Okay, so I had this crazy idea, right? A machine for cleaning teeth! Sounds kinda sci-fi, but I was like, "Why not give it a shot?"

First, I started by just brainstorming. What does the machine need to do? How's it gonna work? I scribbled down a bunch of ideas, mostly involving tiny brushes, water jets, and maybe some sort of scraping mechanism. It looked like a mad scientist's notebook, I tell ya!

Next up, I needed parts. Scrounged around in my garage for anything that looked useful. Found an old electric toothbrush (score!), some tubing from an old fish tank filter, and a tiny water pump I'd salvaged from a broken coffee machine. It was like Frankenstein-ing this thing together.

Then came the fun part – the build! I started by hacking apart the toothbrush. Took out the motor and the vibrating head. That became the base of my cleaning action. I attached the tubing to the water pump and rigged it so the water would spray onto the toothbrush head. It was messy, but hey, gotta start somewhere!

For the "scraping" part (because let's be real, teeth get gunk on 'em), I tried a bunch of things. Toothpicks? Too flimsy. Metal wire? Too aggressive. Finally, I settled on some stiff nylon bristles glued onto a small rotating disc. Jury's still out on that one, honestly.

Powering the whole thing was a pain. I ended up using a couple of AA batteries and a small switch. Super basic, but it worked. The whole thing looked like something out of a cartoon – wires everywhere, duct tape holding things together, but it was ALIVE!

Okay, so the testing phase. This is where things got... interesting. I definitely wouldn't recommend trying this at home, folks. The first prototype basically sprayed water everywhere. I had to make some serious adjustments to the tubing and pump to get the water focused on the toothbrush head.

Then there was the vibration issue. The toothbrush motor was way too powerful. My teeth felt like they were gonna fall out! Had to figure out a way to slow it down. Tried resistors, but ended up just using a weaker battery. Problem solved (kind of).

Did it actually clean my teeth? Eh, kinda. It definitely felt different than brushing with a regular toothbrush. More... intense? I wouldn't say it replaced my dentist, but it was a fun experiment. Plus, I learned a ton about how things work.

So, what did I learn? Well, building stuff is hard, especially when you don't really know what you're doing. But that's half the fun, right? And maybe, just maybe, with a few more tweaks, I can actually invent the future of dental hygiene. Or at least a really cool conversation starter.