Water Filter

Building a water filter can seem unnecessary, or pointless nowadays. However, if there is ever such an emergency, it can come in very handy, especially in a rural area or even if you are watering your plants. The parts you will need in this particular water filter is 3/8 inch diameter copper tubing, 10 feet long, and that can be easily coiled. You will also need 2 all purpose buckets from home depot, a ceramic water filter that will fit perfectly in the bucket (preferably with a lip that is above the top edge of the bucket). 2 lids that are made for the home depot buckets, a brass spigot, activated charcoal (40 oz is good to use, however you don't need to use all of it) 2 pieces of cloth to fit around the bucket lids, zip-ties, a funnel to fit inside the copper, and finally 3 pieces of PVC (or copper) where the diameter doesn't matter and the length has to be around the length of the coiled copper you will make.

So what you have to do is to find a cylindrical object to coil the copper around (make sure that you can remove it) and coil it around to a height around what the picture depicts or to your preference (it doesn't really matter, as long as it fits in the ceramic filter you are using). Then find 3 or more pieces of PVC (or copper) and zip-tie the coil to the tubes to maintain the shape of the coil. What the copper does is it denatures the proteins in bacteria, rendering them useless for bonding to other cells in your body. However, this effect may deteriorate over time, due to the copper oxidizing. As long as you clean it (Vinegar and Salt or Lemon and Salt, etc).

First, what you want to do is to take one of the lids and cut a circular hole inside of the ring bulge on the surface of the lid. Next, take the other lid and drill a 1/2 inch hole where the copper tube can fit through without much tension. You are doing this so that on the top of the filter, you can allow the copper coil you made to fit right through so you can add water to it. On the other lid with the larger hole, you will place it under one of the buckets.

For one of the buckets, you are going to cut another hole on the bottom of the bucket, that is the same size as the hole you cut on the bucket lid. You are then going to place the bucket (with the hole on the bottom) on top of the lid (with the large hole in it) to make sure it fits. You are also going to take the other bucket (bottom bucket) and drill a hole so that a spigot that you are planning to use can fit through it.

After you have finished cutting the buckets you are going to place one of the cloths in between the bottom bucket, and the lid with the large hole in it (make sure it is tight and secure! you can glue it if you have to). Next, place activated charcoal on top of the cloth that you just secured in place (make sure it COVERS the cloth only). Then, place the other cloth over the charcoal that you placed on top of the first one (make sure it is tight again) take the other bucket (the bucket on the top with the whole on the bottom) and place on top of the cloth over the charcoal. This is the final stage of the filtering process, it does most of the work when filtering the water.

Your filter should be almost done, the buckets should be stacked by now, and all that you need to put together is a lid, the ceramic filter, and the copper. Take the ceramic filter and place it inside the bucket from the top (it should be able to go all the way inside) place the copper coil inside of the ceramic filter, place the lid on top, and finally take a funnel that can fit into the top end of the copper coil.

Now you're done! The water should go through the top of the filter, go through the copper coil, go through the ceramic filter, and finally go through the activated charcoal to get clean water.

(Note: when you run water through the filter for the first time, you may see black water, that is due to the fact that you activated charcoal has some dust on it, once you run it a few times the color should go away.)