Kid Makes His Own Submarine Out Of Scrap And Stays Underwater For 30 Minutes

We have covered a number of DIY projects on our website but if we were to rank them, this one would top the list. Meet Justin Beckerman who is an eighteen years old kid and has a hobby of making useful things out of scrap.This hobby, more like a gift, has been honed by the encouragement that he received from his father. Justin, so far, has been able to make miniature hovercrafts, replica Mars rover, wind turbines and a number of other machines.

This time the kid has outdone himself by building a functional submarine that has been basically created from a reclaimed soda fountain machine and grooved drainage pipe section (8’ length and 2’ width). He has named his creation as ‘Nautilus’. Nautilus has been created from scratch in multiple stages with special attention paid to ensure that there was no water seepage. Justin achieved this by employing a 1.5 gallon air compressor, a four way splitter and 10 gallon ballast tanks (a total of 4).

A number of tests were carried out in Justin’s basement before he dared move his machine to deep waters. These tests proved fruitful for Justin since he found out that the compressor was heating up and burned the wiring. He had to install a fan to cater to this and to be on the safe side, used high-gauge wires as well. The next issue was how to submerge the submarine into water and this is where the idea of making use of dumbbells hit him. A total weight of 250 pounds was achieved by employing dumbbells and then he added 13 sandbags as well. Talk about weight!

As expected, the Nautilus is equipped with bright LEDs for underwater lighting. Other items include radio communication, three volt meters that display Nautilus’ battery levels on an old DVD screen, magnetic compass which will be used for navigation, sonar powered fish finder which will help in determining the depth and two custom-made fins which will allow for the steering of the Nautilus underwater.

Once Justin was done with the rectification, he tested his machine in a lake and managed to stay underwater for about 30 minutes. Congratulations to Justin for such a huge achievement at such a small age and we are greatly impressed by the ingenuity of this kid. A Job well done!