I need to make a simple homemade liquid pump, that will pump liquid out of one bucket and into another.?

Question

Any websites or any type of video is more then recommended. The pump doesn't have to be fancy but has to achieve its overall function be able to pump liquid from one container and put into another. The material I am trying to transfer from one container to another is corrosive, and i do not want to spill any on my hands or clothes. Any tips and/or ideas will be more then helpful and if a visual is available it will be better. Thank you for reading my question and hope to hear from you soon

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a pump, but the simpliest way is a siphon. Basically you get a hose and imerse it in the liquid in the full bucket so there is no air in the hose, then (wearing gloves) place your thumb over one end to form a seal. Then quickly lift that end and place it in the empty bucket and carefully release the sealed end holding the hose close to the bottom of the bucket so air cannot go up inside the hose. As the liquid level rises you will have to raise the bucket being emptied to keep the water flowing.
Addition: Thinking about this, you don't actually need to immerse the hose, you just need to fill up most of the hose with the liquid, so you could just immerse most of it and leave an inch or two with air in it, that should still work.
The only drawback with this method is the liquid gets on the outside of the hose.

And whatever you do, don't go and do the old sucking up the hose trick, about the only thing liquid that is safe with that method is clean water.

Answer 2

I don't know what type of corrosive you have or, if it's legal and what are you doing with it?

You can get an all plastic aquarium pump anywhere from $5.00 to $55.00 depending on how big you want it. Being all plastic it should work. Wal-Mart has them too.

Answer 3

As stated a gravity system will work ( siphon).
An air pumping system will work fine too - think Kerosene pump.