How to Make a Zamboni

Well, as many of you know, Chelsea has been very excited about the ice rink that the town of Saco has created this winter. I'm pretty sure we could spend time on the ice every day if time allowed. As we've been skating, winter weather continued in Saco. This was a huge plus because I got to use my new plow to clear the snow off the ice. Unfortunately, the ice was never quite clean enough for us. So then we would take to it with shovels and brooms.

Chelsea kept joking about making a Zamboni of some sort to really clean up the ice. We got to watch plenty of videos that people tagged us in showing other home made Zamboni contraptions. So, since there are only so many things to do for entertainment in Saco, of course I made my own. I thought I could write my first blog on this page and share how I made mine. Not sure that this is exactly a practical tutorial for most (or any) of the people reading this, but it is kind of interesting regardless.

So with that, here is how I made my own Zamboni for the Saco ice rink:

1. The first real step was to decide how I wanted to go about making this deal. I watched videos of people polishing the ice using anything from a riding lawn mower to a kid pedaling a trike. I decided that I would come up with a way to mount my Zamboni to the Rzr. I went through many of these videos and pulled some bits to combine into my own design.

2. I had quite a list of parts I needed for this project, including: a 20-30 gallon water tank, 5-6 feet of flexible hose (I used a washer hook up hose), PVC (I used 3/4"), a valve, some PVC fittings and glue, a couple hooks, and a towel or flap of some sort.

3/4" PVC, 4 - 90* Elbows, 4 - T's, PCV Glue, Flexible Washer Hose,
4 - Hooks, 2 - 1/2" PVC Caps, Valve, 4x4 post

3. The first part of the Zamboni is a water tank to hold the warm water before it is distributed onto the ice. On Amazon these can range from $75-$150 for the size I was looking at, so I decided to ask around. I didn't want to be stuck with a tank that I couldn't use if the design failed. With some luck, Darin Cummings from Whitewater threw one in the bus on the way to a Mavericks basketball game here in Saco. 

4. Now that I had the tank, I needed to get it to fit in the Rzr, and to do so, I used 2 4x4 posts to prop the tank up. This allowed some clearance for the hose and valve coming out of the tank. 

                         

4"x4" post cut to 1 foot section in place to prop the tank.

5. The next part of the project was to create a system of PVC that allows the water to drain right onto the ice. I made my system just barely wider than the tires of the Rzr, and it is made to attach right into my 1 1/4" hitch receiver.  

6. I began by crafting the part that would distribute the water. I cut the pipes to length so that with the fittings it would be about 54" wide (Rzr is 50"). 

PVC cut and then smoothed out with Dremel tool

7. The trickiest part was to add a cap to the inside of each end of this part, so that water did not travel back up into the rest of the PVC. To do so, I had to sand out the inside of the PVC, so the cap would fit in. I put a T in the middle, where the hose would later connect. I also added a 90* elbow to each end to connect to the frame of the system.

1/2 plug is inserted after sanding out the inside. Plug glued and pushed in.
The coupling for the hose is attached and glued (bottom right).

8. Once I had my PVC sticking out from the hitch receiver, I drilled a hole in for a hitch pin to keep the whole contraption attached to the Rzr. I then connected a T and spanned the width of 54" with 90* elbows on each end. These elbows were then connected to the elbows on the water distribution pipe using another short length of PVC. The angle that these were connected was critical to ensuring that the water will be distributed right on the ice, rather than from above. It also keeps the towel down by the ice to spread out the water. 

The pipe to connect to the hitch receiver.

Laying out the 2 parts of the frame to ensure proper height.

9. I next drilled holes into the pipe to distribute water. I used a small drill bit and spaced the holes out every inch or so. I don't want water to pour out, so I kept the holes small. This also maintains enough pressure to get the water to both ends of the pipe.

10. Next I drilled 4 small holes on top of the water distribution pipe. I added a small dab of Gorilla Glue to each hole and then threaded in 4 small hooks. These hooks are spaced out evenly with one on each end. A towel can now be attached using these hooks, to spread the water evenly.

 

11. Once I had all of the PVC glued and assembled, I connected the flexible hose to both the tank and the T on the water distribution pipe.

12. The final step was to fill the tank with warm water, and try out the device. 

The first day that I tried the Zamboni, it was about 5*, and I was using a large towel to spread the water. Unfortunately, as soon as the towel got wet, it began to freeze to the ice. It was so cold that I was unable to actually pull the device with out tearing the towel and damaging the PVC structure.

For my second attempt, I kept everything the same, but cut the towel down to about 8 inches wide. By using this shorter towel, I was able to prevent the end of it from freezing to the ice as quickly. However I was not quite satisfied with how it worked, and as I was running out of water, the towel froze to the ice and popped apart part of the PVC frame. I decided to try another option. I have ordered a small piece of Neoprene to try to use instead of the towel, with the idea that with less fibers and less water absorption, it will be less likely to freeze to the ice.

My second attempt. The kids skated as soon as the water went down,

 so it didn't glaze as nicely as I hoped.

It was pretty neat to see the ice after I had gone over it. The evening of my second test, there were a few kids out skating and they couldn't wait to skate on the new ice. So all in all, I suppose that means my contraption was a success.

Well maybe I'll try out this blogging thing a little more often. I hope everyone is having a good winter, we are keeping pretty busy up in Saco. Hopefully we still have plenty of ice skating weather ahead of us!

-Josey Quinones