How to Make a Water/Air Pump/Vacuum Pump! 2026

How to Make a Water/Air Pump/Vacuum Pump, in this project, you will learn how to make a customizable PVC pipe hand pump that will create vacuum suction, pump water, or compress air.

A prerequisite for making the pump will be 2 homemade check valves. You can learn how to make these cheap PVC check valves here!

#1: Watch the video!

WARNING:

Power tools, such as a table saw, present serious injury risks.

Proper training and experience is required before operating.

The results and claims of this pump are based solely on my personal experiences with the one demonstrated in the video.

Individual results may vary.

The pump is a simple design and is not manufactured or claimed to be used in heavy duty operations or relatively high pressures.

Use of this content is at your own risk.

#2: What you will need

• Whether you are using vacuum power, moving water, or compressed air, chances are you are using some type of pump.
• I thought it would be nice to build a simple bomb, mainly for learning purposes, and I wanted to do it with inexpensive materials.
• I've wanted to build a PVC water pump for a while, but the check valves were about $10.00 each. That seemed a little steep for a PVC build, so I did my own work, which can be seen in a different project.
• I was inspired for the pump piston and chamber by an image I saw in a google image search by someone who used 1-1/4″ and 1″ tubing, and mentioned that he cut the slots for the o-rings on a table saw. That was a new idea for me and gave me the inspiration to put this together.

The materials I used are detailed in the image.

#3: Making the piston

• Here you can see that the 1″ pipe fits perfectly inside the 1-1/4″ PVC pipe.
• There is only a small gap, but we actually need it to be airtight to make a proper piston. The best way I know to make a tight seal is to use some rubber O-rings.
• To cut slots for the rings, I used a table saw and adjusted the blade by holding the tube horizontally on the table, and lowering the blade until I could see that it would only cut halfway through the plastic. The goal is to make a good groove for the O-ring, but not compromise the structural integrity of the PVC pipe.
• I cut 2 slots for redundancy. One at 1″, and another at 2″ marks.
• I used some wooden braces to keep the tube steady, and made the cuts with one hand to hold the tube on the blade and the other to rotate the tube slowly. Of course, safety and caution are top priorities when working with power tools and open cutting blades. The O-rings snap perfectly into place.
• This end of the tube should also be capped to seal it tightly.
• You can't really tell from the picture, but I have glued on an end plug that is solid. On the diagram, I said it was a 1″ plug, but it was actually a 3/4″ plug that I sanded to fit inside the end of this 1″ pipe.
• Now this end of the tube is completely sealed.

#4: Finishing the piston and chamber

• To finishthe piston, we need to do some work on the outer tube. I got a 1-1/4″ slide cap and used a 1-3/8″ front bit to drill a hole in the center.
• An O-ring was added to the inside of the cap around the hole and set aside for a minute.
• To insert the piston, the O-rings need lubrication, or friction on the inner walls of the pipe will damage them. I used Vaseline, but some people have suggested that Vaseline would eat away at the O-rings over time and that some type of silicone grease would be better.
• On the bottom of the 1-1/4″ pipe I put a cement in coupling, a 3/4″ reducing bushing, a short riser tube, and a threaded tee.
• With the 2 O-rings lubricated, the piston should push tightly into the larger tube.
• The modified slide cap can be cemented on top now, and when the piston is at the bottom, there should only be a couple of inches of tubing sticking out of the top.

#5: Painting and cementing

• I chose to paint the accessories in black, and the tube in blue, just for contrast.
• The handle is made from 2 pieces of 4-1/2″ x 1″ PVC pipe cut from the remains of the piston.
• Everything is cemented as shown in the picture, and when the handle is complete, it attaches to those piston tubes that stick out of the hydraulic piston chamber.

This completes the piston and adding 2 check valves to the threaded tee at the bottom will complete the pump!

Note: Make sure your check valves are pointing the right way 🙂

#6: Testing the bomb

• Since check valves are threaded, they can be moved, changed or positioned in many creative ways.
• Using additional PVC pipe and fittings opens up many different options. Imagination is the limitation.
• You can try turning this into a pump to move the water vertically, or harness it with your feet for a more bilge pump-like approach.
• This pump seemed to move a little more than 2 cups of water per cycle.
• With the vertical pump approach, you could pump about 3 gallons per minute.
• With the horizontal approach, I was able to move over 5 gallons per minute because I could put my weight on it and move it faster.

#7: Additional Features

• The pump was made to pump water, but it is extremely effective at compressing air, as well as creating a vacuum.
• The pump has an intake side and an outlet side. If connected to the outlet, a vacuum is created.
• I inflated a balloon and placed it on the intake side, and with each blow it became smaller and smaller untilwas sucked into the tube.
• I tried to lock the valves in both directions, and when I pulled the piston, I was met with a strong vacuum in the chamber, which pushed the piston in with considerable force when I released it.
• Because the piston is not physically attached to anything, the handle can rotate a full 360 degrees.
• If you need to clean the piston or add more lubrication, you can pull out the entire handle like an oversized plunger. It goes back the same way it came out.
• I am planning to use this piston design in future projects that require pneumatic and hydraulic pistons.

In my tests, the valves work very well with air and water. I didn't have any gauge to test the strength of the vacuum, so I can't say how strong the vacuum would be, but it certainly creates one.

#8: Final Thoughts

While there are some special tools used to create this bomb (table saw and ranger bit), I believe that with a little creativity, the bomb could be made just as effectively without them, making this a simple and duplicatable design.

If you liked this project, you might like some of my others. Greetings!

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