Ice Rink Scraper Ideas
- A variety of tools can be used to scrape an ice rink.Patinoire blanche. image by Blue Moon from Fotolia.com
Ice on ice rinks is ideal to skate on when it is smooth, but this is rarely the case. Ice freezes in odd patterns, there are rough spots, or the ice is made uneven by people skating on it. A number of different tools can be used to scrape the ice smooth and clean, making it a smooth, easy, skating surface. - The Rink Rake is a product you can buy or make yourself. It allows you to create a smooth layer of ice on any ice rink, the surface of which is below freezing. Basically a PVC pipe or hose pumps water onto the surface of the ice. As the water is poured onto the ice it should be spread over the entire surface with a metal rake that has rubber along one end, like the edge of a windshield wiper blade. The new sheet of freezing water will create a perfectly smooth surface for skating. The technique works in much the same fashion as a much higher-tech Zamboni machine would work.
- For large rinks, a device called the Nice Ice Resurfacer can be used to remove uneven surfaces quickly and efficiently. These devices range from a few feet to more than 5 feet in width. They are dragged over the surface of the rink, smoothing down the surface and leaving a thin film of water behind to fill in the grooves or the divots left by skaters. The water runs through hoses connected to a small tank and regulated by levers near the handles of the Nice Ice Resurfacer, so that it can be released as the device is being pulled along the ice.
- An inexpensive solution for at least temporarily smoothing ice is snow shovels and people on ice skates, who shovel up uneven pieces of snow and ice on the surface of the rink. The edge of the shovel blades also will smooth the surface of the ice itself. This is a slow and relatively painstaking process, as the snow shovels have to be run back and forth over the sections of the ice rink, like a lawn mower over a lawn. But with several people at a time using these snow shovels, a rink can be smoothed out relatively well in a short amount of time.
