Large Scale Central

Backyard Snow Making / Snowboard Park

Other Hobbies
#1

My youngest son Matthew (17+) and his best friend Doug has been building a backyard snowboard park complete with man-made snow! He started out by experimenting with a home-brew snow gun built from an air compressor and a power washer. His early experiments were quite successful using only what we had on-hand. These shots taken in the dark with Matt’s cell phone… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowGun_1_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Making Snow ! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowGun_2_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Making Snow ! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowGun_3_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Making Snow ! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowGun_4_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Making Snow ! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] The second generation will use a custom made gun created with high pressure plumbing parts, car wash system and oil burner nozzles. I don’t have any in-progress shots of his 2nd Gen gun, but it is based on this design…

More info on the gun at http://webpages.charter.net/hagosnowgun/ and http://buildasnowgun.com/Hago%20Snow%20Gun.pdf The next step is to build a launch ramp since we don’t have a large hill. Again this was built with on-hand lumber left over or salvaged from other projects. The snow was provided by Mother Nature… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_1_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Launch Ramp Phase 1 FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_2_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Launch Ramp Phase 2 FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_3_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Packing the landing. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_7_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]The Jump. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_4_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Preparing for maiden run. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_5_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Oh Cwap !!! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_6_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Double Oh Cwap !!! FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_8_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]Trying again. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnowBoard_9_-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]We have LIFT OFF :smiley: FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] These trial runs were on snow sliders, not quite as dangerous as a snowboard if something went wrong, After I put the camera away Matt got out the snowboard and was getting quite a bit of air on that jump. Trust me, I will not be trying the ramp any time soon :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

#2

GO MATT!!!

Who says the younger generation is stuck to “x boxes”, tv’s and not going outside?

Imagination is a great source of natural tatooes. Okay, some people call them scars. Chicks dig em.

#3

can you give more info on the snow making?
that might be neet for next year and my lights.
Would be cool to be the only person with snow on his yard and the christmas lights.
god knows we have the cold.

#4

Hey Geoff, This is Matt. The snow making is fairly simple. First off you need to have a wetbulb temperature of 27 or less. a wetbulb calculator can be found online, i use this one : http://www.the-snowman.com/wetbulb.html Input your current temperature and humidity, and you can quickly check if you can make snow.

All home snowguns, with the exception of a T-Gun, which doesn’t provide very much, or good snow, you need both a pressure washer, and an air compressor. If you plan on making snow for long periods of time, be sure to have an oil type compressor that is rated for continuous use.

As far as the actual guns, theres a few types that give the best results.

An internal mix snow gun, mixes high pressure air and water inside the gun and sprays it out of a special “nucleating nozzle” This “nuc” nozzle gives you a very fine mist, which is what starts the freezing process, similar to how natural snow forms around dust particles in the air. Above this nuc nozzle are you bulk nozzles. these are the car wash sprayer nozzles, I am waiting on mine to arrive, which are “washjet nozzles” These nozzles give you a flat spray, and various degree spread depending on the nozzle you buy. Generally you go with a 40 degree nozzle.

An external mix snow gun, mixes the high pressure air and water outside of the gun. this is the type that my dad posted pictures of above. Notice the two nozzles perpendicular to each other at the bottom. The horizontal is the air, and the vertical is the water. This allows for a much more controllable nuclei, and makes for better snow, in much more marginal conditions. The water nozzle is an oil burner nozzle know as a Hago nozzle. (information about using Hago’s here: http://webpages.charter.net/hagosnowgun/page2.html) Again above that are your bulk nozzles, which are the same in both internal and external mix guns.

If your still curious about making one, check out www.snowguns.com That’s probably the best site out there for find information, and its where i learned everything about this. So make an account and check it out. Or leave a post here and ill have my dad tell me.

Matt

#5

Thanks matt. most of all that stuff I have already just need to put it togather now.
This could be fun next year.

#6

Matt finally got all the parts together to build his own version of an external mix gun. He tested last night and made over 3 inches in about 2 hours. I’m still waiting on a few pics of the action tha my nephew took, but I took these of the gun parts before he encased it in PVC pipe. [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-1_1024.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-1_640.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]The complete gun. The lower right is air only. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-2_1024.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-2_640.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]The low pressure air and water nucleus nozzles. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-3_1024.JPG]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun-3_640.JPG)

[/url][color=blue]One of two high pressure water nozzles. FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] The previews I saw of my nephew’s pictures were great - Ill try and get a few posted.

#7

Neat stuff. I thought that you guys were the cause of the last blizzard up there…better watch out.

#8

Her’s some action shots from tonight. The gun has been enclosed in PVC pipe to make mounting simpler.

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_4.JPG)

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_5.JPG)

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_6.JPG)

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_7.JPG)

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_8.JPG)

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/SnoGun_9.JPG)