I am planning on making a reservoir from a 40 ounce Vodka bottle.

Well, the idea struck me last night It would be neat to have a big reservoir made from some standard "household item" inside my rig...

Then I thought - WAIT! What would look cool, is made of glass, and wouldn't be too difficult to convert?

That's right - a Smirnoff 40 (now empty of course).

Now for my questions -

Is that generic sealant stuff I can get at home hardware adequate for sealing the barbs into the holes I will make? Will it leak, or look really ugly if it is applied with some care? And, are there any alternatives to using this white foam - will soldering work with the glass?

Also - are brass fittings safe to use (corrosion wise), or should I go with copper if I can find it? Will the glass itself cause problems?

Lastly, any tips or articles related to connecting fittings properly, and drilling into glass without breaking it would be great as I need all the tips I can get - this is a really budget project, and I already have the bottle - I haven't bought fittings yet, but can get em' in brass for $0.50 each, and I have that swhite foam caulking stuff.

All-in-all this thing is going to end up costing me about $3 + time spent working on it.

Here is my plan in ASCII art - (periods are just spacers)

.....|..|
.....|..|
..../....\
.../......\
../........\
./..........\
|............=>> <---- INLET 1/2" ID FITTING
|............|
|............| With this very basic layout
|............| Bubbles will rise to the top
|............| And the water will be sucked
|............| From the bottom bubble-free
|............| Problem being flow restriction...
|............|
|............=>> <------- OUTLET 1/2" ID FITTING
|________|

Any thoughts please post!

Plan on making it look like this?



That is unloaded's avatar. Ask him about it through PM at this address:

http://forum.oc-forums.com/private.php?s=&action=newmessage&userid=24569

I'm sure he will have some good advice for you.

I beleve he has more details at proforums, What you would need is a drill bit to drill through glass(special bit) and hosebarbs, and Marine GOOP, that should do very well.

Jon

Wow - I never would have though that anyone else would have thought of this before me.

Thanks for directing me - I shall be sure to post pictures when I'm done!

Brass fittings will work just fine with the copper in your system. The glass won't hurt anything either.

why bother drilling 2 holes when you already have 1 inlet premade?

more holes you drill the more likely you'll need to drain another bottle... hey wait....

*goes off to see how many bottles he can break and empty*

: ) :

LOL great idea was thinking of doing the same, to bad some people already did it. BUt oh well i think i will incorporate it alot differnt, as i currently dont liek the bay res that comes in the dtek kit.

you asked about soldering onto glass... i do stained glass in my free time (what little i have) and i can say that no amount of flux will make solder stick to glass... BUT, you can foil the area you want to solder onto with the adhesive-backed foil and then solder onto that (with flux). and then u can use whatever goopy stuff you want to make it good and sealed. just be careful not to overheat the glass, it can crack and make you mad/sad.
good luck, i hope to see pics in the near future.

mod on

why bother drilling 2 holes when you already have 1 inlet premade?

Click to expand...

um, where would you fill it from then?

Would placing the inlet and outlet on different sides improve the flow a little? I would think Goop would work just fine for sealing the barbs.

I actually thought about doing this myself, but I couldn't figure out where to put it. My friend recommended an Olde English 40 if you want to go for the ghetto WC'ing look

The placement of the barbs shouldn't matter AFA flow is concerned. The flow from the inlet would have no effect on the flow of the outlet.

If you placed the barbs at an angle (I can only imagine what drilling glass at an angle would be like), you could get a whirlpool effect that would be amusing for the first minute you watched it.

Smirabi said:

you asked about soldering onto glass... i do stained glass in my free time (what little i have) and i can say that no amount of flux will make solder stick to glass... BUT, you can foil the area you want to solder onto with the adhesive-backed foil and then solder onto that (with flux). and then u can use whatever goopy stuff you want to make it good and sealed. just be careful not to overheat the glass, it can crack and make you mad/sad.
good luck, i hope to see pics in the near future.

mod on

Click to expand...

aaaa that explains your avatar

Yeah i was planning to do exactly the same thing as Unloaded with an absolut vodka mini-bottle but never got round to it.

Thanks a lot for the advice guys - I think I will skip the solder and just go with goop - thanks fort elling me Smirabi, you saved me some time and trouble

As for a 40 of OE... well it is a good idea too. I will *try* (OE is the only beer brewed through a camel...) to obtain a Olde Englishe bottle and see if the size/shape is better for this job.

I will definetely get pics up as soon as possible!

I'd use original inlet for both tubes.
You can use smaller diameter one leading almost to bottom and higher d. one to have water go into bottle.
how to explain...
......||_--
......||..._
...../||./
.....||||
.....||||
..../.||.\
.../..||..\
../...||...\
./....||....\
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|.....||....|
|............|
|............|
|_______|

Just drilled huge bending and smaller tube going through it
Smaller tube is still big, should have around 0.7 of neck diameter, bigger tubing - diameter of neck.

Getting two tubes, inside each other, to work right will be a pain

Hey, have fun doing it. I used Nylon barbs and JB Weld on mine. Also used diamond tipped dremel bits to make the holes. I couldn't find the thread here, but my old work log thread here has some pics and links to the bits.

peace.
unloaded

zebkoolindc said:

Getting two tubes, inside each other, to work right will be a pain

Click to expand...

-== zero pain ==-

- buy copper high d. bending (may be other easy-soldering material)
- buy lower d. tube
- buy/make fittings
- eventually get some tube of high d. - to make end of inlet stick in water
- drill a hole through bending
- stick smaller tube inside
- solder whole thing
- have fun

The oly pain would be getting proper diameter proportion - which I gave - smaller d. should be ~0.7 of bigger (half of square root of 2)

Other possibility - transparent (plexi?) smaller tube, glued instead of soldering, for visual effect.