Introduction: Wind Spinner - 3D Printing
I love a wind sculpture
I could just sit and watch these things spin and turn in the breeze, I find them so relaxing.
There are some really complex and clever designs out there but even the simple ones can be quite beautiful!
It's all about making shapes that will move in different ways when hit by the same breeze - pieces may move in different directions or some more complex designs may have parts that will move at different speeds or that have a knock on effect on other parts of the structure etc.
For this instructable I'll just be keeping it fairly simple though!
We'll have two moving parts that will just spin in the wind!
I'm going to share my Tinkercad project here in case anyone wants to play around with it or create their own!
Let me know if you'd like a design tutorial as well as this will just cover the printing and assembly :)
Supplies
Tinkercad
3D Printer
Filament - I used some rainbow silk PLA
Glue
4mm Rod - I used metal but you could just print one if you like, might be a bit bendy though!
Step 1: Print!
Here's a link to my Tinkercad project again in case you'd like to tinker with it and make and changes before printing :)
You can find my stls below - you'll need to print one of each spinner and 4 spacers.
As per usual I'm not going to tell you how to print - you know your machine and filaments etc. better than I do - your usual settings should be fine for this
This print will require supports but only from the build plate
It's also a little delicate as I made it as light as possible so it would spin nicely so be a little gentle when removing those supports!
You may want to do a little bit of neatening up, maybe a bit of sanding if the supports left some rough edges too
Step 2: Assembly!
It's up to you how you want to do this and you have a couple of options!
- You can have the two spinners facing each other, open sides in to create almost a spherical shape
- You can do what I did with the more hourglass shape.
Either way you'll be following the same process below!
Position your spinners where on the rod you'd like them to sit.
Once you're happy, glue one of the spacers on either side of the spinner to hold it in position.
Ensure you glue the spacers to the rod only and don't get any glue on the spinners themselves or they won't be able to spin freely!
If you're having trouble, check out the pic above - you should be able to see that I have placed a spacer before Spinner A, a 2nd spacer before Spinner B and finally a 3rd spacer on top to hold everything in place.
You should also see that I've left small amounts of space between the spacers and the Spinners.
Step 3: Spin!
Now it's just a matter of finding somewhere to keep it!
It makes a very sweet lawn decoration or a fab toy to play around with on a windy day :)
Even just holding it up in front of a fan will get it spinning nicely.