Wind Powered Ferris Wheel

thingiverse

I am excited to share my entry in the #MakerEdChallenge, a wind powered Ferris wheel that I designed and built. The idea for this project came from old sawmills with belt drives from steam traction engines. I thought, why not substitute a wind turbine for the traction engine? So I set out to bring this vision to life. I began by designing the turbine, which turned out to be the first and most challenging part of the project. It was going smoothly until I tried to assemble all the parts together, but I had designed the tolerances to be too tight! My printer is not top-notch, which made things even more complicated. Additionally, the driven shaft had too much friction due to the long tube it fits through. After some adjustments, I drilled it out and everything was fine. Next, I moved on to designing the jackshaft that runs between the turbine and the Ferris wheel. This part turned out to be a breeze, with minimal friction thanks to thinner brackets. Finally, I tackled the design of the Ferris wheel itself, which was relatively easy compared to the first two parts. However, halfway through printing (I had printed all but the little seats), my board shorted and I'm now waiting for a replacement. As I worked on the first turbine design, I realized that it looked somewhat archaic. That's when I started working on V2, the improved version of the turbine. Unfortunately, my printer is currently out of commission due to a faulty ramps board, so I'm stuck at this point. Despite these setbacks, I have managed to create a prototype, although it's still a bit rough around the edges. As soon as I receive another ramps board in the mail, I'll be able to print the new turbine design and continue working on the project. Here are some updates: * I've uploaded the rest of the files for the power part of the Ferris wheel. * I plan to upload the carnival part of it later. You can check out my progress in these videos: * https://youtu.be/THDdqx1kwdk * https://youtu.be/-eMmR1Vd-40 * https://youtu.be/FxWn3jz3c68