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Time: December 9, 2007, 10:45 pm

[...] 12/9/2007 - Find out how to build your own rink rake for under [...]

Comment from MKE
Time: December 10, 2007, 2:54 pm

My RinkRake broke for the third time last night - I have been thinking of building one for the last few weeks and love your instructions. I am also looking forward to having a longer handle - the short handle kills my back!

Comment from Dick
Time: December 11, 2007, 10:12 am

This is great. I just built my first ice rink and the top is a little bumpy so I was going to buy the rinkrake so I’m gonna build this instead.
I have a few questions: Do you have to use hot water or will cold water work as well? When you put this together, should the holes be on the top or bottom? How long should you let this re-freeze before using the ice again?

Comment from John
Time: December 11, 2007, 11:26 am

I use water straight out of my outside tap.

Put the holes on one side and then you can always flip it over to make the holes be on top or on bottom. Holes down seems to flood the ice more and I only do that when its real cold. Holes up makes the water run down around the rink rake and disperse in a thinner layer. Not sure if I’ve seen all that much difference. Really it just matters how fast you move with the rink rake.

If its cold and you put down a thin layer it will be ready to skate in 10-15 minutes.

I was really amazed with the results I could get with this. Really smooths out the ice. Don’t expect great results the first time…it takes a few sessions to get rid of those bumps and valleys, but once you get it smooth it is easy to maintain…until it rains Snow isn’t bad, just shovel it off and use the rink rake to melt the leftovers and freeze smooth again.

Comment from Dick
Time: December 11, 2007, 3:01 pm

Excellent. I just went and bought the parts and you were exactly right (even on the cost, right down to the penny). I looked in my basement and I actually have a free hot water hookup, so I might as well use it. Thanks for the tips.

Comment from Beca
Time: December 12, 2007, 5:33 pm

Thanks for the info on building a rink rake! I went and made one right after I read your instructions. Can’t wait to surprise my husband tonight with this nifty gadget. We have our base down but now we have to do the finishing layer
Thanks a bunch
From
Grunthal, Manitoba

Comment from Jeff Howie
Time: December 12, 2007, 6:10 pm

Thanks for the info, I was about to purchase the Rink Rake and when I found your website I what the hole size was and spacing of the holes was which is obviously the key to it working properly.
I am however curious as to how and why your original rink rake broke? I don’t want to make the same mistake.
I added a quick connect to the bottom of the rake so the handle and the bottom disconnect for ease of storage now I just have 2 pieces of pipe to store and not a big T shaped rake. I look forward to trying this over the holidays. Thanks again.

Comment from Dick
Time: December 13, 2007, 2:59 pm

Question on snow removal. My base is probably 80% frozen. I’m a big guy weighing in at a slight 280 pounds. My kids can walk on it fine, but when I walk on it I can hear it cracking and can see the crack lines. We’re getting about 6-10 inches of snow tonight. Should I snow blow it (280lbs + snowblower weight)? Should I wait another couple days (it should be in the 20’s for the next 2 days)? I’m not sure what to do?

Comment from John
Time: December 13, 2007, 8:42 pm

Wait for the ice to freeze solid. If you get on there, even if it doesn’t crack, the weight will force water up the sides and on top of the ice, mixing with the snow for a nice slushy mess. This could also cause ’shell ice’ where the water has been displaced from underneath leaving air pockets. You can’t skate on the ice until its frozen solid anyway so the best bet is to wait a couple days and then get the snowblower up there and clear it off.

Comment from John
Time: December 14, 2007, 5:39 pm

Jeff - The rink rake I bought was made of thinner PVC. Before my ice and frozen completely I was tossing it out onto the ice to get a head start on smoothing the surface. On one of my throws it broke. The one I built is more heavy duty and has a longer handle so hopefully I won’t have a repeat.

The disconnect is a great idea!

Comment from Kevin
Time: December 16, 2007, 8:40 pm

There are different thicknesses of pvc. Schedule 40 is a little heavier. Not much price difference.

Comment from John
Time: December 16, 2007, 10:37 pm

Kevin - I had wondered about that, but this was my first time using PVC. I did buy the schedule 40 and it certainly was cheap enough. The rink rake I bought online was thinner material. I guess they really skimped.
Thanks for the info.

Comment from Dick
Time: December 19, 2007, 5:53 pm

Another snow removal question. We had about 1 inch worth of snow the other day and I’ve left it on there. Well, we’ve had multiple 10 degree days and now the snow is frozen solid and not that easy to snow blow or shovel. Should I grind away at the snow or lay a nice layer of warm water over the snow?

Comment from Rck
Time: December 20, 2007, 11:28 pm

Some of the contraptions out there use a towel to smooth the water. Has anyone tried adding a towel to the rake? Do you know what type of material these towels are? I may give it a try.

Comment from John
Time: December 21, 2007, 10:53 am

I haven’t tried that yet, but know a lot of people add a towel or carpet scrap. I think this helps give you a more even distribution while using less water. If it’s really cold out and you put some water on your ice it may freeze quickly and form more of a ridge instead of spreading out and freezing flat. Having a piece of material would smooth the water out evenly before it freezes. I haven’t tried that yet, but when I do I’ll post the results.

As for material..I wonder if the carpet works better because it has more weight. Look at a Zamboni. They have a rubber squeegee on the back to smooth the water. It probably helps force it into any cracks as well.

Comment from Dan
Time: December 30, 2007, 9:42 pm

Thanks for posting these instructions online for me to see. Since this is my first real ice rink i am building, I never would have been able to dream up this contraption. I made min a bit bigger as i am building a huge rink out on a lake up here on Georgain Bay, Ontario. I made mind about 8 feet wide and the handle is about 6.5 long. I am going to give it a go tomorrow, so we will see how well it works out. I can always shorten it if i made it too wide. I think it wil be fine as i am hooking it up to a pump that i have submerged in the lake.
The handle end i had to modify a bit to adapt a 1 1/4 inch pipe to the 3/4 in pipe for the water source so i went and found and adapter for that. Hope it works out…..

I will let you know.

Comment from Peter
Time: January 1, 2008, 9:46 pm

Hey Dan, please let us know how using lake water to flood your rink works out. I am thinking of using that same method.
Has any one used the mat on their flooding tool yet?
I am so glad to have found all of these comments, and I am going out to purchase my parts tomorrow.

Comment from Marla
Time: January 3, 2008, 11:55 am

I also made this rink rake when I saw the price of the rinkrake. I wish I had seen this website before I built it. The only thing that I added was a squeegee to help spread things around a little more evenly - kinda like a zamonie. I used one of those things that go on door to help stop the draft. Screwed it in and then used hot glue to fill in the gaps so water wouldn’t come between the pipe and squeegee.

Comment from Bill
Time: January 5, 2008, 10:17 am

Thanks for the website. Decided to build mine the day after xmas. I used 2X10’s because our yard has about a 6 inch drop. After about a week of weather in the 20’s, it finally froze. However yesterday, it went into the 30’s and I made a nasty crack straight across the middle. Hopefully it will heal.
The weather is calling for 50’s for 3 days ( unbelievable ) I imagine I will see some severe melting and then hopefully the crack will not be an issue.

Comment from John
Time: January 5, 2008, 7:46 pm

We’re going to get some of that warm spell too. The rink will often withstand a short warm spell because the frozen ground underneath help keeps it cold. However, this forecast will probably do in a lot of rinks. Mine is on the north side of the house and remains in shade most of the day which helps a lot. The thing to watch for is if the ice starts to float on the melted water. If that happens, stay of the ice because it will definitely crack and could put a hole in your liner.

All you can do is wait it out. It’s January so you can count on it getting cold again. If it doesn’t…well, you can always buy some remote controlled boats

Comment from Pat
Time: January 7, 2008, 1:18 pm

I seen the rink rake at home depot and it seemed cheap and looked like it would break easy, especially for around $50. I just ended up grabing a measuring tape while I was there and measured the hole spacing and size then bought the parts for about $15.
I ended up not using the PVC glue style pipes, but the threaded type. It is actually the threaded nipples for underground irrigation systems. They seemed much stronger than the PVC. This is my 5th season with my homemade rink rake and no breaks and still works like new.

Comment from Peter
Time: January 19, 2008, 1:37 pm

John,
I went to HD and gathered all the parts to make a rake. I somehow, even after reading your comments and warnings, bought the wrong connector (male end rather than female end). My wife and I got a kick out my mistake. Other than that everything went together great. The only difference was that the guy at HD told me I didn’t need the PVC primer. I used sand paper to rough up the ends instead.

Today the temperature has been just below freezing. I have raked the rink twice today and it looks great. Thanks, Peter.

Comment from Jacques Houde
Time: January 22, 2008, 4:23 pm

This rake seems to be better built in case you do not want to go through the excercise of building your own. A bit pricey….

https://www.myclickhost.net/~byoung2/backyardrinks_tools.html

I am going to make one that takes ideas from both sites.

Comment from Ian Gifford
Time: January 23, 2008, 1:26 am

I just made a rink rake style device today from these instructions. It took me just a couple of hours from reading the article to getting the materials and having them glued and drying. I had the 3/4″ PVC pieces cut for me to the 5′ and 2×2′ 6″ sizes - $9.49; 12 pack hose washers, $1.71; PVC Caps, tee joint, 3/4″ slip to male thread joint, 3/4″ dual female coupling valve - $8.17; tin of glue that will get me a couple more hundred of these items - $4.49. Total with regional taxes etc. $26.96. Cut $7.00 off each of the next 6 of these I have to build and it cost me just over $18.00 canadian. But as it is this one should last me a long time, let’s hope the glue lasts long enough for that

A fun project for sure with great success. It took less than a third of the usual time to resurface as with a sprayer nozzle and gave us a really even coat. We tried a quick 5 minute soak and with temps of -10 celcius, the surface was perfect in just about 15 minutes. We had a good skate and a bit of shinny hockey. Thanks for posting your plans!

Ian

Comment from Wayne
Time: January 25, 2008, 8:06 am

John, thank you so much for the inspiration and instructions. I wanted to make something like this for a few years, but I was missing the secret formula of pipe sizing, drill size, and number of drill holes. A colleague told me about his RinkRake, and I found your site for a DIY version. He recommended making it larger than 6′ wide, and adding a shutoff valve.

Because Home Depot only carried 2′ and 10′ sections, common sense persuaded me to get two 10′ pipes and maximize the lengths. It came out to 9′ wide and I split up the handle into two 5′ sections. I adapted the handle to accept 1-1/4″ hose from a sump pump. I would have done 10′ wide, but I needed to cut a few short sections for threaded fitttings so it can be disassembled into 5′ sections for easier transport. Since I already had PVC primer and cement, total parts cost was under $15. The most expensive part was the $4 shutoff valve. I configured the tee with threads on the handle and one side only, so I only need to line up the holes once instead of twice (once for each side).

I used it on the 140′ x 40′ pond at work, and it worked pretty well with an old cast iron sump pump dunked into a hole cut in the ice. My 18″ chain saw was barely long enough to cut through the ice today. The 10′ handle flexes a lot when fully weighed down with water, but it works just fine.
http://wac.addr.com/rinkrake/index.html
If I make another one, I’ll use plastic cam-and-groove hose couplings from McMaster-Carr for the handle tee and hose connections - they will make it much easier to convert the rink rake into a spray hose. I already used these couplings for the hose connections, and they’re much easier to handle than messing with pipe fittings.

Comment from Paul Miller
Time: January 25, 2008, 9:06 am

perfect instructions on the rink rake - I did not expect the water to shoot into the air with the holes flipped up, it’s been so cold in Minnesota it’s still hard to get an overall smooth surface but the RR definately applies a lot of water - way better than spraying with a nozzle. Do people spray full throttle or should I adjust down? I think my total was around $20.00 with glue, I had primer but my old glue had locked up, pvc glue projects don’t come along too often, the best part of the RR is walking over your ice like the guys who sweep the gym floor at half time of the basketball games with the crowd watching their every move

Comment from Mike Graf
Time: January 27, 2008, 5:24 pm

Thank you for the rink rake instructions. I built one today and used it for the first time. Very SMOOTH ice! I used 1″ pvc instead of 3/4. Not much difference in weight but very sturdy. I also used a 1″ pvc to 3/4″ NFP fitting. From there I was able to buy a WATTS Brass 3/4″ NFP female to 3/4″ female hose fitting. From there it is generic hose connections. All in $17.36.

Comment from tim
Time: January 29, 2008, 10:54 pm

is there any video of someone using the homemade rake?
this is cool !! ! !

Comment from Ian Gifford
Time: January 30, 2008, 2:26 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSD-sl8Yx3Q

Check it out here Tim.

Comment from brad
Time: January 31, 2008, 11:43 pm

Great directions on the rink rake. Works like a charm. I went to St. Vincent DePaul thrift store and bought an old bath mat which I cut in half and attached to my rink rake with grommets and nylon zip cords–definitely recommend it as it smooths evenly and keeps rake more flush to the ice due to the waterweight. Only negatives with the way I did it –the carpets get wet and heavy, so caution is needed so as not to snap the pole. Kind of a pain to unhook when wet, so detachable carpet idea would be better. Any ideas? Also, on really cold day (was -37 wind chill on wednesday here in s.e wisconsin) you must move the rake quickly or the carpet freezes to the ice–snapped my lighter connector as a result. I added connector at base of t so that I can break my rake down into two pieces. Went with a bigger connector and that seems to have done it.

I have some issues with shell ice–any suggestions on how to eliminate it?