Waterfuge: The Classroom Water-Powered Centrifuge

thingiverse

This is the Hydrocyclops, a remix of cathalgarvey's "Dremelfuge - A One-Piece Centrifuge for Rotary Tools". Inspiration My idea behind the Hydrocyclops came from several different criteria. One of these was to make a centrifuge that uses a renewable energy source in some shape or form. Why you may ask? To help the planet, of course! This led me to base the power source of my design off of the basic water wheel. The Hydrocyclops is powered completely by water running on a small little drum wheel, which then moves all the gears and the actual centrifuge. Another was to make a centrifuge that is classroom-friendly. By this, I mean that I wanted this centrifuge to be able to be made and used in one classroom that has access to a 3D printer. By using simple materials found in schools like clips, pieces of a plastic straw, and some glue, the Hydrocyclops can be made and used in any classroom with a 3D printer! I also loved the idea of a DIY centrifuge as soon as I saw "Dremelfuge" in the Remix Challenge collection. I knew as soon as I saw this design that this was what I had to remix for the challenge. I wanted to take another spin at this whole DIY centrifuge thing, and the Hydrocyclops was the result! My Reason For Designing the Hydrocyclops By designing the Hydrocyclops, I hope to bring about the idea of using renewable energy sources in creative ways to make usable machines. I also hope that by being a high school student myself, I encourage other young makers to be creative and to create something that is truly unique! Usability Now, I'd also like to mention that actual usability of this machine as a centrifuge. For the design, I tried to take advantage of how gears and cogs work in order to reach a high speed. On the centrifuge, I used a gear that was exactly half the size and has half the amount of teeth in order for it to spin about double the speed of the drum. However, this speed isn't enough for spinning down the samples in the tubes. By using this simple mechanic however, I believe that the speed that is needed for an effective centrifuge can be achieved by using a geared system. Videos Link to the Hydrocyclops in Action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ Extra Assembly Details (Extra Details) There are two gears used in this thing, one being thicker than the other. Although they look similar, please note this difference when assembling the Hydrocyclops. When gluing the cap onto the rod in step 4 of the assembly video, a dab of elmer's glue or super in the bottom of the cap should work fine. Make sure to place the cap with glue on the rod when the thicker gear is on the rod already. If not, you won't be able to put the thicker gear on! Make sure no glue gets on this gear as well. Sidenote As a quick sidenote, I've included all of the print files as separate files as well as one big zip file. You may choose which way you prefer to download. How I Designed This A picture of the design in Tinkercad. How I Designed the Hydrocyclops The Hydrocyclops was designed completely in Tinkercad. I used some cylinders imported from 123D Design since they are a little more spherical, but besides that, this was all in Tinkercad. Note: This is a rewritten version of the original text with minor changes to make it more cohesive and easier to read.