hey guys welcome back thanks for joining
us today on the king of random a lot of
people find the sound of running water
very soothing and relaxing but it’s not
always practical to have water running
inside so today we’re going to try to
build our own desktop fountain with a
twist to it
the supplies for this build are
surprisingly simple we’ve got some clear
plastic Solo cups another container that
holds about twice as much liquid as the
Solo cups some bendy straws a plastic
lid or plate and of course a pump you
drive the water
I’ve also got a glue gun which I’ll be
using to do a lot of the assembly on
this build I’ve got a couple of extra
supplies here but I am actually only
just going to use one cup and one straw
so I’ll set the extras aside this
container that I’m using is when I
picked up at Walmart for just a few
bucks it actually has a lot more on it
than we need we won’t be using the lid
or any of the attaching hardware I just
like the size and the shape of this and
the fact that it’s clear so you can see
what I’m doing as I work on it so the
first step is I’m going to remove all of
the excess hardware from our container
here’s the basic setup of how this is
going to work this larger container will
hold our water and the pump will be down
inside that our lid or plastic plate
will go on top of that and our solo cup
will go on top of our plate our drinking
straw will connect to the pump come up
through the plastic plate and through
the plastic cup the water will be pumped
into the cup at an angle spraying around
in circles there will be another small
hole in the center of the cup where the
water will be draining out hopefully if
everything goes well we’ll get sort of a
vortex effect as the water is filling up
and draining at the same time what we
want to do now is drill two holes into
the bottom of our solo cup one right in
the center and one much closer to the
edge for the hole in the very center of
the cup we want to drill bit that’s
about 3/4 the diameter of our straw I’m
going to be using a 3/16 inch drill bit
[Music]
next we want to take a drill bit that’s
the exact same diameter of our straw and
drill a second hole much closer to the
edge of the cup
with straws I’m using a 1560 fourths
inch drill bit is the perfect size
if you’ve used the right size of drill
bit your straw should fit into the hole
and be pretty snug if it’s not a perfect
fit don’t worry too much we are going to
be using some hot glue to attach the
straw and that will help by filling in
some gaps as well now that we’ve got two
holes drilled into the bottom of our cup
we want to drill two corresponding holes
into our plastic lid this plastic lid
has a small bump in the center so we’ll
line up the hole in the center of our
cup with that mark now using a sharpie
make a small mark on the plastic lid
through the second hole in the cup now
we’re going to drill two holes into the
plastic lid they’ll both be a little bit
larger than the holes in the cup for the
center hole I’m using a fairly large 1/2
inch drill bit scrap of wood so I don’t
drill holes into my table this is so
thin that just started cutting right
into the plastic immediately so I’m just
going to clean that up with an exacto
knife for the second hole off of the
side I’m using a drill bit that’s
slightly larger than the diameter of our
straw this drill bit that I’m using is a
5/16 inch
how’s a little better perfect we can now
set our cup on top of our lid and our
holes line up wonderfully one of them is
going to be for the straw carrying the
water up into the cup and the other is a
hole for it to drain out back in the
main container with those holes drilled
let’s get ready to attach the straw to
our cup before we attach the straw we’re
going to trim off the section that feeds
the water into our cup
let’s leave about 1/2 of an inch after
the bend the elbow part now let’s feed
the bottom of the straw through the
outside hole in the bottom of our cup we
want to push our straw all the way to
the bottom of the cup the part of the
straw that we just cut short should be
lined up with these ridges at the bottom
all right we can see how we’ve got it
lined up now for a second we’re just
gonna pop it back out then we’re going
to apply some hot glue to the bottom of
this part of the straw and then pull it
back down and hold it in place until the
glue cools now we also want to use a
little bit of hot glue to go in a circle
around the bottom where the straw is
connected to the cup to make sure it’s
completely watertight at this point if
you line the straw up with the outside
hole in the lid you can see how it’s
going to start to fit together although
of course at this point with this
container our straw is too long so we
need to trim it back a little bit I’m
going to trim the straw back in two
stages first I’m just going to cut it
short enough that it doesn’t stop the
cup from reaching the plastic plate then
I’m going to put the pump in and line
the straw up with where it’s going to
connect to that and cut it again at this
point my straw is about 1 and 3/4 of an
inch too long for my cup to rest on the
plastic plate so I’ll cut that much off
that’s better our cup now rests nicely
on the plastic pleat just how we want it
however our straw is going to connect to
the output of our pump and so it’s going
to need to be trimmed even more put the
pump entirely inside the container
approximately lined up with the side
hole in our plate resting our cup on the
side of the container we can then mark a
spot at the same height as the output of
our pump I’m going to cut it a little
bit below the line because a portion of
the straw will actually fit inside the
output tube of the pump we’ll take the
straw run it through the outside drilled
hole in our lid and then we’ll connect
it to our pump and we can place the pump
inside the lower container and we can
see how that is going to work the pump
will send water up the straw which will
spray out the straw at an angle swirling
around the cup with a small hole in the
middle the water will drain down through
that spot and hopefully give us a nice
water vortex now if everything goes
correctly the pump will be sending water
into the cup faster than its draining
out the bottom which will end up with
water spilling over the top of the cup
as well which is one of the reasons we
have this plastic tray here and we need
to make sure that it’s a tray that has
edges on it water will spill down into
that and to help it drain even faster
let’s put a few more holes in it to
drain down into our larger container
below it’s not very important precisely
where you put the holes but they should
be farther out than the diameter of the
bottom of the cup and closer in then the
edges of our large container if you put
them out on the very edges then all of
your water of course is going to run out
onto your table to drill these holes I
have to disconnect our Cup from the pump
but I’m just going to mark really
quickly on the straw how far in it is
because I think I’ve got at a good
height for these drain holes it doesn’t
matter a whole lot what size they are
but I like to try and keep them smaller
so I’m going back to our 3/16 inch of
drill bit
[Music]
sometimes the drilled holes are just a
little bit messy you can clean them up
by just pulling the plastic off with
your fingers or in some cases just use
an exacto knife carefully cut off the
excess now there is another step that I
want to take our fountain does run off
of electricity and of course that means
it’s got a cord coming off of it if the
cord comes up over the lip of the
container it will make our lid sit in a
weird angle if we’re alright with the
cord coming out of the top of a fountain
then we could just cut a small divot
into the top where the cord could fit
below the level of our lid but I really
like the look of the cord coming out of
the bottom of the fountain so what I’m
going to do is drill a small hole in the
bottom of our container I’m then going
to cut the power cord and fit it through
that hole and then splice it back
together so we have a complete cord
running through the bottom of the
mountain
oh that fits through pretty nicely strip
off the rubber
[Music]
there we have it we now have our cord
running out from the bottom of our
fountain which is just what we want now
let’s use some hot glue to secure that
cord in place and seal up the hole so
it’s completely waterproof I do want to
leave a little bit of extra cord inside
the container so that if we ever need to
get our fountain out for any reason we
still have a little bit of room to play
with it of course if you’re extremely
patient you can also use a silicone
based caulking that’s designed for
sealing up things like fish tanks but
those usually take a long time to cure
and I want to go a little bit faster
there we have it our power cord is now
attached so it’s time to add some water
now first I’m just going to add enough
water that it covers this pump and then
we gonna plug it in so we can see the
amount of power that this pump puts out
it’s not very much
there you go that’s how much power we’re
getting out of our tiny little pump we
want to make sure the pump is completely
covered and then take another cup just
like the one we’re using in our fountain
and fill it all the way and pour that
much water into our container as well
[Music]
this way we know that no matter how much
water is in our fountain above the pump
there will still be enough water to keep
the pump completely covered which is
what it needs to keep pumping in fact
I’m even going to add just a little bit
more water just to be safe
looks like our seal is holding up
beautifully no water is leaking out just
what we want to see before we seal
anything down let’s do a test attaching
our straw to our pump through our lid
and see what kind of effect we get when
we turn on our pump this is precisely
one of those situations where I’m glad
that I left enough cord that I can reach
the pump all right so our straw goes
down through our lid put that into the
output of our pump the level we marked
off that lower itself back down into the
water and now we’ll plug it in this type
of pump doesn’t have an on/off switch it
just runs whenever it’s got power coming
to it so if you do want to be able to
turn this on and off you should use a
power strip or another form of outlet
that has a switch attached to it all
right here goes three two one
go we can see we’ve got some good
spinning in that water cup is filling up
nicely as well that’s good
[Music]
strings of hot glue stuck to it a clip
that’s not a huge problem beautiful look
at that fills all the way to the top of
the cup overflows over the edge and we
have that awesome little vortex going
down through the middle of the cup
fantastic look at that that works
perfectly nice relaxing pouring water
noises alright let’s turn this off for a
second of course as soon as we turn it
off it stops filling and just starts
draining out the hole on the bottom now
our vortex fountain is working but right
now it doesn’t look all that great so
now it’s time to do a few decorations to
make this thing look a lot more classy
our plastic lid here doesn’t look very
fancy so I’m gonna scuff it up lightly
with some sandpaper and then paint it
all black
[Music]
being able to see inside a container and
watch the pump in action might be pretty
interesting to some people but I want to
decorate it a little more than that so
I’m going to take some popsicle sticks
and make a border that goes all the way
around our lower container so it looks
like a wooden planter box or some of our
popsicle sticks are just a tiny bit too
tall they’ll be interfering with our
plastic lid so I’m going to trim a whole
bunch of popsicle sticks down to a
little bit shorter perfect now I just
need to do that to like 50 more popsicle
sticks now let’s see how good my
estimate was I’m just gonna use the hot
glue gun to attach these all the way
around my container
[Music]
this wedge shape at the top I’m pretty
sure it’s because when I’ve been cutting
these off
it makes the top of the popsicle stick
flare just the tiniest bit so they’re
all a little bit wider at the top and
it’s got me just this slight offset gap
so I’m just going to cut this popsicle
stick a little bit shorter and then I’m
gonna use sandpaper and taper it down to
that shape curve it
our lower container has been lined with
popsicle sticks that look like nice
wooden slats our lid has been painted
black so let’s attach them all together
I’m going to use hot glue to attach the
cup to the lid and then if you feel like
it you can attach the lid to the lower
base although if you do that it will be
harder to get inside of your fountain if
you ever need to in the future I am
using some hot glue to attach the lid to
the wooden popsicle sticks but I’m only
using a little bit so that if I do need
to get into the fountain it should be
really easy to break through the hot and
glue seal holding it there this will
just keep it from shaking or moving if I
accidentally bump it there we have it
it’s now secured together fairly well
and just as one more decorative element
I’ve got some little pebbles that are
too big to fit through any of my drain
holes and I’m just going to set those
around the cup so our fountain looks
like it has a little bit more nature on
alright our fountain is all hooked up
ready to go and decorate it let’s plug
it back in and see how this whole thing
looks all together
[Music]
it’s a nice tornado
I like that tornado now one more thing
that I’m gonna try just because I think
it can be fun is I’m gonna add one drop
of blue food coloring to our water let’s
see what happens it’s really cool for a
second it just kind of holds the blue
dye near the Whirlpool then the dye gets
down into the base the pump picks it up
and now it’s just evenly distributed
throughout the whole thing so a slightly
blue vortex water tornado Maelstrom
fount I don’t know what to call it take
your pick
there you go a quick and easy way to
build a very cool looking vortex desktop
fountain it provides nice relaxing
sounds it looks pretty sweet with all
the swirling water the bubbles in it and
the little column of twisted air running
down through the middle for this project
I have been using what’s just about the
smallest volume of aquarium pump
available if you do use something with a
little more power the water will spin
faster and the vortex will actually open
up a little bit and you’ll usually have
some water pouring off more parts of the
cup at once coming up soon we’re going
to show you how to take this same idea
and scale it up to a much larger vortex
fountain and we’re also going to add a
couple of fun twists to it if you want
to build this project down in the
description we’ve provided a link where
you can get one of these pumps thank you
guys for joining us for this project
today and we’ll see you in the next one
talk to you then
oh my goodness thing can’t cut the
electrical tape oh I don’t know why it
gets tiny little bubbles in it but I’m
so glad it does
[Music]
us today on the king of random a lot of
people find the sound of running water
very soothing and relaxing but it’s not
always practical to have water running
inside so today we’re going to try to
build our own desktop fountain with a
twist to it
the supplies for this build are
surprisingly simple we’ve got some clear
plastic Solo cups another container that
holds about twice as much liquid as the
Solo cups some bendy straws a plastic
lid or plate and of course a pump you
drive the water
I’ve also got a glue gun which I’ll be
using to do a lot of the assembly on
this build I’ve got a couple of extra
supplies here but I am actually only
just going to use one cup and one straw
so I’ll set the extras aside this
container that I’m using is when I
picked up at Walmart for just a few
bucks it actually has a lot more on it
than we need we won’t be using the lid
or any of the attaching hardware I just
like the size and the shape of this and
the fact that it’s clear so you can see
what I’m doing as I work on it so the
first step is I’m going to remove all of
the excess hardware from our container
here’s the basic setup of how this is
going to work this larger container will
hold our water and the pump will be down
inside that our lid or plastic plate
will go on top of that and our solo cup
will go on top of our plate our drinking
straw will connect to the pump come up
through the plastic plate and through
the plastic cup the water will be pumped
into the cup at an angle spraying around
in circles there will be another small
hole in the center of the cup where the
water will be draining out hopefully if
everything goes well we’ll get sort of a
vortex effect as the water is filling up
and draining at the same time what we
want to do now is drill two holes into
the bottom of our solo cup one right in
the center and one much closer to the
edge for the hole in the very center of
the cup we want to drill bit that’s
about 3/4 the diameter of our straw I’m
going to be using a 3/16 inch drill bit
[Music]
next we want to take a drill bit that’s
the exact same diameter of our straw and
drill a second hole much closer to the
edge of the cup
with straws I’m using a 1560 fourths
inch drill bit is the perfect size
if you’ve used the right size of drill
bit your straw should fit into the hole
and be pretty snug if it’s not a perfect
fit don’t worry too much we are going to
be using some hot glue to attach the
straw and that will help by filling in
some gaps as well now that we’ve got two
holes drilled into the bottom of our cup
we want to drill two corresponding holes
into our plastic lid this plastic lid
has a small bump in the center so we’ll
line up the hole in the center of our
cup with that mark now using a sharpie
make a small mark on the plastic lid
through the second hole in the cup now
we’re going to drill two holes into the
plastic lid they’ll both be a little bit
larger than the holes in the cup for the
center hole I’m using a fairly large 1/2
inch drill bit scrap of wood so I don’t
drill holes into my table this is so
thin that just started cutting right
into the plastic immediately so I’m just
going to clean that up with an exacto
knife for the second hole off of the
side I’m using a drill bit that’s
slightly larger than the diameter of our
straw this drill bit that I’m using is a
5/16 inch
how’s a little better perfect we can now
set our cup on top of our lid and our
holes line up wonderfully one of them is
going to be for the straw carrying the
water up into the cup and the other is a
hole for it to drain out back in the
main container with those holes drilled
let’s get ready to attach the straw to
our cup before we attach the straw we’re
going to trim off the section that feeds
the water into our cup
let’s leave about 1/2 of an inch after
the bend the elbow part now let’s feed
the bottom of the straw through the
outside hole in the bottom of our cup we
want to push our straw all the way to
the bottom of the cup the part of the
straw that we just cut short should be
lined up with these ridges at the bottom
all right we can see how we’ve got it
lined up now for a second we’re just
gonna pop it back out then we’re going
to apply some hot glue to the bottom of
this part of the straw and then pull it
back down and hold it in place until the
glue cools now we also want to use a
little bit of hot glue to go in a circle
around the bottom where the straw is
connected to the cup to make sure it’s
completely watertight at this point if
you line the straw up with the outside
hole in the lid you can see how it’s
going to start to fit together although
of course at this point with this
container our straw is too long so we
need to trim it back a little bit I’m
going to trim the straw back in two
stages first I’m just going to cut it
short enough that it doesn’t stop the
cup from reaching the plastic plate then
I’m going to put the pump in and line
the straw up with where it’s going to
connect to that and cut it again at this
point my straw is about 1 and 3/4 of an
inch too long for my cup to rest on the
plastic plate so I’ll cut that much off
that’s better our cup now rests nicely
on the plastic pleat just how we want it
however our straw is going to connect to
the output of our pump and so it’s going
to need to be trimmed even more put the
pump entirely inside the container
approximately lined up with the side
hole in our plate resting our cup on the
side of the container we can then mark a
spot at the same height as the output of
our pump I’m going to cut it a little
bit below the line because a portion of
the straw will actually fit inside the
output tube of the pump we’ll take the
straw run it through the outside drilled
hole in our lid and then we’ll connect
it to our pump and we can place the pump
inside the lower container and we can
see how that is going to work the pump
will send water up the straw which will
spray out the straw at an angle swirling
around the cup with a small hole in the
middle the water will drain down through
that spot and hopefully give us a nice
water vortex now if everything goes
correctly the pump will be sending water
into the cup faster than its draining
out the bottom which will end up with
water spilling over the top of the cup
as well which is one of the reasons we
have this plastic tray here and we need
to make sure that it’s a tray that has
edges on it water will spill down into
that and to help it drain even faster
let’s put a few more holes in it to
drain down into our larger container
below it’s not very important precisely
where you put the holes but they should
be farther out than the diameter of the
bottom of the cup and closer in then the
edges of our large container if you put
them out on the very edges then all of
your water of course is going to run out
onto your table to drill these holes I
have to disconnect our Cup from the pump
but I’m just going to mark really
quickly on the straw how far in it is
because I think I’ve got at a good
height for these drain holes it doesn’t
matter a whole lot what size they are
but I like to try and keep them smaller
so I’m going back to our 3/16 inch of
drill bit
[Music]
sometimes the drilled holes are just a
little bit messy you can clean them up
by just pulling the plastic off with
your fingers or in some cases just use
an exacto knife carefully cut off the
excess now there is another step that I
want to take our fountain does run off
of electricity and of course that means
it’s got a cord coming off of it if the
cord comes up over the lip of the
container it will make our lid sit in a
weird angle if we’re alright with the
cord coming out of the top of a fountain
then we could just cut a small divot
into the top where the cord could fit
below the level of our lid but I really
like the look of the cord coming out of
the bottom of the fountain so what I’m
going to do is drill a small hole in the
bottom of our container I’m then going
to cut the power cord and fit it through
that hole and then splice it back
together so we have a complete cord
running through the bottom of the
mountain
oh that fits through pretty nicely strip
off the rubber
[Music]
there we have it we now have our cord
running out from the bottom of our
fountain which is just what we want now
let’s use some hot glue to secure that
cord in place and seal up the hole so
it’s completely waterproof I do want to
leave a little bit of extra cord inside
the container so that if we ever need to
get our fountain out for any reason we
still have a little bit of room to play
with it of course if you’re extremely
patient you can also use a silicone
based caulking that’s designed for
sealing up things like fish tanks but
those usually take a long time to cure
and I want to go a little bit faster
there we have it our power cord is now
attached so it’s time to add some water
now first I’m just going to add enough
water that it covers this pump and then
we gonna plug it in so we can see the
amount of power that this pump puts out
it’s not very much
there you go that’s how much power we’re
getting out of our tiny little pump we
want to make sure the pump is completely
covered and then take another cup just
like the one we’re using in our fountain
and fill it all the way and pour that
much water into our container as well
[Music]
this way we know that no matter how much
water is in our fountain above the pump
there will still be enough water to keep
the pump completely covered which is
what it needs to keep pumping in fact
I’m even going to add just a little bit
more water just to be safe
looks like our seal is holding up
beautifully no water is leaking out just
what we want to see before we seal
anything down let’s do a test attaching
our straw to our pump through our lid
and see what kind of effect we get when
we turn on our pump this is precisely
one of those situations where I’m glad
that I left enough cord that I can reach
the pump all right so our straw goes
down through our lid put that into the
output of our pump the level we marked
off that lower itself back down into the
water and now we’ll plug it in this type
of pump doesn’t have an on/off switch it
just runs whenever it’s got power coming
to it so if you do want to be able to
turn this on and off you should use a
power strip or another form of outlet
that has a switch attached to it all
right here goes three two one
go we can see we’ve got some good
spinning in that water cup is filling up
nicely as well that’s good
[Music]
strings of hot glue stuck to it a clip
that’s not a huge problem beautiful look
at that fills all the way to the top of
the cup overflows over the edge and we
have that awesome little vortex going
down through the middle of the cup
fantastic look at that that works
perfectly nice relaxing pouring water
noises alright let’s turn this off for a
second of course as soon as we turn it
off it stops filling and just starts
draining out the hole on the bottom now
our vortex fountain is working but right
now it doesn’t look all that great so
now it’s time to do a few decorations to
make this thing look a lot more classy
our plastic lid here doesn’t look very
fancy so I’m gonna scuff it up lightly
with some sandpaper and then paint it
all black
[Music]
being able to see inside a container and
watch the pump in action might be pretty
interesting to some people but I want to
decorate it a little more than that so
I’m going to take some popsicle sticks
and make a border that goes all the way
around our lower container so it looks
like a wooden planter box or some of our
popsicle sticks are just a tiny bit too
tall they’ll be interfering with our
plastic lid so I’m going to trim a whole
bunch of popsicle sticks down to a
little bit shorter perfect now I just
need to do that to like 50 more popsicle
sticks now let’s see how good my
estimate was I’m just gonna use the hot
glue gun to attach these all the way
around my container
[Music]
this wedge shape at the top I’m pretty
sure it’s because when I’ve been cutting
these off
it makes the top of the popsicle stick
flare just the tiniest bit so they’re
all a little bit wider at the top and
it’s got me just this slight offset gap
so I’m just going to cut this popsicle
stick a little bit shorter and then I’m
gonna use sandpaper and taper it down to
that shape curve it
our lower container has been lined with
popsicle sticks that look like nice
wooden slats our lid has been painted
black so let’s attach them all together
I’m going to use hot glue to attach the
cup to the lid and then if you feel like
it you can attach the lid to the lower
base although if you do that it will be
harder to get inside of your fountain if
you ever need to in the future I am
using some hot glue to attach the lid to
the wooden popsicle sticks but I’m only
using a little bit so that if I do need
to get into the fountain it should be
really easy to break through the hot and
glue seal holding it there this will
just keep it from shaking or moving if I
accidentally bump it there we have it
it’s now secured together fairly well
and just as one more decorative element
I’ve got some little pebbles that are
too big to fit through any of my drain
holes and I’m just going to set those
around the cup so our fountain looks
like it has a little bit more nature on
alright our fountain is all hooked up
ready to go and decorate it let’s plug
it back in and see how this whole thing
looks all together
[Music]
it’s a nice tornado
I like that tornado now one more thing
that I’m gonna try just because I think
it can be fun is I’m gonna add one drop
of blue food coloring to our water let’s
see what happens it’s really cool for a
second it just kind of holds the blue
dye near the Whirlpool then the dye gets
down into the base the pump picks it up
and now it’s just evenly distributed
throughout the whole thing so a slightly
blue vortex water tornado Maelstrom
fount I don’t know what to call it take
your pick
there you go a quick and easy way to
build a very cool looking vortex desktop
fountain it provides nice relaxing
sounds it looks pretty sweet with all
the swirling water the bubbles in it and
the little column of twisted air running
down through the middle for this project
I have been using what’s just about the
smallest volume of aquarium pump
available if you do use something with a
little more power the water will spin
faster and the vortex will actually open
up a little bit and you’ll usually have
some water pouring off more parts of the
cup at once coming up soon we’re going
to show you how to take this same idea
and scale it up to a much larger vortex
fountain and we’re also going to add a
couple of fun twists to it if you want
to build this project down in the
description we’ve provided a link where
you can get one of these pumps thank you
guys for joining us for this project
today and we’ll see you in the next one
talk to you then
oh my goodness thing can’t cut the
electrical tape oh I don’t know why it
gets tiny little bubbles in it but I’m
so glad it does
[Music]
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