# Low Profile Snow Drum



## bobgaggle (Dec 2, 2012)

I'd been doing some research on the forums about snow effects for my holiday show. After reading all the posts and seeing what products are commercially available, I created a snow drum to meet the specific needs of my space. The venue is located in the basement of an old department store, is set up as a 3/4 thrust and has a ceiling height of 11-ish feet. The thrust is 24', but the entire playing space US of the thrust is about 40' wide. The director wanted snow to cover the entire stage and budget constraints prevented us from using liquid snow machines. So here is the process we used for making a low profile snow drum...

1. The Drum (4" PVC Pipe at 10')
I built a jig for the router that allowed the operator to raise and lower it while another person pushed the PVC through a chute of sorts. This allows for fairly uniform holes to be cut into the pipe. In the photo, the pipe is sitting on top of the chute, but for cutting it was fed through underneath. In the background you can barely see the router resting on its swing arm away from the pipe.

In order to keep the pipe straight when cutting, we snapped a chalk line on the pipe and marked the router's swing arm to indicate where the bit's center was. All we had to do was align the two and we had a straight line of cuts.




After the cuts were made, we cut two gates in the pipe to facilitate loading of the snow. Small hinges allow them to swing open and velcro holds it shut. 



2. The Power Plant (2 RPM Motor rated at 220 in./lb.)
Found a 2 RPM motor on line and built a plywood box to house it. I soldered on 2 cables then ran them through the box wall with a strain relief. The ends got a male and female edison connector, which allows multiple snow drums to be run in parallel. It worked out well because the motors draw 1.5 amps each and we are using 8 snow drums, so we can run all of them on a 15 amp circuit.







3. Connecting Them
A 4" hole saw made cutting plywood discs easy. We ran a half inch bolt through it, then halfway through a shaft coupler. I couldn't find any threaded couplers so I tack welded the two together. The idea of course is that the disc is inserted into the pipe and the two are screwed together. The coupler is slid onto the motor shaft and locked on with the set screw.





The other end of the pipe gets a similar disc and bolt, but without the coupler. The motor box is screwed to a hog trough and a block of plywood with a hole in it acts as an idler for the free end of the pipe. Sorry I don't have a photo of it, its hard to explain.

Once its all put together we painted it black and drilled holes for C Clamps in the trough to hang it.

Overall:
PVC - $10
Motor $22 ish
Coupler $5

Most of the other hardware any theatre will have lying around somewhere, but the cost of it all would maybe be around 20 bucks. So overall, to build this from scratch it would cost maybe 60-70 dollars depending on tax and where you get your materials. 

With 3/4" holes cut 2" long and spaced 2" apart, and 8 rows of such holes, we got about 80 seconds of steady snowfall when the pipe was stuffed about 2" high with shredded plastic snow.

Hope this helps someone if they're looking to build a nice snowfall, I'll see if I can link a video once we get this show running...


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## Tyler Dunlop (Nov 20, 2014)

I know this post is nearly 2 years old, but here's hoping for a reply...

I'm thinking of building a similar rig, however I have a few questions. In my initial plans I wanted to use PVC and shredded plastic snow, I am a bit concerned about static cling between the snow and PVC. Have you noticed any clogging of the holes? Second, my ceiling is pushing 30', I'm curious what the spread width will be a floor level. How high is your drum, and how wide is the snowfall spread?


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## TDN (Nov 21, 2014)

Why not use sonotube instead of PVC? It's a lot lighter, it's easier to cut through for holes, and much less worries for static.

My experience with snow machines is that it pretty much drops straight down. If you want to cover 16 feet of space, it needs to be 16 feet wide.


Tyler Dunlop said:


> I know this post is nearly 2 years old, but here's hoping for a reply...
> 
> I'm thinking of building a similar rig, however I have a few questions. In my initial plans I wanted to use PVC and shredded plastic snow, I am a bit concerned about static cling between the snow and PVC. Have you noticed any clogging of the holes? Second, my ceiling is pushing 30', I'm curious what the spread width will be a floor level. How high is your drum, and how wide is the snowfall spread?


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## bobgaggle (Nov 24, 2014)

we considered sonotube, but went with the PVC for its durability. Didn't think the cardboard would last long with all the handling and truck rides back and forth from storage to the venue


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## Smatticus (Jun 28, 2018)

Adding our recent "low profile" snow drum project to this thread. For Barefoot in the Park we needed it to snow across an approximately 12-foot-wide skylight. We had very little headroom left in our black box theater and many HVAC obstacles above the grid. We built and installed a slender, manually-operated drum just above the grid. The goal was to create a moderately heavy snowfall using large artificial flakes.










Barefoot in the Park



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 28, 2018



SUNY Oneonta, March 2018, Hamblin Theater (Black box)
Directed by John McCaslin-Doyle, Set...





The drum was made from 8" Sonotube. Slots approximately 3/4" wide were cut with a router in a repeating pattern along the length and about 1/2 of the way around the circumference. To improve the rigidity of the drum, strips of tempered hardboard were glued along the length between the slots. Tabs of Sonotube were then glued between those strips to improve the rigidity around the circumference as well.










Slot Routing



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



The drum was made from 8" Sonotube. Slots approximately 3/4" wide were cut with a router in a...














Slot Routing Table



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



The drum was made from 8" Sonotube. Slots approximately 3/4" wide were cut with a router in a...














Lengthwise Reinforcement



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



To improve the rigidity of the drum, strips of tempered hardboard were glued along the length...














Reinforcement of Circumference



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



To improve the rigidity of the drum, strips of tempered hardboard were glued along the length...





Three long hatches were cut out and reattached with strips of Muslin to create hinges. Velcro was used to hold each hatch closed. The hatches were cut along half of the remaining un-slotted circumference so that there was still 1/4 of the circumference solid to hold the snow during loading.










Muslin Hinged Hatches



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 28, 2018



Three long hatches were cut out and reattached with strips of Muslin to create hinges. Velcro...





Round disks of plywood were inserted into each end of the Sonotube and glued/screwed in place. A base flange for 1-1/4" pipe was attached to each end of the drum. Short pieces of aluminum pipe were set in the fittings. For the pivots, we used a 3-way-open-corner 1-1/2" pipe fitting. A PVC pipe cutoff and a greased, rolled strip of thin UHMW adapted the opening down to the aluminum pipe. A block of wood was bolted through the set screw hole in the fitting to create an end-stop for the drum axle. This created a smooth, quiet pivot.










Pivot Point Receiver



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



For the pivots, we used a 3-way-open-corner 1-1/2" pipe fitting. A PVC pipe cutoff and a...














Pivot Point Wooden End Stop



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



A block of wood was bolted through the set screw hole in the fitting to create an end-stop for...





The last challenge was the connection of the operator's ropes. A large slotted disc with a variety of mounting holes was created and added to one end of the drum. Two pieces of heavy black sash cord were laid in the slot, fed through the holes, and tied. To ensure snow would not be released when stored, we chose the correct hole relative to the direction of rope pull so anchoring the rope to a cleat would hold the orientation of the drum. The other hole was chosen to create the desired amount of maximum rotation when snowing. The operator's ropes were directed over smooth PVC guides to a position behind the set.










Rope Attachment Plate



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



The last challenge was the connection of the operator's ropes. A large slotted disc with a...














Installed Drum in Stored Position



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



The last challenge was the connection of the operator's ropes. A large slotted disc with a...














Installed Drum Overview



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 27, 2018



Snow drum installed above the grid above the skylight.














Operator's Position



__ Smatticus
__ Jun 28, 2018



The operator's ropes were directed over smooth PVC guides to a position behind the set.


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