In this instructable, I am going to show you how to make an Air Pump out of a simple dc motor and and using a bunch of commonly available materials.

This is a portable air pump that is made out of very common hardware. The body of the air pump is made out of a cap from a gallon. Using some old tube from a bicycle tyre, a no return valve is created which allows the air to move in only one direction. The diaphragm is made out of a ballon while the piston is made using two sim card holders cut in circular shapes and glued together while sandwiching the ballon in between them.

An outlet is made using a pen pipe and then glued it to the pump body. The pump is powered by a Speed 545 DC motor and an old lithium polymer cell from a laptop battery.

With no more, delays lets get building....

Step 1: Air Pump Housing

The housing of the air pump is made out of a plastic cap that I removed from a gallon. First eight Intake holes are drilled at equal distance each measuring 10mm in diameter.

The Inside of the cap is then flattened using a sandpaper.

Step 2: Making a No-Return Valve

To pump the air in a desired direction it is necessary to force the incoming air in desired direction. This can be achieved using a no return valve. As the name say, a no return valve allows the air to move in only one direction.

In this case we are going to use a rubber washer that is cut out of an old bicycle tyre tube. The washer is then screwed inside the cap such that it allows the air to only sucked inside the cap through the eight intake holes when the piston expands the internal volume of the pumping cavity. As the piston moves such that the volume of the chamber decreases the air inside the cavity forces the rubber washer to wards the wall of the cap and thus allowing the air to move through the outlet only and thus pumping the air in desired direction.

There are some imperfections on the face of the cap which needs to be removed. The face of the cap is then flattened using a sandpaper.

Step 3: Making the Outlet

The Air outlet is made at one of the side of the cap. First a 10mm hole is drilled in the cap. for the outlet pipe we have used the casing of an old pen that fits the 10mm hole perfectly.

The outlet pipe is then glued to the cap ensuring that there occurs no air leakage through the joint.

Step 4: The Piston

The piston is made out of two spare sim card holders. These cards are made out of nearly 1mm thick plastic sheet so any alternative near to that can be used to make piston for the air pump.

Two circles are cut measuring a bit lesser 1 inch in diameter than that of the pumping cavity/Cap.

The diaphragm of the pump allows helps to create the air cavity as the piston moves back and forth. The diaphragm is made out of a Ballon. Both the circular plates are then glued to the ballon by sandwiching the ballon in between.

A hole is then drilled in the centre of the piston which is then fitted with the nut that we have got with the bicycle tyre sticks. The nut is fitted with a washer on each side of the piston and then glued to ensure that there is no air leakage while operating the air pump.

The Piston along with the ballon diaphragm is then glued to the pumping cavity/cap using super glue while stretching the ballon so that no creases occurs around the piston. Later the extra ballon edges are cut using a sharp razor blade.

Step 5: The Base

To mount everything, we have used an 8mm MDF sheet having the following dimensions:

Width: 3 inches
Length: 6 inches

Later four rubber pads are glued to the bottom of the MDF sheet which acts as the foots of the base and prevents it from moving while operating the pump due to the viberations.

Step 6: Crank Pully and Motor Mounting

To move the piston back and forth we made cranking pulley made out of a 5mm thick fibre glass sheet having a 20mm diameter. The pulley have a centre hole for mounting it to the motor and the second hole serves as the mount for the connecting rod that is connected to the piston. The connecting rod is made out of a bicycle tyre stick. The metal stick is screwed to the nut on the piston. The other end of the stick is bent at 90 degrees.

The motor is the fitted with the crank pulley that is simply glued to the motor shaft. The stick is then attached to the cranking pulley and its other end is bent such that it wont slip out of the pulley while moving.

The motor is then mounted to the MDF base plate using a wooden mount. The motor is then glued to the mounting.

Step 7: Battery Pack

The battery pack is made out of a single lithium polymer cells rated at 3.7v and having a capacity of 2200 mAh. This cell is extracted out of an old laptop battery.

The battery pack is then connected to the motor through a switch to operated the pump when desired. Both the battery pack and the switch are glued to the base plate using hot glue.

WWWOOOOAAAHHH!!!! The pump is now ready to operate....

Step 8: The End Results

The end results are good. The way everything was done seems creative in the end as most of the material that is used to built this Air Pump is a part of common house holds.

To demonstrate the working of the Air pump I have attached a rubber pipe to the outlet of the air pump and dipped it into a jar filled with water. As the switch is turned on, the end of the pipe starts to bubble up really fast.

Just have a look at this video for the construction and working of this fantastic Air Pump.

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Regards.

DIY King