How To Make A PVC Pump!

when you’re using vacuum power moving
water or compressing air chances are
it’s being done with some type of a pump
we’ll need one for future projects so in
this video we’re building a PVC hand
pump from scratch that will do all three
[Music]
to start this project you’ll need these
PVC parts from your local hardware store
the one-inch pipe will become the
plunger piston and we can start working
on that first you can see this one-inch
pipe is a very close fit when pushed
inside the larger tube there’s just a
slight gap between the two but in just a
minute
they’ll be perfectly airtight I chose to
use a few pieces of 2×4 to hold this
piece in place over the blade of a table
saw let’s measure out two marks from the
end of the pipe at one inch and another
at two inches you can see here that I’ve
adjusted the blade so that when it’s
cutting into the pipe it shouldn’t cut
any deeper than halfway through the
plastic at this point we can get the
blade spinning and hold the pipe in
place with one hand while using the
other hand to carefully rotate the tube
this should result in a little groove
all the way around the pipe now let’s
repeat that at the two inch mark as well
and now we should have to clean and
uniform grooves like these the grooves
are cut so that we can see two rubber
o-rings in place and when they’re fitted
snug they should be just slightly higher
than the surface of the tube while we’re
here let’s seal this too with a little
PVC glue and a 1-inch plug now the plug
might be tight so just give it a few
taps with a rubber mallet to encourage
it all the way in now let’s clean up the
piston by wiping away the excess glue
and use a bit of sandpaper to smooth
down the sides of the pipe I’m using 220
grit sandpaper and you can see it cleans
up everything nicely and gives the
piston a smooth finish now this piece of
pipe only needs to be 26 inches long so
we can cut to four and a half inch
pieces from the top to create some
handles that we’ll use later on I
painted all the fittings and adapters
black while the tubing got painted blue
except for the piston of course now
let’s go ahead and cement it together
first we’ll need to glue the coupling to
the bottom reducer bushing then glue the
bigger tube into that making sure it
pushes all the way to the bottom we can
go ahead and cement the handle together
but don’t attach it yet just set it to
the side we need to insert the piston
first so use plenty of lubricating jelly
around the o-rings and the pieces should
connect together with just a push and a
twist finally we can cement the cap on
top and the hydraulic piston is complete
now if you’re wondering how the cap was
made I
took a regular slip cap and drilled a
hole in the center with a 1 and 3/8 inch
Forstner bit the number 320 oring fit
nicely inside that and I used a little
more lubricating jelly around the ring
now you can see the piston sticks out
just a couple of inches and this is the
place where we’re gonna attach our
handle when it’s glued on tight it
should have just the smallest gap of
clearance when piston bottoms out well
now we have a piston let’s turn it into
a pump to do that we’ll be using two of
these one way check valves that were
made in a previous project the threaded
bushing at the bottom of the piston is
designed to accept a 3/4 inch nipple and
the threaded tee fitting screws onto
that if you try this yourself make sure
to use something like thread tape to
ensure the connections end up watertight
our two check valves can connect in line
with the bottom of the tee and because
they’re threaded we’ll have the
convenient option of switching or
replacing them any time we want at this
point you should have a completely
operational water pump ready to test out
it’s very important that the valves
point the right direction so that when
the piston is pulled up the water flows
in and when it’s pushed down it flows
out the opposite side all right let’s
see what this thing can do if we play
something like a balloon over the
outflow valve and begin to pump you can
see the balloon blows up on every
downward stroke if you try adding
additional pipes of the valves you’ll be
able to leverage the pump with your feet
I tried putting balloons on each valve
so you can see how every cycle sucks air
from the red balloon and pumps it into
the yellow when all the air gets used up
the balloon gets sucked inside now this
opens up the option to using the system
as a vacuum pump and we can get a rough
idea on how strong it is by blocking the
valves from both directions this time
when the piston is pulled back he
creates a strong vacuum in the chamber
which you can clearly see when we let go
for more variety
I tried converting this into a vertical
pump and was able to pump 3 gallons of
water in about a minute each cycle seems
to pump just a little over 2 cups of
water and I found that by leveraging the
pump with my feet I could double the
flow rate and move over 5 gallons a
minute some additional features are that
the handle can rotate a full 360 degrees
and perhaps my favorite is how easily it
comes apart for servicing if you need to
get inside the pump just give the handle
a sharp tug and the whole plunger comes
this gives you easy access to clean it
or add more lubrication if you need it
well now you know how to make a simple
PVC hand pump that can be used for
compressing air pumping water or
creating a vacuum if you like this
project perhaps you’ll like some of my
others check them out at the king of
random calm