Long, Slow Burn

Everything went right today. The preparation last night made this morning much easier in that I put out the ladder, heat gun, extension cords, shut off the water so it didn’t freeze in the spigot. I also got all of my hoses in the house so they’d be nice and warm before going out into the freezing cold.

Here are the results. Now, we just need some kids to go out and do some sledding!

How cool is it to be able to say that? “Here is my son sledding on the snow I made.” Many years of dreams come true. My dog Gala likes it too.

22F, 53% humidity. Started making snow at 6:35am. Success. Science works!

While we’ve got temps in the 60s, I figure it’s a really good time to test out the snow gun. At 6am and 20F is not a good time to experiment with snow gun adjustments. My neighbor, Steve Bishop, was nice enough to contribute to my cause with a gas powered pressure washer and what a difference it makes! I should be able to make twice as much snow as I could with the electric powered pressure washer. Excited. Now I just need to get some temps in the low 20s or lower.

One more note, with the gas powered pressure washer, the noise is *MUCH* louder. I’m definitely going to have to talk to the neighbors and get their blessing. Who doesn’t want a white blanket of fresh powder?!? Yikes!

I think that’s a great picture that Kim took of the snow covering one of our dwarf juniper bushes. Can’t wait to make more of this white stuff.

I got out of bed at 6am. It wasn’t until 7:05am that I started making snow. 15F this morning and low humidity! Good snow making weather. It’s all a learning process of course. It took a long time to get everything out there and set up.

I put the compressor in the back of our minivan and ran the electrical and air line through the side window. That did a really nice trick of dampening the noise of the compressor. I had a cardboard box around the pressure washer to help dampen that noise.

I went to turn on the water. Nothing. Frozen. I had to get out my heat gun to thaw the spigot. Once that water started flowing, I went to turn on the pressure washer. Nothing. The water had frozen at the nozzle of the snow gun. Again with the heat gun. Thawed that out and the pressure washer was going and it was 500PSI.

I let loose the air compressor and we’re making snow but all of that took over an hour. There was a good breeze for Georgia so the snow really spread out over the yard but after an hour, I had a good coating. Take a look. Tomorrow morning will be cold again. Perhaps I’ll make some more.

This is what it looks like from inside the spray … with a flash on the camera.

The parts are all here for me to build my Sue15b snow gun. Or so I thought. As you can see from the pictures, one adapter isn’t quite right so the water is really pouring out where it is coming from the pressure washer.

Everything looks like it was working really well and would have made a lot of snow, if it wasn’t for the high temperatures and high humidity. I’m hoping that Saturday morning, the conditions should be close to perfect. Can’t wait.

Okay, his name is Forest, but he’s got a killer setup for making snow. 3 feet in one night! Dang, I need a bigger compressor.

Check out how a child turned $500 in parts and machinery into a mountain of snow fun. Click Here.