Ski Southeast Messageboard

Haha well not yet... I have a zero turn lawn mower, maybe in the winter I can remove the deck and create a tiller that goes under it and run a drag behind it. Haha. Unfortunately the grooming is going to be me with a shovel! I already told my wife our next house has to have a hill, snow on flat ground is only so good...

I will try to snap a pic of my air / nuk alignment, I used the galvanized so i can weld them in place.

Alright well after 3 different trips to the hardware store I have finally pieced together my gun! Here's a few pictures, I have added Teflon tape and tightened all fittings since some of the pictures were taken. I had to JB weld the air nozzle onto the water lines so that it won't move. The whole thing is currently in a vise while it sets up and I forgot to take pictures before hand. I think I got my air/ nuk alignment pretty spot on from all the other pictures I've seen on the Internet. I'll take more pictures this evening as well as include a detailed parts list and some instructions for anyone else who wants to give it a try. I have about $200 in the gun itself (including nozzle kit), plus you will need an electric pressure washer and a good sized air compressor. As TSI has shown it can be done for cheaper if you purchase your nozzles from the cites he has shown and if you use galvanized 1/4 inch pipe as opposed to brass (which cost me a small fortune). Once the epoxy dries I will hook it to air and water and take a few pictures if its not too dark when I get home this evening. The true test will be in the morning. I'm hoping to make snow for an hour or 2 early tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

More pics

More pics

I took a video but I don't think I can load it here. I don't use YouTube or anything, but may set up an account later so y'all can check it out. TSI, from the pics I took does it look like it will make snow? I am not sure if my nuk is working like it should or not. Guess I'll find out in the morning!

Forgot to include this: running my outlet pressure on the compressor at 40psi and the compressor is running close to a 50/50 cycle, it's actually 24 seconds running and 26 seconds resting so hopefully it can keep cool with the temperatures around freezing. I'm still uncertain if the set up I am running for nucleation is working as it should or not and honestly don't really know how to tell if it's working, much less how to make adjustments to it as far as air pressure is concerned.

Looks good! Your spot on with the air / nuk alignment, should make snow! I'm working on a mini fan gun now.

I am jealous of you guys!! This is something that has been of interest to me the past few years. Life is too busy this season, but I am hoping to get into building a system for my property next year. Being a scientist, I have been curious that if you run your air and/or water lines in a chilled bath or freezer, if you could cool your water and air enough to make snow at higher temperatures. Due to this global warming, we need snowguns to work at warmer temperatures so we can get skiing earlier in the year.

It worked! I need to create a YouTube account and out up some videos from this morning but here it is anyway! Made snow from 5 to 7am this morning. The ground temp seemed a bit warm. It took an hour to get a solid dusting then went very quickly to an inch. I think this is because it was melting almost as fast as I could put it down. I'm was running a 1.25 gpm pressure washer and am thinking I'm going to upgrade to a 1.8gpm to increase production. The gun itself seemed to work flawlessly though! A big shoutout and thank you to TSI for all the help!