Air Lock (homemade)

[Jaspar]

How to make a quick easy air lock:

  Items needed:

1 large pill bottle with lid or spice bottle or any plastic bottle (spice or beef bullion bottles work)

1 small pill bottle that will fit into the large bottle

1 Bic ink pen or any rigid plastic tube about 4 to 6 inches long

Water proof glue

Hand drill or wood burner

1 large and one small drill bit ( make sure the large bit is a little bigger then the barrel of the pen)

see picture 1...


Steps:

1. Remove guts from the pen.

2. Drill a hole with the large bit in the bottom of the large pill bottle
go slow on this step so you don't crack the bottle.

3. Drill 3 or 4 holes with the small bit into the lid of the large bottle for vents, this lid is the dust cover (these holes can be made with the wood burner but its real smelly).

see picture 2...

4. Put the pen barrel about half way in to the large hole and glue in place. Put a small dab of glue in the small
hole in the side of the pen barrel to seal it. Let the glue dry.

See picture 3...

5. Put it together - Hold the pen barrel and put the small pill bottle upside down on to the pen barrel inside the large bottle.

see picture 4...

Well that's it just add enough water to fill about half way, put on the drilled dust cover, and put into any bottle in a cork or rubber grommet.

A couple quick things to note: Make sure that the inner pill bottle does not touch the bottom of the large bottle, but rest on the tube.
see picture 5...
If it does then just cut it off a bit.
see picture 6...
                                       Hope this helps

                                                        Jaspar

[darius]

Cool!

I have a ton of saved empty pill bottles which I use for saving small amounts of garden seeds.

[MrsKK]

Awesome ingenuity!  Thanks so much for sharing this, Jaspar!

[Cheese Head]

Jaspar great info and pics really helped.

darius, I had an instant mental flash of you accidentally planting rows of pills !

[wharris]

I had an instant mental flash of you accidentally planting rows of pills !

John, where did you think aspirin trees come from?

[victoras_h]

Sorry to be so blunt, but what is the airlock used for?

[wharris]

Its used to provide a vapor barrier for something.
In many cases wine.

the main advantage of an air lock, is that it will allow for gas to bubble out, but still maintains a barrier to the air in the room.

This is helpful when you are fermenting.

[Jaspar]

We used them when we were making fermented foods, pickles and Sauerkraut.
Here is a link to that post :  https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7864.msg56855.html#msg56855