So... we got the snow machine out of storage ready to summon winter to our tropical Christmas but the motors had siezed up. We went shopping but failed to find any suitable replacements but before we left we noticed that a fan blowing across one of the holes on the snow drum was creating a pretty similar effect to what we were trying to do anyway. 

Once in the shop we thought I wonder if we could do this a lot simpler, and so bought a RM 20 (£4) fan and stuck a load of the snow in a box crate with holes in the side. This was just as, if not more effective than our massive contraction we had laboured over last yer. 

We added some slight modifications (see below), extra fans to direct the snow and a paper flap to limit the amount of snow blowing but it is remarkable simpler than before and works even better.

Key takeaway: 

"In the design world, when people look at what you've made and say 'how on earth did it take you that long to come up with that?!' you know you've made something great because its simple." - Monty

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