Make an Amazing Sports Noisemaker!

Sound off like a Semi! These noisemakers are perfect for sporting events and parties. The effect is similar to the air horn on a semi or a train. Everyone around you will want to know where they can get their own. Or they will move away and give you more room. Either way works for me.

Hot melt glue gun, X-acto knife, Drill press or Drill, Forstner or Spade bits

Rubber Bands, Latex Balloons, Plastic Plumbing "tee" (from Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, about $2.00), Prescription pill bottles

You need to make a tube in a tube. We have used many different materials for the tubes, including pvc pipe, film canisters and chapstick tubes. The pill bottles in the illustration are called "20 Dram" and "30 Dram" sizes. If there is a childproof tab, cut it off carefully so the small bottle fits inside the big bottle.

Drill a hole in the bottom of each bottle. The inner tube needs to fit snugly into the outer tube. In our example, the outer bottle used a 1&1/2" Forstner bit and the inner bottle used an 1&1/4" bit. The size of the hole on the inner bottle is not critical. The fit between the inner and outer bottles will be caulked, so you have a little leeway, but in our example they fit like a glove!

Make a smaller hole for the "tee" in the upper 1/2 of the larger outer tubes. Be sure to make your matching holes at the same level if you want the tubes to be even. It will work if they aren't, but it looks nicer when they are even. The example used a 1/2" Forstner bit to fit the tee.

Time to start putting it all together. Run a bead of hot melt glue, caulk, or epoxy if you wish, around the seam of the inner and outer tubes. Set the open ends (the tops) down on a flat surface while the glue hardens. You want the inner and outer tops to be level with each other. The bottom can stick out any length, but the tops need to be as close to level as possible.

Insert the "tee" into the side hole and run a bead of hot melt glue around it. Do the same thing to the other side and you are almost done.

Stretch a cut balloon over the top and secure with a rubber band. Pull the balloon as tight as possible for the loudest sound. A looser balloon will give a saxophone like tone. Tune the noisemaker to give a harmonious, resonating tone. The louder the better, of course.

Don't forget, you should customize your horn! Use team colors for your balloons, add stickers, write with a Sharpie and add a lanyard to hang around your neck, allowing your hands free to ring the cowbells I know you brought.

In response to questions about how this works, I have included a cut away diagram.  The air enters on the side of the outer tube, travels up under the balloon diaphragm, and out the center tube.  You can use this info to make your noisemakers out of other materials.