Replying to WHY YOU NEED COMPRESSED AIR!!!!

Well, some commercial snowmaking equipment is airless,
BUT there is a fair amount of engineering of the
nozzles. not your typical spray or PW nozzle.

Now without spending thousands of dollars on the
actual snow stick, and a pump that can supply it with
the proper GPM and PSI of high pressure water, your
only alternitive is to use AIR with the homebrewed
snowguns. Beleive me, its been tried and ICE has
pervailed in EVERY airless experiment.

If you just shot the water from the PW into the air,
it WILL come right back down as either water and
freeze on contact making a sheet of ice, or it will
become more of a sleet. That includes even if you
changed out the very corse spray standard PW nozzle to
a finer spray nozzle... the results are the same, ICE.

Mist nozzles are no better. The produce ICE on
contact.

Now if you build the basic $5-$10 brass T gun like
most of us built, you will see what is being made
first .... its a very fine dry powder when its set up
right. The powder is produced by mixing compressed air
and water, the jet of the mix is cooled by the rapidly
expanding air, this helps freeze the atomized water.
The weather conditions do the rest of the freezing.
What is produced is a very very fine very dry powder
of snow.

In a combo gun using a PW, a neuclei producer - the
T-Gun - is needed. The neuclei is basiclly attracted
to or caused to mix with the high pressure spray due
to the 'wind' produced so that the nuclei sticks to
the water droplets of the HP spray. When they attach,
they freeze together because one portion of it is
already at freezing temps because of the rapidly
expanding air. The weather plays a factor again in
finishing the job.

So basicly you need to start the 'freezing process' by
using the rapidly expanding air then let mother nature
do the rest.

Dont beleive me about the cooling effect of rapidly
expanding air??? Try this experiment.

1) Empty the air compressors tank of air.
2)Once empty,turn on the air compressor so the tank
fills then shuts off.
3)Unplug the compressor
4) take your hand and touch the pipe that goes from
the compressor pum to the tank, feel it around where
it goes into the tank or maybe a little further
towards the pump.

HOT HEY!!!

5) Crank the regulater wide open for maximum flow
6) Put a air blower nozzle on the hose ( DO NOT LET IT
BLOW YET! )
7) With one hand, hold the metal tube of the nozzle
but do not cover the tip of the nozzle with any part
of you r hand or body.
8) make sure you are not pointing the nossle at anyone
or yourseld and then press the handle to let the air
blast

The air nozzle tube got cold hey!

Compression of materials like air produces heat,
letting it rapidly expand back to atmospheric
pressures causes it to cool. The more rapid it
expands, the cooler it gets. I've seen compressed air
being so rapidly released that it was blowing ice
chunks from the condensation.



www.buildasnowgun.50megs.com
Daniel