale.

[*]Space inbetween the nozzles. That is important because you need to give the neuclation nozzle's mist time to freeze before it mixxed with the water. If its to close it will create slush, if its to far it will be seseptible to wind and the force of the high pressure water won't "suck" the mist from the nuc nozzle into its spray.

Now the best nozzles for the gun are Teejet Nozzles and also Hago nozzles. You can order them from a local distributor. They will be about $2-8 per nozzle. And if your not sure what flow rate, order a bunch of them to test. The best spray angle's are 30-40-65 degrees. 80degree spray angle teejets I do not advise to use because you will have to modify a 110degree nuc nozzle in order to achieve the same spray angle with the nuc as the bulk water nozzles. As spray angle increases, throw decreases. If you need a snowgun with maximum throw, 25 or even 15degree teejets might be a good idea.

Cost: You see this and your pumped to make your snowgun, but how much will it cost? A typical Sm4 will run you anywhere from $30-$100. Depending on how long you want it to last you will need to determine the metals for your gun.

[*]Stainless Steel - is the best and strongest metal for the gun but will cost the most.
 
[*]Brass - has increasingly become more and more expensive but will have a good life span, although the metal will be softer then stainless steel and will bring more wear to nozzles. ~$30-$50

[*]Galvinized steel - will work just fine for the fraction of the price. ~$20-$40

Pipe Diameter:

You also say what size of pipe should i get? Well, anything from 1/4" to 1/2" works. I have found that 3/8" pipe has been pretty much standard for my guns. The pressure washer hose quick connects are mostly in 3/8" threads and the diameter is small enough to not be bulky and also it is good because it has a wide range of flow rates, from 1GPM to 6GPM.

Snow Production:

Now for the hard part, EVERYONE asks either "How much snow will this make?" or "how much snow will this make more then a teegun?"

I'm telling you its not determined on the gun it matters about your water flow, water pressure, and air flow. The more you have of flow, both air and water, and the higher pressure the more snow you can make. A Sm4 @ 2gpm will use 120gallons per hour. Which devided by 3 for the cubic feet of snow will make it 40cu.ft. of snow per hour. It will make about 2-5 inches of snow per hour, without wind and temperature depending.

Now another question we get is "What temperature does this Sm4 work in?" Well put it this way a teegun works at higher temps then a sm4. A well built Sm4 should work around 28 degrees with a low relative humidity(70%). The gun will really shine when the temps go below 22 degrees.

Another question I get is "should I point the gun up, straight, or down?"

This is depending on your temps, and the snow quality. If the snow is very dry, point it down, you get the idea. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. You will understand once you start to make more snow.

[*]

Nozzles:

Then you ask "how many misting nozzles can i have?"

I say, Anything over 4 nozzles and its just for show. I would stick with 1 or 2 misting nozzles to keep the cost down and keep the gun simple. The smaller nozzles you have the more seseptible it will become after your done making snow for freezeups inside the nozzles. However, there is an advantage to more nozzles. If you have more nozzles you will have to have smaller flow rates per nozzle. This decrease in nozzle output per nozzle will decrease droplet size and allow you to decrease water pressures. Reading the Nozzle guide will greatly increase your knowledge of what nozzles to use for your snowgun.

MORE NOZZLES WILL NOT MAKE MORE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats RIGHT! A snowgun with 1 bulk nozzle will make the same amount of snow if you have the exact same flow rate characteristics as another gun that has 5 bulk water nozzles. Your snow output is determined by GPM, or the amount of water you can deliever to your snowgun. More nozzles just break up the amount of water going to each nozzle orifice.

 
Holy shit! I am so making one this coming winter. I am starting as soon as possible, but i need to buy an air compressor.
 
the guy you just copied and pasted that from on snowguns.com (ESCINC) is really stern on his copyrighted stuff. just make sure he doesnt find this.
 
Ya a few summers ago I bought one from snowathome.com which was about 500$ and then I had to buy a power washer and an air compressor the whole thing was pretty costly but I was able to ride a front yard setup for about 3 mounths this winter and I live on the coast of ct. If i were to do it again I would probably just build it using there dicictions at snowathome.com the key is the nosels which they sell for like 15 or 30. Then macking the snow really depends on how good your power washer is, and you need an air compressor but a power washer is more imporaint. Also when you buy your power washer make shure it is oil lubricated and electic that way you can run it overnighty without refueling. Hope this helps ITS ALL WORTH IT.
 
im so doing this... thank you for the bump!!! good thing i got like a 400 dollar compressor haha
 
Here is mine, kinda stupid for my yard, but whatever.

Courtesy of Newschoolers.com

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And I really didnt use any math, It worked but after hours and hours of trial and error, so trust me, follow the instructions as close as possible.
 
damn dude thanks so much i will need to make one of these this coming summer and or spring so i can have tons of snow haha thanks so much an +K to youuuuuuuuuuuu!
 
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