Low friction high speed Optical Illusion Windturbine

Hi!

This windwheel works wonderfully and because its fully ball beared the slightest breeze is enough to make the wheels spin fast :)

Printing:

-Parts are constructed that everything is very easy to print even on old 3D printers and not perfectly tuned pofiles! No steep overhangs, easy bridging and no support is necessary! 

-I added 0.08-0.1mm tolerance to the STLs so that there is no sanding necessary but everything fits tight in place.

-You will need a printer with at least 25*25*20cm bed size to print in full size. But I've added a slightly smaller version for a 20*20*20cm printer. Should work just as fine.

-On the wheel are mouse ears for better bed adhesion, cut them of using a sharp thin blade or a deburring tool (I reused the windwheels from Stuart800's windturbine; thx!)

-I printed everything in Geetech Tricolor Silk PLA filament (14€ incl. shipment to Germany from Aliexpress). ASA, ABS or PETG should be better in theory but PLA worked very fine for me.

-For the Body I recommend 0.6-1.2mm walls and 10% gyroid Infill

-Spacers and tip 0.6-0.8mm walls and 10% infill are fully sufficient

-Windwheels should have 1.2mm walls and 15% gyroid infill

-The small mount part ("Stand") should be printed in at least 1.2mm walls and 20% gyroid infill.

-When printing in PLA I recommend to give it a coat of (clear colorless) spraypaint or polyurethane water proofing agent for UV-/weather protection. Be careful, some common spraypaint solvents like n-butyl acetate can drastically weaken PLA layer adhesion permanently, so use thin very paint layers and take care of fast drying (use wind if possible ;))! 

BOM (cost ~10€):

1x 1m 8mm threaded rod (1 m 2-3€ at every hardware store, cut it using a metall saw or angle grinder etc. and a deburring tool and cut it to your needs

EDIT: If you're living in a country which only offers imperial stuff 5/16 rods should work. 

5x 8mm nuts (I recommend that at least 4 of them should be self-locking nuts or use a drop of glue)

4x 608 bearings ("skate bearings" you can scavage from old fidget spinners; I odered cheapest from Aliexpress for 4€/10pcs) 

2x M3*8mm screws (~3*10mm woodscrews and M3*10mm should work aswell, but I haven't tried it)

1x 1m 8mm smooth rod to stick into the ground. Needs to be perfectly perpendicular. If you need other sizes let me know. 

2 drops of super glue to fix ball bearings inside the two wheels. Otherwise strong winds could cause problems.

Assembly:

-Push bearings inside the wheels in fix them carefully with 1-2 drops of glue

-Mount them with the threaded rod on the body. Use two spacers ("1" and "2") between the wheels and one more between the body and the wheels ("Spacer 3"), make a mark on the rod and cut it. If you're using an angle grinder, remove the rod from the body before cutting it or PLA might melt. 

-Lock with self tightening nuts, one on each side

-Now you can hide the nut by screwing the tip “Spinner” on the front wheel using at least 2 M3x8 or M3*10 or corresponding 3mm woodscrews. Low tolerances here so they are fitting very tight!

-Push one ball bearing inside the body (it fits tight but doesn't need to be fully pushed down inside yet)

-Cut of 8-9cm from your left over threaded rod and prepare mount like this: 

(-The rod which sticks to the ground need to be perfectly perpendicular)

-Finally, push the body onto the mount…

…and tadaaaaa:

Happy printing!

Almost everything new, I only kept the wheels and the tip