Snow machine

[revbobuk]

Anyone got a small snow machine they would be able to let me use at reasonable cost for a kids club first week in August? And are there any h&s considerations that I should be aware of? I'm in Dorset (Ferndown)

[empyfree]

Happy to help, but postage will be a pig. See who else shouts up.

 

As for H&s. It’s not snow, it’s foam, sloppy slippy slimy foam.... onto carpet it kinda soaks in, on Lino/tikes/polished concrete etc it just sits there until you fall on it and soak it up with your clothes.

 

Looks good though!

 

Failing that we’ve got boxes of the paper based fake snow, that doesn’t make things as sloppy, but does get stuck to/on everything and will make you unpopular with whoever cleans!

[Tom_M]

Happy to help but for the cost of postage you can get a new machine delivered from Amazon.

 

As emptyfree says H&S with kids is going to be an issue because not only does it make things soggy it make lino / tiles / polished concrete / wood quite slippery because the fluid is based on a type of soap.

 

The effect is not long lasting in hot conditions, the coverage is not always good and expect to go through snow fluid very rapidly. I used a machine for a Brownie pack holiday and we went through 5L of fluid in a couple of hours continuous running.

[ImagineerTom]

Ironically most of the RA issues for foam snow are the same as for real snow; it’s wet, slippy and you don’t really want to eat it.

 

There’s a few extra risks relating to allergies (it’s basically soap so anyone who reacts to soap products will also react to foam snow) and the electricity risks of having something spraying water that’s directly connected to mains electricity.

[MarkPAman]

They can also be VERY NOISY!

[James Remo]

A bit off topic, but I was very impressed with pyrojunkies using magicfx confetti blasters with snow confetti at a show last December, was in a small arena so a bit out of scale for your show, but something to consider instead of the foam type machines. Also a bit more specialist, but the no fit state circus had a dry-residue foam machine for their Bianco show a few years back, as it was used above one of their aerialists, where the soap based machines would have caused a major hazard!

[revbobuk]

A bit off topic, but I was very impressed with pyrojunkies using magicfx confetti blasters with snow confetti at a show last December, was in a small arena so a bit out of scale for your show, but something to consider instead of the foam type machines. Also a bit more specialist, but the no fit state circus had a dry-residue foam machine for their Bianco show a few years back, as it was used above one of their aerialists, where the soap based machines would have caused a major hazard!

 

Actually - that's not a bad idea.

[ImagineerTom]

It may have changed since (I’ve not worked on Bianco for 4 seasons) but back then they were just using a “normal” snow machine and fluid combo. The fact it’s falling 12m in a warm tent at the very end of the show means that there’s no water in the snow by the time it hits the ground and the Arialists actually under the snow aren’t the ones doing the fancy tricks.

[Eeen]

Pyro Junkies used Swirl fans with small paper confetti squares, available from ForceFx (https://www.sfxsupplies.co.uk).. or make your own swirl fan and buy a bag of fetti... I think flints do it too, but force is a better price!