Bubble Machine From Trash

This instructable explains how to make a bubble Machine from trash.

The concept is very simple. A disk full of holes will rotate to alternatively dive into a bubble solution and go in front of a fan. It will create a lot of bubbles.

You will need the following material :

• Two plastic bottles
• Some cardboard
• 1 wine cork
• 1 CD-ROM or DVD
• Gear DC motor from a broken electric razor (about 100 RPM)
• DC motor from a broken remote control car (At least 5000 RPM)
• Battery holder from a broken remote control car

As well as the following tools :

• Soldering iron
• Pliers
• Drill
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Utility knife

The first step is to make the structure of the bubble machine using cardboard.
The size of this structure will depend on the size of the small plastic bottle that will be used as a trough.

Cut a rectangle in a strong cardboard.
-> The length should be the size of a small plastic bottle.
-> The width should be 3 times the width of a small plastic bottle

Then make a rectangle parallelepiped out of cardboard
-> The length should half the size of a small plastic bottle
-> The width should be the width of a small plastic bottle
-> The height should be the diameter of a small plastic bottle

Finally Glue the parallelepiped in the middle of the cardboard rectangle

The trough of the bubble machine is made from a plastic bottle.

Cut a rectangle on the side of a plastic bottle. The hole should be a little bigger than the diameter of a CD-ROM.

Then glue the plastic bottle on the cardboard structure.

Next you'll need something that will rotate through the trough to pick up the bubble liquid. Let's built it using a DVD.

Make 12 holes in a DVD using a soldering iron. Each hole should be as close as possible from the exterior of the DVD.

The heat of the soldering iron will result in perfect holes that you can't make with a drill.

Next step is to build something to spin your bubble ring in the trough.
To do so we will use a gear motor that comes from a remote control car.

Glue the DVD to the motor using a plastic cap.
Then glue the motor on the cardboard structure. The DVD must go inside the plastic bottle hole.

The fan is made from a plastic bottle and a motor. This motor comes from a broken electric shaver. You can use any motor that spin at 5000 RPM or more.

First cut a small rectangle from a plastic bottle and fold it to form a propeller.
Then insert the propeller on the motor axis.

Then glue this fan on the cardboard structure using a wine cork to adjust the height.

Both motors will need electrical energy to work.

Connect a battery holder to the two motors and glue it on the cardboard structure. As motors are 3V two AAA battery will be used.

The bubble solution is made from 1/2 dish washing liquid and 1/2 water. This 50:50 mix worked well but you can add a spoon of glycerine for stronger bubbles.

This video summarize all the steps then shows the final result with bubbles.