How to make a hopper bucket with your own hands

For anyone interested in doing their own plastering, building a hopper bucket at home can be a satisfying project. This little tool is a great addition to your toolbox because it makes applying plaster easier and more effective.

We’ll walk you through the process of making your own hopper bucket in this guide. You just need a few simple supplies and some time; no expensive materials or sophisticated skills are required. This project can simplify your plastering tasks, whether you’re a do-it-yourself enthusiast or a homeowner taking on a renovation.

To ensure that you have a working hopper bucket that will make your plastering job go more smoothly and precisely, follow along as we break it down.

Step	Details
1. Gather Materials	You"ll need a plastic bucket, a funnel, and a drill. Make sure the funnel fits snugly into the bucket.
2. Prepare the Bucket	Clean the bucket thoroughly and remove any labels. Ensure it"s completely dry before starting.
3. Mark the Funnel Placement	Position the funnel where you want it to be on the bucket. Use a marker to outline the funnel"s base on the bucket.
4. Drill a Hole	Drill a hole in the marked area of the bucket. The hole should be just slightly smaller than the funnel"s base to ensure a tight fit.
5. Insert the Funnel	Push the funnel into the hole you"ve drilled. It should fit securely. If necessary, use adhesive to seal any gaps.
6. Test Your Hopper	Fill the bucket with a small amount of material to test the hopper. Check for any leaks or issues with the funnel"s fit.

What is a hopper bucket

Plastering requires careful application of the mixture, a reduction in the number of working steps, and a reduction in the plasterer’s physical strain. Powered by an air stream, a pneumatic bucket, also known as a hopper bucket, is intended to spray plaster composition on walls. The way it works is comparable to a liquid spray.

Similar to how a conveyor belt moves passengers in an underground train, compressed air is pushed through the semi-liquid solution at high pressure, entraining the solution’s particles and transferring them to the wall for plastering. Droplets of the solution, carried by the air, strike the base forcefully and stick to create a sprayed layer that resembles a thick coat of fur. This "fur coat" can only be leveled and rubbed by the plasterers.

Pneumatic bucket device

The hopper’s primary component is a container (hopper) with nozzle holes in it. Through a fitting-equipped opening on the side opposite the nozzles, compressed air enters the container and is connected by a coupling featuring a tubular handle. The handle has an air supply hose attached to it. The handle has an installed shut-off device that allows you to cut off the air supply.

A second handle is fastened to the top of the container to keep the hopper from toppling over while it is in use. The hopper’s center of gravity is situated above the handle. Plasterers use both hands to hold this plastering shovel (the third name of the unit) and direct the plaster stream to the area that needs to be plastered. To pump air, a compressor is utilized.

The pressure of the supplied air determines how many nozzles and how big they are. Nozzles can be positioned at an angle with respect to the hopper’s horizon or perpendicular to its vertical axis. In order to guarantee the necessary pressure of the mortar-air mixture at the outlet, craftsmen with low-performance compressors will occasionally install two nozzles on the hopper; less frequently, they will use a single nozzle.

In terms of structure, buckets fall into two groups:

• designed to apply the mixture to reverse-horizontal surfaces, as well as inclined planes;
• for plastering vertical surfaces.

The positioning and angle of the outlet nozzles, along with the inclusion of a cover or damper to stop the solution from spilling out of the hopper while it is operating, are the differences between these categories. The second category units feature outlet nozzles that are positioned across from the inlet air fittings. It is not necessary to have a lid on the tank. The devices belonging to the first category have nozzles angled upward. This eliminates the need for tilting the tool.

The plastering shovel’s primary components are:

• nozzles (nozzles) dispersing the plaster mixture;
• hopper for the working solution;
• dispersing nozzles;
• handle with a shut-off valve.

DIY hopper bucket

Even for a novice designer, it is quite possible to make a hopper bucket by hand. You can watch the videos and get acquainted with the drawings in our article. However, the most important thing is to comprehend how the mechanism works so that, when creating the device, you can modify the design without causing harm while keeping in mind the available constraints. The plans for building a hopper with a galvanized steel (or other sheet metal) tank are shown below.

Drawings and dimensions

Drawings of previously created and evaluated products are available. They are suitable for beginners. All you have to do is choose which pneumatic bucket productivity level is necessary and which dimensions work best in your situation. Try to adhere to the suggested proportions, slopes, and parameter standards for the device’s spray unit if you must deviate from the drawing’s dimensions.

• the maximum distance between the front and rear walls in the narrow part is 20 mm, sometimes reaches 50 mm (this requires a more powerful compressor);
• the inlet opening is made with a maximum diameter of 5 mm;
• the maximum diameter of 1 nozzle outlet is 10-20 mm.

Our gallery contains illustrations of drawings that have been discovered online.

With the specified dimensions, plastering can be done with a home compressor that uses 200–250 liters of air per minute at 8 atm of pressure. The force of the created air flow will not be strong enough to force out the plaster composition and carry it to the base if the dimensions exceed the given limits.

Although less convenient to use, a ball valve mounted on a hose may be used in place of a valve with a manual drive. A fire extinguisher valve is utilized in certain products.

When planning a bunker, keep in mind that you will be holding the ladle containing the solution in your hands for several hours at a time while plastering. The plaster solution weighs a good bit by itself. As a result, you shouldn’t create a big container—three to four liters will do. Plastering makes more sense because you can pick up fresh solution more frequently.

Materials and tools

• Sheet galvanizing with a sheet thickness of 0.4 to 1.2 mm (or sheet strong tin/aluminum). The ease of processing and the number of required stiffeners will directly depend on the thickness of the metal. The thinner the metal, the easier it is to process, but it will also require more stiffeners.
• A purchased or self-made nozzle;
• A pneumatic gun with a steel tube (you can take a gun from a sink, fire extinguisher or ball valve);
• Metal washers 8-12 mm in diameter for nozzles.

The following equipment is required:

• metal scissors;
• a metal ruler;
• a drill, as well as a standard set of drills;
• a marker or pencil;
• a grinder.

It will be necessary to rivet or weld the container together. As a result, you might require electrodes, rivets, a welding machine, or riveting supplies.

A metal ladle

The steps we take to make a plastering ladle are as follows:

1. Transfer the contours and bend lines of the container parts from the drawing to the metal in any suitable way. Make the applied lines more distinct by tracing with a marker.
2. We cut with a grinder or scissors. In case of riveted connections, leave an allowance of at least 15 mm for the joining lines.
3. Having cut out the parts, bend them along the fold lines. We connect the parts by welding or riveting.
4. We attach a handle to the finished workpiece, taking into account which hand is working (left or right).
5. We drill holes for the nozzles on the front wall of the tank. We strengthen the edges of the holes on both sides with overhead washers.
6. We mark the centers of the holes for the sprayer on the back side of the tank (opposite the nozzles). We drill the holes.
7. If we use a pneumatic gun, then we install the native nozzle of the gun and fasten it to the inside of the tank.
8. To protect the thin walls of the hopper from mechanical loads transmitted in the contact zone from the nozzle, we attach reinforcement plates to the bucket handle and its walls on both sides.
9. Make a removable lid.
10. We collect the solution and make a test spray on a small area.

From a canister

Plastic is a material that is inert. A pneumatic gun can be easily attached to a plastic canister to create a plastering shovel in a matter of minutes. It will take some time to complete this design because the plastic hopper is almost finished.

• 10 l primer canister;
• 1/2 ball valve;
• handle sleeve;
• two nipples (male, female) with an internal diameter of 6 mm;
• PVC plug d 10 cm;
• winding, glue, tape.

Using our hands, we create a hopper bucket in the following order:

1. For the hopper, we take a used 10 l primer canister. The front side will be the sidewall in which there is a recess on the side at the bottom.
2. Use a marker to draw a line smoothly tracing the top of the canister with a handle and a neck and slightly extending onto the front wall (this will be the top of the hopper).
3. With the second line, draw a horizontally elongated hole with rounded corners for the handle on the front side, stepping back from the first line a couple of centimeters down.
4. Cut out the neck and the hole for the handle with a retractable stationery knife. Clean the cut from burrs.
5. The last step in making the bunker will be the creation and design of a cylindrical hole-coupling. It needs to be squeezed out by heating the bottom of the canister (watch the video). You need to heat it without overdoing it, so that the factory welded seam connecting the halves of the canister does not come apart. A PVC plumbing pipe of the same diameter as the plug is suitable for squeezing.
6. Cut off the bottom at the protrusion formed in this way.
7. Take the plug and drill a 20 mm conical drill hole for the nipple. We drill the hole not in the center of the sidewall, but with an offset to the bottom.
8. Mount the nipple on the inside of the plug, attach the bushing and tap from the outside, installing it so that it is convenient to use during work. Screw the adapter (second nipple) to the tap.
9. Draw a line of the nipple axis inside the plug for precise placement of the outlet. Drill a second hole, shifting it as far as possible to the bottom of the plug so that the air blows out the plaster solution from the very bottom. Clean the edges of the hole until smooth. 20 mm is the maximum allowable diameter for a construction bucket with one nozzle. If the nozzle is made larger, the plaster mixture will spit out in pieces.
10. The nozzle hole should be located at a distance of one third of the plug diameter from the nozzle. Therefore, attach a tube cut from the plastic body of the dowel-nail to the nipple. Additionally fix the attachment point with glue.
11. Install the resulting structure on the bunker. To do this, make two slots for the bushing and for the nozzle. Make the second recess slightly wider than the nozzle so that the flying composition does not linger here. Wrap the junction of the plug and the hopper with tape.

The video walks viewers through the entire process in detail.

Requirements for a homemade bucket

Safety is the primary need for technological devices.

Additionally, a homemade hopper bucket ought to offer:

• protection against accidental splashing of the solution when tilting the bucket during plastering (permanent or removable lid, raised sides);
• ability of the hopper body to retain its shape (soft tin or plastic five-liter bottles are not suitable for the container);
• the diameter of the inlet nozzles should be at least 1.5 mm.

Mixture for work

Paints and plaster compositions are just two examples of the different construction mixtures that construction shovels are made to work with. The instructions are followed when preparing solutions for mechanical applications. Fibrous additives may be added to the composition. The consistency of the compositions shouldn’t be runny. Certain manufacturers outfit the buckets with detachable nozzles to accommodate plasters with varying consistency.

The mixes that are most frequently used are:

• Gypsum plaster.
• Cement-sand mixture.
• Lime compositions for plastering.

Connection kit

The plaster bucket, which requires a set of adapters to connect to, must be operated by a compressor. Suppliers offer "rapid" and "bayonet" quick-release couplings as standard fittings for pneumatic buckets made in industrial settings. Nonetheless, since the larger hole diameter allows for the maximum air supply, it makes more sense to connect the hopper bucket using a fire, more practical kind of heck connection. Compared to the previous examples, this conductor’s through hole is three times larger.

Included in the hopper bucket’s heck kit are:

• ball air valve;
• adapter-nipple;
• adapters Gek ½ and nipples;
• wire clamp (which secures the hose).

Hopper bucket operation technology

Now let’s talk about plastering using a hopper bucket by hand.

1. Prepare the ceiling and walls for plastering in the same way as preparation for manual plastering.
2. Install beacons, mount a reinforcing mesh if necessary.
3. Assemble the pneumatic bucket, connect to the compressor.
4. Close the composition taking into account the rapid consumption. 50 kg of the mixture passes through the nozzles in 3-4 minutes. Therefore, the volumes of solution preparation are larger. When plastering with a hopper, it is rational to use a mortar mixer to prepare the composition.
5. Take the device with your right hand by the working handle. With your left hand – by the auxiliary handle. Scoop up the plaster composition with a tank or put it into the hopper with a ladle. After scooping, shake off excess solution from the outer surface back. Bring the unit to the surface to be treated.
6. Open the valve, direct the solution stream to the surface to be plastered. Smoothly leading the hopper from beacon to beacon and back, they spray strip after strip of plaster composition. Try to apply the mixture evenly.
7. When the solution in the tank runs out, the sprayed solution is leveled manually or with a spatula, moving the rule along the beacons (zigzag from bottom to top).
8. Scoop up a new portion of the composition and transfer it, “spraying” with a hopper in the same order.
9. After finishing plastering, the device is disassembled and washed. To wash the nozzles, you can lower the hopper with a bucket of collected water, open the air supply valve for a few seconds.

It is advised to moisten the hopper’s interior before beginning plastering to reduce the amount of adhesive that adheres to the walls.

Watch the video to see an example of how much the hopper bucket increases work productivity.

Making your own hopper bucket can be a satisfying and economical endeavor. This tutorial will show you how to construct a working hopper bucket using simple materials, emphasizing the necessary tools and methods. Whether you’re plastering walls or doing other construction-related tasks, this homemade hopper bucket will make your workflow easier and more productive.

Advantages and disadvantages

Plastering surfaces can be done easily and effectively with a pneumatic bucket.

Even novices will recognize its benefits:

• the mixture can be applied by people who do not have plastering experience;
• the speed of plastering increases;
• thanks to the spray force, a coating with increased adhesion is formed;
• the device is capable of applying mixtures of various compositions;
• low cost of homemade products.

• the high cost of products offered by the market;
• the work is accompanied by splashing of the surrounding areas (less carefully than manual plastering on beacons).

Anyone skilled with plaster can build a useful and satisfying project at home: a hopper bucket. You can build a tool that will simplify and expedite your plastering tasks by following these easy steps.

Your DIY hopper bucket can handle a variety of plastering tasks with just a few simple materials and careful construction. Having a specially designed hopper bucket will improve your control and accuracy when smoothing walls or applying a new layer of plaster.

Recall that patience and attention to detail are essential for a successful do-it-yourself project. Make sure that each component of your hopper bucket is sturdy and works properly by taking your time. You’ll be ready to take on your plastering projects with confidence once you have your new tool in hand.

Video on the topic

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