3D Printed Windmill Blades

Sometimes it's nice to make a model of something. For a profile piece 2 friends and I made a model of a wind turbine. Drawing the blades is often very hard with free software. It can also take much time. So we have drawed this in Sketchup. For our model, we have calculated the dimensions, but you can make the sizes, just what you want. The dimensions in this project are the dimensions I have used.

This project is how to create your own 3d printed windmill

Supplies

• 3d printer (I used Ultimaker 2+)
• PLA Filament

Software:

• Tinkercad (for drawing
• Sketchup Online or use the Sketchup app (for drawing)
• Ultimaker Cura (for slicing)

Step 1: Make Drawings: Sketchup

To create the blades, I have used the Sketchup app, because I like the app more than online and the shortcuts works much better.

First, create a rectangle from 19.07mm x 5.34mm.

The front is a half circle. The curved sides, you can create with the Two Point Arc. Make also an half circle at the back. This is a smaller circle than the front.

After that, remove the extra lines.

Use the push/pull tool to set the height (127.41mm).

Select the surface on the top and use the Scale tool to create a tapered blade. Scale to circa 0.25.

Use the Rotate tool to give the blade a curved surface. Rotate this to 10 to 20 degrees.

I used Sketchup Online to download this as a stl file and import this in Tinkercad.

Step 2: Make Drawings: Tinkercad

Import the file (you have created in Sketchup) in Tinkercad.

I had to print this in several parts, because I did not have such a big printer.

Add a shape to the blades that will fit into a holder.

Create a holder where the blades will fit. Make a shaft in the middle, so you can attach a generator to it.

Here you can download the files.

Step 3: Slicing the Stl Files

Before you can print the blades, you must slice this.

Import the stl files, set the options you want and click slice.

Ready? Just print.

Comments

[alexa.neill]

What if we don't have a 3D printer?