Introduction: Build a Baking Powder Submarine
I have long wanted to build a baking powder submarine from commonly available materials. I had one of these in the 1950s when Kellogg's gave them as a prize in cereal boxes. Those were a little over two inches in length. A couple of years later l saw a much longer one in a store window. Mr_o_uk got me thinking about it again with his Baking Powder Diving Submarine Instructable, but his is a concept submarine he has not actually built. There are some practical problems I had to solve before my concept would be a working bathtub submarine that goes to the bottom, rests there, rises, discharges a bubble of CO2, and sinks to the bottom again in endless cycles until the baking powder is depleted. I have done that in a way someone reading this Instructable can replicate.
Step 1: Materials and Tools
All materials--
- 1/2 x 6 gray PVC nipple
- Wine bottle cork (synthetic [plastic], not real cork)
- Sheet metal screw
- Axle cap for a 1/2 inch axle
- 5/8 inch internal diameter (nominal) braided rubber hose (actual internal diameter measures about 9/16 inch
- Hot glue
- Finish nail
- Clear finger nail polish
- Baking powder (not baking soda)
- Fine tooth saw
- Sandpaper
- Screwdriver or nutdriver
- Drill and bits
- Dremel tool and burring bit
- Grinder and wheel
- Knife
- Hot glue gun
- Side cutter pliers
Step 2: Saw Threaded Ends From the PVC Nipple and Fit the Conning Tower
Saw the threaded ends from the PVC. One will be discarded and the other will become the conning tower on the submarine.
Place a piece of sandpaper over the remainder of the nipple. Move one of the threaded pieces over the sandpaper until its contour fits the contour of the PVC. See the second photo.
Step 3: Prepare to Attach the Conning Tower to the Submarine Hull
The conning tower on a submarine is usually a bit forward of midships. Decide where you would like the conning tower to be on your baking powder submarine and drill a hole for a #6 or #8 sheet metal screw in the PVC. The screw does not need to be longer than 3/8 inch, but a little longer is not a problem. Turn the screw into the PVC, but do not seat the head of the screw. Leave it a couple of turns from seating fully. The screw head will provide a good grip for the hot glue that will hold the conning tower in place.
Step 4: Make a Ridge Inside the Conning Tower
Hot glue may adhere to PVC well enough, but a recessed physical surface the glue can flow into before it hardens is more certain, especially if something will become a play toy for children. I used a burring bit on a Dremel tool to make a recess channel around the inside of the threaded piece that will be the conning tower and made it on the fitted side that will join the hull of the submarine.
Step 5: Attach the Conning Tower
Hold the conning tower piece over the screw head and deposit enough hot glue to cover the screw head. Make sure the hot glue has reached a very warm temperature and flows well. Wait for it to harden, or set it aside where it can harden undisturbed. (One end of my nipple was deformed into an oval. I used this for the conning tower. In retrospect, I could and should have used the threaded end that was not deformed. But, it all worked fine.)
Step 6: Make Bulkheads
Some bulkheads will be needed in the submarine to keep air and water separated. By hand I ground away the circumference of a plastic wine bottle cork using a power grinding wheel. Go slow and take it in steps so the finished product is as round as possible. I ground the cork down until it was just a little larger in diameter than the inside of the PVC. (I found this process went better when I rotated the cork into the rotation of the grinding wheel rather than with the rotation of the grinding wheel.)
See the second photo. It was also easier if I ground back on the cork about 1/2 inch at a time. Then I cut pieces off of the reduced portion of the cork to make buttons about 1/4 inch thick. Just a little less than 1/4 inch is good, too. In the end, you will need five of these buttons. (One for the top of the conning tower may need to be a bit more than 1/4 inch thick.)
Step 7: Conning Tower Ballast
You want the submarine to stay upright in the water. The PVC conning tower makes it top heavy. Correct that by grinding down the circumference of the wine cork and inserting the reduced portion into the conning tower. Trim the cork flush with the top edge of the conning tower. That was enough to keep my submarine upright, but not so much that the submarine cannot be made to sink to the bottom of a vessel filled with water later.
Step 8: Find the Balance Point for the Hull
Use a round rod, like a drill bit, to find the approximate balance point of the submarine with the conning tower in place. Mark the bottom of the hull where the approximate balance point is. (When I made this photo I had not yet added the conning tower ballast from the previous step.)
Step 9: Make a Big Hole in the Bottom of the Hull
It is time to make a hole in the bottom of the hull to accommodate the baking powder chamber and bell cap that seals it and holds the CO2 bubble until the submarine surfaces. Use the largest bit you have to make a preliminary hole. I had a 1/2 inch bit. I used a Dremel tool and a straight burring bit to enlarge the hole so it would fit the rubber hose I bought, which measures 13/16 inch on its outside diameter. See the second photo. The fit as shown is not airtight, but I will seal that later.
Step 10: Fit and Cut the Hose
I have pushed the rubber hose into the hole made for it in the hull of the submarine. In my hand I am holding a 1/2 inch metal axle cap. These are used on children's wagons and tri-cycles to keep the wheels on the axle shafts. I got a package of two at Lowe's in their small parts bins in the hardware section of the store. (For people outside the USA, Lowe's is a large building supply chain of stores, but you can find axle caps many places.)
An axle cap looks like a man's hat. Cut the rubber hose just below the brim of the hat as it is shown in the photo. That allows enough hose to glue into the hull, to leave a chamber for baking powder, and to receive the axle cap for a good seal.
Step 11: Improve the Glue's Function
Just as with the conning tower, I want to add something the glue can really grasp for a good hold when children play with this. I drilled a hole on each side of the rubber hose near one end and threaded a finish nail through the hose. Then I cut the excess nail away on each side and ground the pointed ends flush with the outside of the hose. The nail inside the walls of the hose will be encrusted with hot glue.
See the second photo. With the rubber hose pushed into the hole at the bottom of the hull and the end with the finish nail in first, cut two wine cork buttons. Stuff one into each end of the submarine hull as far as each will go. A dam is needed to keep hot glue from flowing too far inside the hull. Squirt hot glue into the hull through the open end of the rubber hose. Take your time so it can flow into all of the nooks and crannies. Add enough hot glue that the finish nail is encased in it. Do not overfill, lest there be no room later for baking powder between the hot glue and the axle cap. Give it time to cool fully.
Step 12: Make a Full Seal
Fill the exterior joint between the hull and the rubber hose with fingernail polish. Let it harden. If the joint between the hull and the rubber hose is not sealed, CO2 from the baking powder could escape, or water could leak into the air ballast that will be discussed in coming steps.
Step 13: Drill the Axle Cap
The axle cap needs a hole in its center. How large the hole is determines how much water reaches the baking powder to make a bubble, which determines how fast the submarine is able to rise and fall in the water. The Spudmarine is a baking powder submarine from MAKE Magazine that used no cap over the baking powder and it cycled fairly rapidly.
I chose this design because it is what I remember from the free miniature diving submarine in my breakfast cereal. I made the hole in the axle cap 7/64 inch in diameter. In practice, my submarine rises after about 30 seconds, sits on the surface for 10 or 15 more seconds, discharges a bubble and sinks to the bottom. But, that was in a shallow bowl about six inches deep. If I were using this submarine in a fish tank, travel time to the top would be longer and the time spent at the top before discharging a bubble would likely be lessened.
Step 14: Air Ballast
The hot glue used to cement the rubber hose into the hull effectively sealed the front of the submarine from its rear section. Although it may not be strictly necessary, I decided I wanted air to flow freely between the two for purposes of balancing the submarine along its length. I used a drill bit that is long enough to do the job, but not large enough in diameter to interfere with anything I have installed inside the submarine. Remember there is a steel screw that holds the conning tower to the hull. If the ends of the submarine were a clock face, I chose to drill a hole at either 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock. Blow through the hull when finished to know if the hole went through. Then hold your hand over the opposite end of the hull and blow. There should be no indication air is escaping anywhere. If air is escaping, determine where and seal it with hot glue or fingernail polish.
Notice that in the photo the axle cap is inserted into the rubber hose. It makes a nice snug fit and a good seal.
Step 15: Tuning the Air Ballast
Make two buttons from the wine cork. Insert one into each end of the hull. Begin with them so they are just flush with the ends of the hull. Place the submarine into a bowl of water. You want to be sure the conning tower remains upright. You also want the submarine to be as near to level in the water as possible. It will probably float on the surface of the water. Gently nudge the buttons to push each just a little farther into the hull. Push each no more than 1/16 inch at a time. You want to find the point when the submarine is able to sink on its own. It should remain near to level at all times. It should not sink too rapidly.
If you happen to push one of the buttons into the hull too far, drill a small hole into the button and thread a wood screw into the button. Use a pair of pliers to pull it back out. If the hole is big enough for water to get inside the hull, use a new button or seal the hole with a toothpick or some fingernail polish.
This step is the trickiest and the most important of the whole project. But, it is not difficult if you work carefully.
The wine bottle opener we use is electric and it makes a hole through the entire cork's length. The hole seems to seal, but we have found wine drippings in our refrigerator when bottles are stored on their side with the cork in the bottle. I plan to use a little fingernail polish on the ballast buttons to insure that water does not seep into the hull later, but I will need to wait until the submarine is dry after testing and initial use.
Step 16: Fill'er Up!
The tip of a table knife makes a good tool for loading baking powder into the submarine. Fill the cavity in the rubber hose to leave about 5/16 inch empty below the top edge of the hose. Insert the axle cap so there is a cavity for a bubble under the submarine as if the cap were sitting on a man's head like a hat. (Some baking powder may blow out through the hole in the axle cap.)
Put the submarine into a vessel of water, turn it on its side to discharge any bubbles trapped under the metal cap, then let it sink to the bottom and wait. As I mentioned before, my submarine rises after about 30 seconds, sits on the surface for maybe 15 seconds, and a bubble escapes from the side. It does not roll over on its side like I remember from the cereal box submarines. Then it sinks to the bottom and goes through the cycle again. I have found the action of the baking powder in the water is a little aggressive at first. Sometimes my submarine surfaces and discharges a bubble, but the baking powder is working so aggressively that the submarine does not sink again. I have had to tip it to release more of the bubble, sometimes twice. Then the baking powder settles down and the submarine rises and sinks as it should. Perhaps I need to experiment with tampng the baking powder more tightly.
It would be possible to paint the submarine yellow in honor of The Beatles and their 1966 hit song. That would be whimsical. I would not want to risk disturbing the ballast, though.
Here you can find a lot of information about baking powder submarines , especially if your submarine does not work properly.
The second graphic shows a cutaway drawing of the various parts of the submarine, just for clarity. I would suggest cutting the screw at the base of the conning tower shorter so there is not so much need for hot glue holding the rubber hose in place. The way the hot glue is shown in the drawing shows an excessive amount of glue. That part really does not correspond to what I actually did quite so much.
Step 17: Video
Here is a link to a video I took to show the submarine in action. I purposely filmed it in silhouette because I got a sharper image with fewer reflections. You can also see the bubble form under the submarine, and discharge. The submarine sat on the bottom of the glass bowl for almost two minutes before there was a bubble large enough to lift it. This video gives you an idea of how the submarine works. Clicking on the photo will not take you to the video. Click on the orange hot linked words in the first line in this step. The video is about a minute and a half in duration.

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62 Comments
6 years ago
You, sir, have some of the coolest hands-on instructables.
Reply 6 years ago
Thank you for looking.
8 years ago on Introduction
Nice project. Can't wait to make this one! But can a propeller be added so the submarine can move (without affecting the manner of rising and diving)? thanks :)
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
Trying to add propulsion would add all sorts of complications, including weight and balance, especially if a battery and a motor would be involved. I did another Instructable on a small boat propelled by an Alkaline-Seltzer tablet inside a 35mm film canister. (When the boat is tipped to horizontal, water inside the canister is able to mix with the tablet and make lots of fizz that escapes through a tube at the rear end of the boat.) You might be able to add a propulsion system using that.
It has been a long time since I was a boy playing with the free Kellog's cereal submarines and I do not remember everything about how those functioned, I have found this submarine does not sink well during the first few seconds until the baking powder settles down and produces gas at a more moderate rate than at the very beginning of a new charging load of baking powder.
Reply 8 years ago
Oh, okay. I will try to add the alka seltzer method as propulsion system. Thanks :)
9 years ago on Introduction
Does it matter if the water is hot or cold?
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
I have always used water just as it came from the faucet--neither hotter or colder than that.
10 years ago on Step 16
wonderful science..
Reply 10 years ago on Step 16
video link is not playable..
Reply 10 years ago on Step 16
The video link is good. If you read the text below the photo you know not to click on the photo, but on the hot link in the words below the photo.
10 years ago on Introduction
Does anyone remember the little boat you used a candle and water to propel around a sink or bathtub? Hope someone makes an instructable for one
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I don't know if there are any on Instructables, but you can find a variety of designs on the internet and in old children's magazines (from when we actually trusted our children to build things.)
They are very simple and can be made with nothing more than a boat that can hold a candle and a coil of copper tubing. More efficient designs can be found with a little research.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
https://www.instructables.com/id/Pop-pop-or-put-put-steamboat-made-easy-for-childre/
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I made a little boat powered by the bubbles from an Alka-Seltzer tablet inside a 35mm film canister in contact with water also inside the canister. You can see it here. I hope it is close to what you have in mind, even though it does not use a candle.
10 years ago
this is really great. an ideal project for my 6 yr old and me. Thanks for making this ible.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Thank you for looking and for commenting. I looked at customer reviews for commercially available small submarines of this type. Some found their small children were enthralled by a baking powder submarine, while others found small children in their families tired quickly of this water toy. I hope it goes well for you and your 6 year old.
10 years ago on Introduction
I got such a kick out of reading this. I played with something like this 50+ years ago. My mother got so mad when I left the can of baking powder i the bathtub!
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I am glad you enjoyed reading this. We are close to the same age. You probably had some of those Kellogg's issued in the mid-1950s. There was no extra money in the average house at that time. It is not surprising that your mother would have been angry about replacing a can of baking powder, although it is funny now.
I just wanted to see if I could make a working example of a baking powder submarine that others could copy if they chose to do so. I had no idea how many people would respond to it based on reliving personal childhood experiences.
10 years ago on Introduction
Cool! I had a couple of the 2" Kellogg plus a 6" Nautilus you had to send away for. There was also a 6" baking powder powered PT boat.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Some of those are still available at times on eBay, but they cost considerably more now. Thank you for your comment.