Double Impeller Butterfly Gear Wind Spinner

A butterfly themed gear wind spinner driven by two impellers.

I built this for the “Garden Wind Spinners” Flash Contest.

As soon as the wind starts rotating the impellers these start moving around the big center gear in circles. This also rotates the bridge bar which holds everything in place and connects the two impellers.

The bridge bar can also be fitted with two decorative plates (butterflies or a spiral). Of course, the spinner will also work without a plate.

Build instructions:

This build requires three nails to attach the gears to the bridge bar. One large ~3mm nail and two smaller 2mm nails.

The small nails are used to attach the small gears and rotors to the bridge bar. The large nail is used to attach the large gear and to hold the bridge bar in place.

The nails must run as friction-free as possible in the bridge bar but need to be glued or push fitted onto the gears and impellers.

Troubleshooting:

1.) Try to avoid “elephant feet" when printing the gears as this may cause them to get stuck.

2.) Ensure that the holes in the bridge bar are large enough to allow the axles to move freely. In order to make the nails fit, you can use a drill to clean or widen the holes.

3.) If the gears don't run smoothly, try sanding the affected teeth.

Have fun printing!

By the way, I wanted to post a video of the thing spinning, but unfortunately there is no wind to be found... ;-)