Travel Jar Water Pump

I will describe how to build a small motored water pump with a travel jar instead of the accepted bottle cap method. This will bring a number of benefits, including easy accessibility for repairs and adjustments of the internal fan. It's relatively cheap, functions well with vinyl tubing and, err... looks great.  

Step 1: Materials

Materials need:

-Travel Jar of your choice of color (Bought @Walmart)
- 3v to 5v dc motor from disk drive, radio shack, hobby lobby, electric sharpener, toy, etc.
    -make sure it has a gear
- glue gun
- 3 to 5 v dc output adapter such as a cell phone charger.
- plastic strips for building a fan rotor. 
- Tubes for water inlet and outlet, i.e. from a pen. 

Drilling/cutting tools for plastic:

- drill (or some other sharp metallic tube)
- micro torch or other heat source
- scissors 

Comments

[hkortus]

That isa super cool!!!

[Pyrophoric]

Thank you hkortus, I'm glad you like my instructables!

[minijc]

could use it for going camping if your tent floods

[kushalverma]

what basically WD-40 is??? Is it a liquid spray or something like gel?????

[Pyrophoric]

It's a liquid spray can that has many applications, but mainly used for lubrication. Also protects from rust.

[kushalverma]

but how have you applied any solvent or anything between the motor shaft and blades to make it leakprofed????

[Pyrophoric]

I applied WD-40, but it's not necessary.

[kushalverma]

is the shaft of the motor leak proofed with the moving blades?????

[Pyrophoric]

Yeah, basically. Mine still works!

[embochner]

great stuff- is there a way to waterproof the motor to make it splash safe?

[Pyrophoric]

Thanks, you just do what Jimmy said and also spray some WD-40 on the exposed shaft perforation before use.

[heathbar64]

I once took a hobby mootor and sealed the vents with glue and ran it completely under water. it sat there and ran perfectly in a jar of water.

[Jimmy Proton]

You could just cover it in hot glue as long as you don't get any inside.

[tzq33tdq]

can you send me a link to print this instructable out???

[KevinAlien26]

Hey man great 'ible I was helping my girlfriends mom with transferring gas from her transmission broken truck to her out of gas van and it got to thinking of ways I could pump water. (I wouldn't risk has since there can always be a problem with electricity).

I had a few questions.
1) can this be done using a larger jar Mainly to fit a larger motor and fan.
2) if so could I just use the fan blades off an old computer fan?

[ngunarathne]

You could pump petrol with it without the risk of fire if you immerse the whole thing in some sort of insulating oil (like baby oil) and draw out just the two lines.

[KevinAlien26]

Hmm sounds like a good idea. I was also thinking if using the motor farther from the actual chamber would work. Like adding a thing metal rod from the fan inside the pump, to the motor some few feet away.

[Pyrophoric]

1) Theoretically, it should work. I have never tried something as large.
2) well, rectangular blades work best, but you could use the fan blades as long as they're cut off and then glued sideways like in my motor.

Thanks

[ngunarathne]

There's this awesome cog wheel in diskus inhalers ( http://www.google.lk/imgres?q=diskus+inhaler&um=1&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=629&tbm=isch&tbnid=7nIIqMnzDhQgPM:&imgrefurl=http://www.securingpharma.com/40/articles/527.php&docid=Pv-Ayh18LJuO0M&w=596&h=400&ei=z0RRTsnyBMzMrQfY7KyJDw&zoom=1 ) that you can use as the turbine for this. I'll upload an image later if I find time.

[afetic]

For what i can use this ?

[Pyrophoric]

Practically anything requiring running water. See the last step under applications.