Hey, guys!
Welcome back thanks for joining us today on the king of random a lot of people find the sound of running water very soothing and
Relaxing but it's not always practical to have water running inside so today we're
Going, to try to build our own desktop fountain with
A twist to it the supplies for this build are surprisingly simple we've got some clear plastic
Solo cups another container that holds, about twice as much liquid, as the solo cups, some bendy straws
A plastic lid or plate and of course a pump you drive the water i've, also got a
Glue gun, which i'll be using to do a lot of the assembly on this build i've got a couple of extra
Supplies here but i am actually only just going to use one cup
and one straw
So i'll set the extras aside this container that i'm using is when i picked up at walmart for just a few
Bucks it actually has a lot more on it than we need, we won't be using the lid or any of the attaching
Hardware i just like the size and the shape of this and the fact that it's clear so you can
See what i'm doing as i work on it so the first step
is i'm going to remove all of the excess hardware from our container
Here's the basic setup of how this is going to work
This larger container will hold our water and the pump will
Be down inside that
Our lid or plastic plate will go on top of that and our solo cup will go on top of our plate our drinking straw
Will connect to the pump come up. Through the plastic plate and through the plastic
Cup the water will be pumped into the cup at an angle
Spraying around in circles there will be another small hole in the center of the cup
Where the water will be draining out hopefully if everything goes, well we'll get sort of a vortex effect
As the water is filling up and draining at the same time what
We want to do now is drill two holes into the bottom of our solo cup?
One right in the center and one much closer to the edge for the hole in the very center of the cup
We want to drill bit that's about 3/4 the diameter of our straw i'm going to be using a 3/16 inch drill bit
Next, we want to take a, drill bit that's the exact
Same diameter of our straw and drill a second hole much closer to the edge of the cup, with, straws i'm using a
1560 fourths inch drill bit is the perfect size
If you've used the right size of drill bit your straw should fit into the hole
And be pretty snug if it's not a perfect
Fit don't worry too much, we are going to be using, some hot glue to attach the straw. And that will help
By filling in some gaps as, well now that we've got two holes drilled into the bottom of our cup
We want to drill two corresponding holes into our plastic lid, this plastic lid has a small bump in the center
so We'll line up the hole in the center of our cup with that mark now using a sharpie make a small mark on the plastic
Lid through the second hole in the cup
Now we're going to drill two holes into the plastic lid
They'll, both be a little bit larger than the holes in the cup, for the center hole i'm using a
Fairly, large 1/2 inch drill bit
Scrap of wood so i don't drill holes into, my table
This is so thin that just started cutting right into the plastic immediately, so i'm just going to clean that up with an exacto knife
For the second hole off of the side i'm using a, drill bit that's slightly larger than the diameter of our straw
This, drill bit that i'm using is a 5/16 inch
How's a little better perfect, we can?
now set our cup on top of our lid, and
Our holes line up wonderfully one of them is going to be for the straw
Carrying the water up into the cup, and the other is a hole for it to drain out
Back in the main container with
Those holes drilled let's get ready to attach the straw to our cup, before we attach the straw
We're, going to trim off the section that feeds the water into our cup let's leave
About 1/2 of an inch after the bend the elbow part now let's feed the bottom of the straw
Through, the outside hole in the bottom of our cup
We want to push our straw all the way to the bottom of the cup, the part of the straw that
We just cut short should be lined up with
These ridges at the bottom all right, we can, see how, we've got it lined up now for a
Second we're just, gonna pop it back out then we're
Going to apply, some hot glue to the bottom of this part of the straw. And then pull it back down
And hold it in place until the glue cools now
We, also, want to use a little bit of hot glue to go in a circle around the bottom
Where the straw is connected to the cup, to make sure it's completely watertight
At this point if you, line, the straw, up with the outside hole in the lid, you can
See how it's going to start to fit together although of course at
This, point with, this container our straw is too long so we need?
To, trim it back a little bit i'm going to trim the straw
Back in two stages first i'm just going to cut it short enough that it doesn't stop the cup
From reaching the plastic plate then i'm going, to put the pump in and line the straw up with
Where it's going to connect to that and cut it again at
This point
My, straw is about 1 and 3/4 of an inch too long for my cup, to rest on the plastic plate
So i'll cut. That much off
That's better our cup, now rests nicely on the plastic pleat just how, we want it however our straw?
Is going to connect to the output of our pump and so it's going to need to be trimmed even more put the pump entirely
inside the container
Approximately lined up with the side hole in our plate resting our cup on the side of the container
We can then mark a spot at the same height as
The output of our pump i'm going to cut it a little bit below
The line because a portion of the straw will actually fit inside the output tube of the pump
we'll take the straw run it through the outside drilled hole in our lid, and
Then, we'll connect it to our pump and we can place the pump inside the lower container
And we can see how, that is going to work the pump will send water up the straw
Which will spray out the straw at an angle swirling around, the cup
with a
Small hole in the middle the water will drain down through that spot and hopefully give us a nice water
Vortex now if everything goes correctly the pump will be sending water into the cup, faster than its draining out the bottom
Which will end up with water spilling over the top of the cup as, well which is one of the reasons?
we have this plastic tray here and we need to make sure that it's a tray that has edges on it
Water will spill down into that and to help it drain even faster let's put a few more holes in it to drain down into
Our larger container below it's not very important precisely
Where you put the holes but they should be farther out than the diameter of the bottom of the cup
and
Closer in then the edges of our large container if you put them out on the very edges then all of your water of course
Is going to run out onto
Your table to drill these holes i have to disconnect our cup
From the pump but i'm just going to mark really quickly on the straw
How far in it is because i think i've got at a good height for these drain holes it doesn't matter a?
Whole lot what size they are but i like to try, and keep them smaller, so i'm going back to our
3/16 inch of drill bit
Sometimes the drilled holes are just a little bit messy you can, clean them up
By just pulling the plastic off with your fingers or in some cases just use an exacto. Knife carefully cut
off the excess
Now there is another step that i want to take our fountain does run off of electricity and of course that?
Means it's got a cord coming off of it if the cord comes up over the lip of the container it will make our lid
Sit in a, weird angle if we're alright with the cord coming out of the top of a fountain then, we could just cut
A small divot into the top, where the cord could fit below, the level of our lid but i really
Like the look of the cord coming out of the bottom of the fountain
So what i'm going to do is drill a small hole in the bottom of our container i'm then
Going to cut the power cord, and fit it through that hole, and then splice it back together so
We have a complete cord running through the bottom of the mountain
Oh, that fits through pretty nicely strip off the rubber
There, we have it we now have our cord running out from the bottom of our fountain, which is just what
We want now let's use some hot glue to secure that cord in place and seal up the hole so it's completely waterproof
i
do Want to leave a little bit of extra cord inside the container so that if we ever need to get our fountain out for any
Reason, we still have a little bit of room to play with it of course if you're extremely patient you can
Also, use a silicone based caulking, that's designed for sealing up things like
Fish tanks, but those usually take a, long time to cure and i want to go a little bit faster
There, we have it our power cord is now attached so it's time to add some water now?
First i'm just going to add enough water that it covers this pump and then we gonna plug it in so we can see the
Amount of power that this pump puts out it's not very much
There you go!
That's how, much power we're getting out of our tiny little pump, we want to make?
Sure the pump is completely covered and then take another cup
Just like the one we're using in our fountain and fill it all the way and pour that much water into our container as, well
This, way, we know that no matter how, much water is in our fountain?
Above the pump there will still be enough water to keep the pump completely covered, which
Is what it needs to keep pumping, in fact i'm even going to add just a little bit more water just to be safe
Looks, like our seal is holding up beautifully, no water is leaking out just what, we want to see?
Before we seal anything down let's do a test attaching our straw to our pump through our lid, and see what kind of effect
We get when, we turn on our pump this is precisely one of those situations?
Where i'm glad that i left enough cord that i can reach the pump all right so our straw. Goes down through our lid
Put that into the output of our pump
the level, we marked off
That lower itself back down into the water and now, we'll plug it in this type of pump doesn't have an
On/off switch it just runs whenever it's got power coming to it so if you
do Want to be able to turn this on and off you should use a power strip or another form of outlet that has a switch
Attached to it all right here goes three two, one?
Go, we can, see we've got, some good spinning in that water
Cup, is filling up nicely as well that's good?
Strings of hot glue stuck to it a. Clip, that's not a. Huge problem
Beautiful look at that
Fills all the way to the top of the cup
Overflows over the edge and we have that awesome little vortex going down through the middle of the cup
Fantastic look at that that works perfectly nice relaxing pouring, water noises
Alright, let's turn this off for a second of course as soon as we turn it off it stops filling and just starts draining out
The hole on the bottom
Now our vortex fountain?
Is working but right now it doesn't look all that great so now it's time to do a
Few decorations to make this thing look, a lot more classy our plastic lid here doesn't look very fancy, so i'm gonna
Scuff it up lightly with, some sandpaper and then paint it all black
Being able to see inside a container. And watch the pump in action might be pretty interesting to some people but
I, want to decorate it a little more than that, so i'm going to take, some popsicle sticks and make a
Border that goes all the way around our lower container so it looks like a wooden planter
Box or some of our popsicle, sticks are just a tiny bit too tall they'll be interfering with our plastic lid
So i'm going to trim a, whole bunch of popsicle sticks down to a little bit shorter
Perfect, now i just need to do that to like 50 more popsicle sticks
Now, let's see how, good my estimate, was i'm just, gonna use the hot glue gun, to attach these all the way around, my container
This, wedge shape at the top i'm pretty, sure it's because, when I've been cutting these
Off it makes the top of the popsicle stick flare just the tiniest bit so they're all a little bit wider at the top
And it's got me just this slight offset gap, so i'm just going to cut
This, popsicle stick a little bit shorter and then i'm gonna, use sandpaper and taper it down to that shape
curve it
Our lower container has been lined with. Popsicle sticks that look, like nice wooden slats our lid has been painted
Black, so let's attach them all together i'm going to use hot glue to attach the cup, to the lid, and then if you
Feel like it you can attach the lid, to the lower, base although if you
do that it will be harder to get inside of your fountain if you ever need to in the future i
Am using some hot glue to attach the lid
to
the wooden popsicle sticks but i'm only using a little bit so that if i do need to get into the fountain it should be
really easy to break through
The hot and glue seal holding it there this will just keep it from shaking or moving if i accidentally bump it
There, we have it it's now secured together fairly?
Well and just as one more decorative element i've got some little pebbles that are too big to fit through any of my drain holes
And i'm just going to set those around the cup, so our fountain looks like it has a little bit more nature on
Alright our fountain is all hooked up ready to go and decorate it let's plug it back in and see how
This, whole thing looks all together
It's a nice tornado, i like that tornado now one more thing that i'm gonna try just because i think it can
Be fun, is i'm gonna, add one drop of blue food coloring to our water let's see what happens
It's really cool for a second it just kind of holds the blue, dye
Near, the whirlpool
then the
Dye gets down into the base the pump picks it up and now it's just evenly distributed throughout the whole thing so a slightly blue
Vortex water tornado maelstrom fount i don't know, what to call it take your pick there you go a quick and easy
Way to build a very cool
looking vortex
Desktop fountain it provides nice relaxing sounds it looks pretty sweet with all the swirling water the bubbles in it and the little
Column of twisted, air running down through the middle for this project i have been using
What's just, about the smallest volume of aquarium pump available if you, do use something with
A little more power the water will spin faster and the vortex will actually open up a little bit and you'll usually have
Some water pouring, off more parts of the cup at once coming up soon we're going to show
You, how to take this, same idea and scale it up to a much larger vortex fountain and we're
also, going to add a couple of fun twists to it if you
Want to build this project down in the description we've provided a link
Where you can get one of these pumps thank you guys for joining us for this project
Today, and we'll see you in the next one talk to you then, oh?
my, goodness
This thing can't cut, the electrical tape, uh i don't know, why it gets tiny little bubbles in it but i'm so glad it does