How to Make a Foam Machine

For your party you sometimes want to do a little something extra. Imagine an evening of dancing in "clouds" made of foam. You can create the effect with easily available materials. With a little practice and a few precautions, you can make a foam machine that will give your guests an evening to remember.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Heavy plastic
• Children's pool
• Clean 30-gallon trash can
• Wet/dry shop vac
• Garden hose
• Dish detergent or bubble bath
• Shop goggles
• Snow shovel
• Bucket

1. Find a place for your party that has a non-porous floor, such as a basement with a concrete floor or perhaps concrete or asphalt for a street party.
2. Begin by inflating a children's pool and putting it in the middle of the area for the party. Set a 30-gallon trash can in the children's pool as the base for your foam machine.
3. Put a wet/dry shop vac outside the party area. The hose from the shop vac runs over to and goes inside the trash. Attach a garden hose to a hot-water faucet and put the other end inside the trash can. You'll now have the garden hose and the shop vac hose inside the trash can.
4. Gather about 15 bottles of dishwashing detergent or, alternately, some bubble bath and put the bottles by the trash can. Put on safety goggles to protect your eyes from the soap.
5. Put the shop vac on blow rather than vacuum. Put the garden hose and the shop vac hose down into the trash can, and turn on the hot water and the shop vac. Hold both hoses in the can and squirt the bubble solution at the hot water to make foam. As the garden hose shoots water in, the shop vac blows water and foam out.
6. Keep the water rate steady so that the garden hose is supplying water at the same rate the shop vac blows foam out. You don't want water to overflow the top of the trash can. Watch the foam build up, pour over the top of the trash can, into the pool, and out onto the floor. Shovel the foam around the floor with a snow shovel, if necessary.
7. Fill a bucket with water from the pool as it fills up and empty into a drain so that water doesn't run out onto the floor.

Tips & Warnings

• Start putting together your foam machine before the party starts so you will have time to cover the floor with foam. It's a good idea to cover the floor and bottom of the walls with heavy plastic for cleanup afterwards.
• Experiment with this a day before the party so you're satisfied with the foam production. Have two to four people available to run the machine throughout the party who will have fun getting wet.
• Do not use this foam machine on a wood floor or in a room with drywall or plaster walls. When the foam dissolves back into water, it will damage the floor and walls.

Who Can Help:

• Find Decorators & Designers Here. Compare Up to 4 Quotes, Free Service & No Obligation.