Inside a snow machine blower
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- I've often explored the pumps, but I don't think I've taken a snow machine blower assembly apart.
I've experimented with snow fluids in the past - with both shampoo, bubble bath and surfactants (Surface Active Agents - they're the chemicals that make water foamy). The manufacturers are very cryptic about their ingredients, but the main one is water with a very tiny percentage of surfactant. The best formulas will give a very light fluffy snow effect, while a simple surfactant/water mix may result in a wetter, heavier snow.
It's possible that some manufacturers add a more volatile element like isopropanol to the water to accelerate evaporation of the water from the foam.
It's possible that the use of distilled water has an advantage over tap/faucet water, as the impurities may reduce the foam. Especially salts. I don't recommend storing snow fluid for long periods of time for hygiene reasons as it lacks the sterile fluid and inherent pasteurising effect of a fog machine.
One of the best results I got was using benzalkonium chloride - a surfactant that is also used as a sanitiser, but the result was also very unpleasant to breathe. That does suggest that the choice of surfactant is very important in creating the best effect. It's a shame the benzalkonium chloride was so unpleasant to breathe as it would also have made the fluid very sterile.
Less surfactant is better. Typically just 1%. Too much and the foam can hang about too long and pose a slip hazard. It's also better using a low concentration to make it more skin-friendly.
Some commercial applications that use a lot of fake snow use foam concentrate for dilution with water. It's probably just a pure surfactant.
The blower motor is a centrifugal type with a universal motor for high torque and speed. In a snow machine it should get decent cooling airflow. The biggest factor in reliability of the motor is probably the vicinity of soapy water. That's definitely the bit that clogs and corrodes the pump. Especially when the machines are stored for long periods of time. The pumps are easy to source on eBay due to their use in many different FX machines.
The fabric sock has the feel of a synthetic polyester fabric. It is normally held on the output nozzle with a cable tie. The "foam party" machines often use a tubular sock, but the tapered nature of the snow sock is possibly to compensate for the airflow pattern from the outer foam stripping holes.
Some companies use these core blower modules on the front of larger fans for better snow dispersion. It's notable that the blower is ungrounded and in a plastic housing. Probably to reduce the risk of tracking and rogue RCD/GFCI tripping caused by the inevitable water ingress.
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/ bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
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Aww. I was waiting for you to foam up the place. :-)
Landlord, why’s the flat/apartment full of snow?😮
Answer, ahh, Big Clive’s been tinkering again 😂
Yes please 😊
Disappointing indeed.
Release the schmooo!
No snow
Darn, was hoping to see this in action. Anyone got a video of it?
Here's a similar unit: ua-cam.com/video/CFCfSPx6rqY/v-deo.html
Surely fake snow SHOULD have a slip hazard - the real stuff certainly does!
The biggest engineering challenge was wiping the huge smile off the snow :)
That was "COLD"! 🤣
A really well designed blower. This will produces a much higher pressure but small flow compared to the simple "squirrel cage" type often used.
But its much much louder.
We always called those little bolts, machine screws. Cool device.
Machine screws? Hm... I think I've seen a website about those.
I'm sorry not to have seen the bench covered in foam.😁😁
I found that if you want to find out more about a consumable liquid - what it's made of - companies are generally required to produce an SDS (for "safety data sheet") for products like that that they sell and more often than not it will detail reasonably well what is actually in the liquid by percentages and CAS numbers.
Underrated comment here. This is far too little known.
Oh, I found a good one for Antari Snowflake Water:
60-70% Water
10-15% Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate (301341-58-2)
8-10% Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (25155-30-0)
8-10% p-Nonylphenol polyethylene glycol ether (98113-10-1)
4-5% Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (9004-32-4)
(percentages by weight)
Those CAS numbers are a godsend, too. You don't have to guess which similarly named thing they mean.
IIRC the Australian one is typically the most detailed
@@cheyannei5983 SDS must at a minimum meet the Globally Harmonized Standard. At least, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has adopted the GHS.
Percentages are usually in ranges to make it harder to reverse engineer the product.
We NEED to see it working please Clive!
I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't combine this with the Disney bubble wand and demo it in your neighbours garden, I can just imagine the smiles on Steve and Beth's little faces as they watch a monster bubble/snow machine covers their garden... 🤣🤣
Imagine how clean the walls, concrete, and other non-vegetative surfaces would be after the next rain!
Everything for you is simple but for me you are simply telling me a story and it is a very interesting story. Thank you for so so informative things.
Awww... was totally expecting a demo.
I wish you'd show it working first and then take it apart.
"Blown rigid and it also carries liquid out." - BigClive 2022
It would be interesting to see if those pumps can be used with other liquids. The pumps for diesel heaters are notoriously noisy, the extra O rings for sound damping would be a useful feature if the capacity and voltage can be matched.
It interests me that the air pump is centrifugal but the liquid pump is reciprocating.
Probably to do with the volume of material 'pumped' - centrifugal gives higher volume, reciprocating lower volume...
@@stepheneyles2198 Ah, yes! Air Pressure (high flow) Fluid Viscosity (low pressure; metered) .
"machine screws" is acceptable nomenclature for those fasteners.
this winter we will get a demo. Thank you BigClive
I love finally seeing the inner details of all these components. It's definitely a bog standard vacuum cleaner motor and those pumps are often used in consumer-style espresso machines. There they call them vibratory pumps but if you google that, nothing useful used to come up.
Seeing how crude that blower construction is, how hard would it be to engineer something twice as efficient and half as loud? It's clearly designed with no efficiency or noise constraints in mind.
Have you ever dabbled in cold process soaps? NileRed has a great video on the chemistry of the triglyceride and hydroxide reaction, the result of which is a bunch of surfactants. Different oils produce different types of salted fatty acids, which are responsible for the cleaning and surfactant action.
It's quite a dive to take.
The first (and so far, only) time I'd ever seen that snow effect was at the original Walt Disney World (Magic Kingdom) in Orlando, FL. It was for a "Very Merry Christmas" party in mid-November maybe 8 years ago (which, of course, required buying additional tickets). They made it "snow" on Main Street when it was still more than 80 degrees F (~27 C) outside. As someone who knows real snow, it was a bit disorienting, but it was quite pretty, and the ambient music masked the "vacuum cleaner" noise wonderfully. I wonder if this snow effect is something the Disney Imagineers came up with. 🤷♂👍
I have experienced it at a Trans-Siberian Orchestra show, and at a parade in Galveston.
@@Kineth1 The TSO is awesome, isn't it?
@@McTroyd Indeed!
That would be a “centrifugal” compressor, Clive.
Love the content, man!!
Thank you for the manual depiction of the action of a piston in a cylinder. I'm sure I never would have worked it out from the verbal description alone. This skill will come in handy should you ever have to explain the operation of a device In which a movable cylinder slides over a fixed piston. 😁
Soap/water solutions tend to be difficult to pump because of lowered viscosity. Would adding something like glycerin to give the pump more purchase so to speak negatively affect the formation, texture and lifetime of the "snow"?
Soap solutions as a rule have higher viscosity than pure water at the same temperature. Perhaps you mean their surface tension is lowered.
I was just laughing at the manual finger in cylinder, reading your comment, laughed some more. I have had a few wines.
You mean like reverse cowgirl?
@@iconoclad I would NEVER make such a crude reference on such a distinguished forum.
But now that you mention it, yes.
@@igrim4777 Hey, I'm working on memories of High School chem class here.
(I graduated in 1970)
You can imagine a world of alternate uses for this gadget, Clive.
Whats the motor look ike running out of its case? That might be fun to see.😊
Interesting bit of kit never seen a sock for snow before. great video 2x👍
YES, Clive is home.
Would have liked watch this one work
I remember being at the theatre, and where the light rig was, a large cylinder above the stage, I was near the front of the auditorium and could see behind the pelmet ~ it was a winter/Christmas themed show/pantomime with a snowy scene in it. When the “depicted” outdoors scene happened = a faint clunk and wine coming from the cylinder and it was slowly turning, and what appeared to be cut foam/paper falling into the actors and stage, their was one central unit/two or connected in series and turned on from the centre outward (on how much the director wanted to fall on the stage) and it was quiet - enough to hear the actors and music above it
Sounds like a confetti based effect.
wow that interesting, i never see that before O rings for sound damping inside of a snow machine blower. that good job!!
bubble wands, foamy snow machines is this a theme? I'm going through a 'rotating disco LED light' phase, a colour changing bulb in the dining room fixture two clip lights with the rotating bulbs, an LED string, puck lights, a stack of remotes for colour changes, to my partner's chagrin, the dining room is now a Unicorn Disco. Horns.
I was waiting for a demonstration.
"Hey Laser-lips! Your mother was a snowblower!" --Number 5, _Short Circuit_
Never heard of it. Watched out of curiosity.
Great videi!! Noticed your channel is almost at 1 million subscribers. 😁👍👍
I wonder what would happen if you added fuel instead of soap and added an ignition source...
flamethrower!
It would almost certainly create cotton candy.
You'd likely burn your house down...
I thought of something similar - the Airwick plug in video awhile back. Fill it with something flammable (instead of the liquid scent) and ignite the cloudy vapour.
Instant hair removal for anyone within a reasonable distance.
To get the high pressure relatively high pressure you have to spin that axial blower quite fast. I don't know how much noise comes from the brushed motor. Probably not much. But you could replace that with a three phase motor with a high frequency drive on it. You commonly see them on drones and RC aircraft these days. But at least they would run, as long as a thermals were taken care of... pretty much forever.
Thanks very interesting. Always wondered how they worked. I will get my sledge out. Thanks for the video.
My favourite bubble mixture recipe, having made it for science classes for decades is to use a 1 or 2% solution of washing up liquid and add small (teaspoon) quantities of sodium carbonate (washing soda) until it thickens up to the required consistency.
Would have liked to have seen this running :-)
Ah, snow machines. Reminds me of a Christmas event my church did a few years ago. It was a big walk-through show about... things? I guess? Anyways One of the 5 sections we used an old and somewhat unused building to set up a section of a small town with a few building sets. They turned off the main lights and set the thermostat to MIN. (that got down to about 60 degrees. I remember when the show controller DMX unit called to turn on the six snow machines, you'd hear the fans spin up and the lights would dim. Those were loud to the point that the people who built the scene added speakers next to each of the machines to play high wind howling sounds to try (and kind of fail) to drown out the VERY LOUD NOISE those things make. The fun memories that simple things like this trigger sometimes.
So many suggestive visuals...a couple resemble gestures in the Buffy episode "Hush" that, to Joss's astonishment, weren't nixed by the network censors.
Tempus fugit. Time flies, so it flies from the center outwards = centrifugal
Who else hoped, he would turn on the unit, to demonstrat it, on his bench?
"A spring went ping, the thing hit with a ding, it did sing with a ring, on the wing of the king. Doo dah, doo dah."
Interesting that it's so sophisticated that it's simple. It surely is a very effective effect, when Elsa reaches a crescendo and the snow starts flying from unseen places... At least in theme parks, they refer to the effect as "snoap" (snowp? like snow-soap, may have misspelled it since I don't know if it ever gets written, only heard it said) since the solution is so very nearly soap.
Well, here's a whole new meaning for the words "happy sock"!
You said "blown rigid"
You also said "Can I get that off?" "Give me a moment...I'm going to try to try and get this off" "It would be good to get it off"
Yes...I'm a dirty minded perverted freak...always have been :)
Lmao, most of his videos sound weird with your eyes closed
I also noticed the high concentration of unintentional perversity in this video. That hand gesture illustrating the pumping action...
The pump looks very much like the dossing pumps they use in diesel caravan heaters.
Probably just as annoying at 60 Hertz as it is at 5 Hz
I can still say, I've never seen one of these in action :)
tick. tick. tick. tick tick
I actually don't mind it much... gives me comfort that heat is running.
@@volvo09 My approach - when you can't change the noise, change your attitude to it 👍
Wait, What... no demo of you in the garden showing it in operation ! :(
Surfactant is not actually "soap", right? I was just wondering, if you use this for an extended period of time in one area, would every surface in the vicinity get all "scummy"? And, ya, why didn't you foam up the place (shop)? Next video, maybe? 😆☺🤩
I have the exact same motor unit from an actual handheld vacuumcleaner. The unit was rated 800W.
I built 1 for my kids with a leaf blower, old dress sock, bubble bath and water in a bucket and a old 12v motorcycle diaphragm fuel pump
I get a real kick 🦵 out of this 😂😂😂!! I think 🤔 of “snowmobile”, as it’s called in certain places in the world 🌎. Other places call 📞 them a “snow machine”. I know this isn’t about the motorized vehicle we ride in the winter 🥶. It’s about your snow ⛄️ making blower, but both still have the strikingly same name. P.S., here’s a funny 😄 one ☝️. I and my mother went to a place called Greens 🥬 and Things. I think 🤔 it was about 2004. I read a note 📝 below the light 💡 switch, saying on it 🫡, “Turn the snow machine off”. I think I teased her about it, but I now don’t remember the outcome. Your friend, Jeff.
I really hoped you would demonstrate it
I what to see the snow! ❄️❄️❄️
3:19 My childish mind made me laugh at the innuendo, plus the thought of white stuff being forced through a phallic shaped sock.
I'd hoped to see it making snow
I learned two new words today parasitic pump and venturi pump
Wot no foam?
The rotor stops very quickly when you turn it - it should have minimal friction. Some cleaning and bearing grease should help.
Friction from the brushes?
That would be the friction of the carbon brushes - can’t do anything about that, 🤷
It could be magnetic attraction between the rotating and stationary parts of the motor, not lack of lubrication.
@@johndododoe1411 It's not a permanent magnetic motor though.
Very cool I didn't know these existed
I need one of these
Edit: that uses a vacuum blower
Cheers to you. ...
This is the new one, similar to the one you reviewed 8 years ago.
Shame I was waiting for a snowy scene 😞 nice video though🙂
If Clive goes on like this..I predict an 'inside a GrandMA3 console'
I was just going to comment that …we could use a good snow job around here …but you’re snippet on surfactants as a treatment was worthy of a journal publication and definitely worth conversing about. I try to avoid surfactants in everyday good because I live upstream from a mass of humanity and the concentration of surfactants has to be accounted for … I’ve been messing about with a foam cannon for pressure washers and have it working well below minimum advertised pressure but discovered that a car wash soap I was given is so heavily concentrated that I will be trying to consume it for decades to come at my current rate … so ridiculous that few 100ml I put in the bottle is still foaming after having been washed by at least a 100liters of water at this point (I’m aim for effectiveness /conservation)… this is supposed to be a consumer product … I know people are just using massive amounts of soap and resulting in massive water consumption just to make the suds go away! Thanks for the knowledge drop Clive!!
One point is to, quite literally, cover the target with foam. The outer layers insulate the inner layers from evaporation, allowing the inner layers to penetrate beyond surface contamination. The rinse more pushes the foam/soap out of the way, rather than put it into solution to carry it away. The other is that for a car wash, they don't want to have to have someone come by more than once a day to check the liquid reservoirs and do other maintenance. The higher the concentration, the longer between paying someone to refill the bottles.
I'd like to see that blower running. To me, the fan is at odds with the ducting, or, the vanes in the blower are at odds with their most efficient direction of rotation.
Anyway, a true vacuum cleaner motor would have a two stage compressor in the can, with a stator between the fan discs. Even so, this looks like it can still generate a fair amount of pressure.
Would you use distilled water in this machine? I'm thinking of limescale building up on the sock, and I'm also wondering if you can use domestic cleaning products as the foaming agent. It would need to be a salt free product, say, "Star Drops".
I could see one of these being fun to have around Christmas time - Hmm, I wonder if it would deter carol singers from coming to your door!
A better vacumcleuner has 2 stage compressor but most dont. it spins up to 30.000 revolutions.
@@jozefa1234 Well, perhaps not in this day and age, but when I was growing up, you would be very hard pressed to find a vacuum cleaner that didn't have a two stage compressor. Of course a two stage needs a bigger motor to drive it, so more Watts to run - Not allowed today! Unless we're talking about industrial machines.
@@whitesapphire5865 in my younger days the vacuum cleaner has 2 vanes and 350 watt motor. Now most 1 Vane and 1200 or 1500 watt. Simpeler construction and higher rpm. Energy spill.
So funny I just repaired the pump in one. The pumps internal spring was rusted in place due to the high quality chinesium materials. Needless to say it was a nightmare to pull apart without destroying it even harder to resemble 😂
I would like to see a follow up with a peristaltic pump insted, think it would be intresting
Awesome big clive
Have you tried it out in a walk in freezer yet? Good luck. 👍
Something I've seen go wrong with those vacuum motors; lately some very cheap chinese ones have used aluminium for the windings which fatigue and break where it's staked into the connections for the brushes.
I'm not a fan of aluminium windings at all.
Looks like a variant of China blender motor. 2 pole 12k rpm.
The other coil usually has a 105°c ceramic cased thermal relay glued on that acts as a safety cut off. But my mom manage to burn the coil, they should use higher quality insulation or lower temperature cut off.
How could you not show it working!
It seems you could easily remake this from parts of a vacuum cleaner and possibly just 3D printing some missing pieces. I wonder if there is any suitable common household fabric to use as sock (maybe some actual socks?)
If the foam seems slipery at all it may be one that contains Glycerol. Do remember that whilst manufacturers are very cryptic about their ingredients, you can find them listed on their obligotory ’Safty Data Sheets’. Try adding: D-Glucopyranose, oligomers, decyl octyl glycosides.
So this snow should be available in a variant that does not make the floor slippery? In my experience bubble blowing machines are a true safety hazard on some floors...
@@Peter_A1466 On reflection maybe I was too dogmatic. Lets just say glycerol would make for a more slippery floor.
There is also a non chemical veriant consiting tiny crystals of pure frozen water and that can also be a little slippery. A pair of steel spike crampons should make traversing all variants a great deal safer. ☃
@@Nuts-Bolts ah, yes. A fog fluid spill also makes a nice skating rink 😄
@@Nuts-Bolts I find that many shop/home owners invite me to not return when I break out the crampons to keep from slipping on their floor.
@@Nuts-Bolts So, in other words, always wear golf shoes.
There's no business like snow business, like snow business I know..........☃❄☃❄☃❄☃❄☃
Too much surfactant poses a slip hazard? Like snow?
Here is the video Clive made 8 years ago about the same subject 😊 ua-cam.com/video/s_gkSbQXKH8/v-deo.html
@@Okurka. HAHA Yes‼️😄
What? you were expecting some comment about getting foamy with your blower. not here pal, we're a G rated channel now. go get your smut somewhere else LOL
Bigg Huggs
Aww I wanted to see it go and make a complete mess everywhere :(
I make my own snow fluid with Mr. Bubble brand Bubble Bath and Iso Alcohol.
Fog/haze machines use a similar type of fluid pump.
I wonder if a person could dispense the chemical they use to de-ice planes and mount a few of these to the wings?
Turn it on, turn it on, turn it on!
No link for the fluid discussion mentioned at the end?
Check out the febreeze fade defy "technology to make the scent last 50 days"
last time i pulled of that hand signal i got a slapped face.
I can't be the only Canadian mystified by this item being called a "main blower assembly for a snow machine". 😅
I am in Norway and was expecting one of those turbines for creating snow for the ski arenas... 😄
@@stevenverhaegen8729 I was expecting a large chute for a commercial snow-throwing machine ie. a snowblower.
This is plenty big enough to cover the Isle of Man including the mountain.
If I didn't know better, I would have thought that "sock" was "unsurfactantcised".
No demo! I'm gonna sulk now ☹️
I’m dissatisfied Clive , I wanted to see snow
No demo 😕
Wait is this a reupload o a reshoot?
I want to see it working!!!
Is that a new surface on your bench? Or something temporary?
It might be the Glasgow flat. He has been in Edinburgh working so might just be passing through. 👍👍
It is indeed Glasgow.
@@bigclivedotcom I thought it was. 👍👍
Screws have the thread all the way to the head and bolts don't. They are screws and nuts.
Fasinating..
Where is the 'snow'?