How to build a backyard Zamboni
November 14, 2008 by John
Filed under DIY Projects
Now that you’ve built your backyard ice rink you need the most important tool to get the best ice…a Zamboni! Actually, the smallest Zamboni you can buy is a tow behind unit for your tractor. For small backyard rinks the solution to getting smooth ice is much simpler and cheaper. There are numerous hand held ice resurfacers you can buy on the internet. After looking over the options and prices I decided I could build one myself and went to Lowes looking for parts. The entire project cost only $15 and took about 15 minutes to complete. Here’s what I did:
Ingredients
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NOTE: When trying my first test run I discovered I bought the wrong PVC adapter. I bought a female unthreaded to male threaded adapter when I should have bought a female unthreaded to female threaded adapter. I’ll need another trip to Lowes to get an adapter before I test it out. |
| I didn’t see any threaded PVC at Lowes so I decided to try using PVC cement for the first time. As you can see a big chunk of my sale was buying the cement and primer which I used very little of. I’ll have to think of some more PVC projects now that I have the glue :)Test fit everything at the store to make sure you have the right sizes. The adapter should be threaded on one end and fit on a garden hose. The shutoff valve is optional. At right is the picture of all the parts prior to assembly on my dirty garage floor. The PVC cement is foul stuff with lots of warnings so do this project in a well ventilated area. |  |
Assembly
- Cut one of the PVC pipes in half. I also made the pieces a little shorter.
- Start priming and cementing. Follow instructions on jars and put the pieces together.
- Let cement cure per instructions on jar (2 hours in my case)
- Drill 3/32″ holes along top of your T 1″ apart. Lay the T flat, drill down from ceiling towards floor, but be careful not to go all the way through.
- Test it out!
Here are pictures of my finished Zamboni. Excuse the dirty garage floor and the sloppy purple primer. Final dimensions are 5′ wide and 5′ 6″ long.
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[...] How to build a backyard Zamboni [...]
I made something similar. A few tips:
I zip-tied some rags to the pipe to help smooth out the ice more. I’m not sure if this is better than just having the water, because I end up with very smooth ice, but it still has larger bumps. I notice another site mentioned using a towel - maybe I will try that.
I got some quick-release hose connectors. This makes it easy to disconnect the hose from the faucet and the “Zamboni” from the hose. I then bring the hose and Zamboni into my heated space to keep them from freezing.
I just finished my rink rake. The only difference is I used schedule 80 PVC vs schedule 40. A little more rigid and worth the extra $1. Just finished the 2nd fill of the rink using the rink rake and it worked perfectly.
Thanks for the quick release reminder. Saved me a trip:)
So…… I tried this idea last week after my ice had rozen, we had a very mild two days after giving me a horrible ice surace and after two floods with my new home made zamboni my ice surface is as smooth as it was after the irst freeze. I also added some painters rags to the bottom pipes. I have glued them at the top and wrapped them once leaving approx 3 inches of rag dragging behind my zamboni. This seems to even out the water flow and give me a clean smooth surace. Great idea and easy to make(took me about 20 minuites from start to finish) Question ? I am using hot water as I think it will finish better. Does it really matter ?
@ Norm,
I have been building a backyard rink for 4 years now, and i usually use the water from the hose. It is fairly warm, and it seems to melt any bumps on the ice before freezing. If there are any deep fractures in the ice i bring out a kettle of boiling water and use that to basically drill out the hole and then it freezes over well. So to anwser your question, i think that luke warm water is better than cold water because it melts the rough top layer of your ice before freezing. This gives you a very flat surface. There must be a reason why the water that the use on real zambonies is piping hot!
When i first built my rink, i would jsut sit there and spray with the hose. I quickly found out that filling massive 12 massive tupperware containers with water and then dumping them all on at the same time worked much better. The ice surface was remarkably smooth, similar to that on a real rink. Problem is that you cannot do this until there is a significant amount of ice bulit up, beause you dont want to melt through it. Now i am looking at building myself a ice rake so i dont have to put on such a heavy flood each time. My quesiton is does anyone know what the best material is to use for the back of the rake? Does anyone know what they use on real zambonies? I would think this would make a big difference in the smoothness of the ice.
i work at an ice rink in fredonia new york. the flap on a real driving zamboni is a 6″ peice of rubber dragging behind. knowing that, what i use to resurface my rink is a floor squeegee. its like a giant windsheild wiper on a pole used for spreading blacktop sealer. you can get them at home depot for like 10 dollars. and yes..use lukewarm water to melt away the ice buildup and fill in the divots and cracks.. let me know how it goes..
My Friend just built a rink and on the back of his rake he just wired on a piece of Carpet, Spread and worked Great !!
Do you point the holes up or down when you use it. Do the holes ever freeze closed if you point them downward?
This is my rookie year with a rink. I am having problems on the initital fill with air holes from the plastic liner. We had a heavy snow after first fill and now I have a crusty, air filled snow base. Do I just keep filling? Any tips??
IceMan, I am in the same boat as you. I am a rookie and the recent snow created havoc! I have a huge bump and many smaller ones and I’m not sure the “rake” will take care of them. This is my rookie year as well. Good luck.
BigEd…Here is what I have figured out. I cleared as much snow as I could and then let the sprinkler run for a few hours. After that froze I used a real heavy steel shovel and knocked off as much of rough spots as I could. We got 6 ” more snow today but I have shoveled it off and the “bumps” are much smaller. I am making headway!!!!!
This is my first rink this year and I went with no liner..Saskatchewan style I guess. It too about four days of misting to get a water tight sheet complete with bumps. Next year I’ll use a liner. Once I was able to flood the rink, I got a fairly flat surface, but still had some bumps. I found my angle grinder worked great at taking them down a few millimeters below the ice surface and then a final flood and presto.. a flatish rink. Kids love it and I’m hooked. Next year it will be the whole yard!
My outdoor rink hasn’t gone too bad this year. The problem I am having is that I get bulges in it (5 Right Now) I tried chipping them out and refilling but the ice was really brittle in these areas. Then I tried hot water and it made thin crackly ice all over. The temp has been -18 to -30 so far from December to now. How can I prevent the bulges in my ice? My rink is built across a concrete pad onto the grass and is approx. 24×36 with boards.
Think I will build a rink rake a try flooding with it currently i just run the hose down a piece of plywood in numerous spots from the top of the boards down.
I make a rink on the lake in my back yard. to make the ice level and help remove ridges I do a series of floods. at first I just let the water flow. With each flood after that I use thinner and thinner layers. Usually takes about three layers to get a good surface.
I drill a hole and drop a sump pump in. unlimited water supply.
This past week we had a windy, warm day. It blew snow drifts on to the surface, half melted them, then it got cold and refroze. I’m gonna loose about 3 feet of width. I think when you start a rink make it about 10 feet larger on all sides so that as winter progress when you loose area it isn’t a bid deal.
Iceman..We skated once and I have built a rink rake. I stopped before I drilled the holes. I assume they face toward the ice? It makes sense to me but I am trying to find out now. Any ideas?
how long does it take to build?
@Wes
The reason Zamboni’s use hot water is because hot water has less dissolved oxygen (air) than cold water. Air that is entrapped in your ice makes bad ice.
Im looking into building a rink this winter. I know its pretty late but is there any problems building in mid-winter as opposed to late fall (besides it more of a hassle because of the cold)?
I finally put my rink up last week and finished filling it last night. Still plenty of winter left for skating. My only caution is to get as much snow away from where the rink will go. If you put the liner and boards on top of snow, the warm water will melt it and could cause a tear in the liner as everything settles. If its your first rink, probably a good idea to start small and simple.
took me about 20 minutes
graham…if your talking about the rink rake it takes about 20 minutes…..tops!
Ugh. People have always told me that it is important to read instructions. I have fully assembled and glued my rink rake and now I have a male threaded end that will not accept the male end of the hose (even though I do live in Massachusetts). Now I have to head out and get some kind of adapter. I assume they would have a female threaded to female threaded adapter so I can make this work. The alternative, I guess, would be to saw off the end of the handle and attach the correct adapter.
Don’t feel bad, I did the same thing
Yeah, you did the same thing and WARNED everyone in your post. Still, I went and did it. No biggie. Lowe’s had a female-female coupling for 77 cents.
The underground sprinkler system section at Home Depot has threaded plastic pipe in various lengths, ie 12″, 18″, 24″, 36″. This pipe has the same thread as the PVC connectors. Just bought my material yesterday and am assembling/drilling this weekend. I had purchased a true “Rink Rake” three years ago but it broke over the summer (got dropped while cleaning the shed) and I didn’t want to spend the $45 listed on the web site. My total cost was $13.
Mario- great tip! I looked for the threaded stuff in Lowes when I was building mine and didn’t find what I wanted in the right sizes. A big chunk of the cost of my design is buying the PVC glue.