Milk Jug Water Pump

Does your family have a small scale replica of the Christmas classic "Its a Wonderful Life" Bedford Falls and would like to have real water pumped through the town without having to buy a huge pump?? If your answer to this question is yes or no, then follow the instructions below on how to build a small water pump.

***Please note that I used hot glue to seal / attach everything when I built my first pump. This allowed me to use the approach of trial and error (as I did in college when doing most homeworks) until I was certain it would work. Then I used JB weld.***

Step one (Get your supplies ready.... luckily most of these things you can probably find around your house)

- Plastic 1-gallon milk jug with twist top
- JB-Weld
- 4 inches of 1/2 inch (O.D.) copper pipe
- Top to cookie tin (made out of tin or some other metal you can cut with scissors)
- 9 volt batteries
- 9-18 VDC Hobby Motor (I got mine from Radioshack which could do 11,000 to 24,000 RPMs under no loads)

Step two (Preparing your pieces)

Cut your copper pipe in half so that you have two pieces of 2 inch copper pipe.

Cut the top part of a milk gallon off. I'd say about the top inch.

Drill a hole in the direct center of the milk jug cap. The hole should be just big enough to fit the motor shaft through. If it is too big then your pump will leak.

Cut / drill a notch out from the side of the cut milk top (not the cap!). This hole / notch should be big enough to fit the diameter of the copper pipe.

Cut a 4-inch piece (1/4 inch wide) from your tin cookie top. Then cut this piece into 1-inch pieces and bend them in half to make 90 degree angles.

From the same cookie tin top cut a circle that is big enough to cover the bottom part of your cut milk jug. (approximate 4 inch diameter). Also, drill a hole just smaller than your copper pipe in the center of this cut tin piece.

Step 3 (Assemble!)

Attach the copper pipe to the milk top with JB Weld or some other sealant.

Attach the other copper pipe piece over the hole you drilled on the circular tin piece.

Make the propeller of the pump with the 1-inch pieces of tin you cut previously. Make a plus sign out of the 90 degree pieces and JB weld them together. Make sure that there is a gap in the center of the plus sign so that you can attach the propeller to the motor shaft after the JB weld dries! Also note that the propeller should look symmetrical and balanced as best you can. This will optimize the pumps performance.

Push the motor through the drilled hole you made in the milk jug cap previously. I used hot glue to make sure it did not move / leak. However JB weld would work even better. Just make sure that you do not add any to the motor shaft or else the shaft will not rotate.

Attach the propeller to the motor shaft with JB Weld. Make sure that the propeller is on balanced and does not hit anything when it rotates.

Now attach the circular piece of tin you cut earlier with JB-weld. Also add JB-weld to places where it may leak. Let everything dry and adhere!

All you got to do now is connect the 9 volt battery to the motor leads and supply it water! Note: I only tried using a 9 volt DC supply. You will get different results if you give it 18 volts DC (attach two 9-volt batteries in series). Also the pump has to be full with water for it to work.

Check out my video below of mine working and please ask questions if something confuses you. Good Luck!...... I wonder if I can make a gatorade fountain out of mine. hmmmm..