Introduction: Cardboard Wind Generator for Models

Hello! This time I will show how I made a wind generator with cardboard.
The goal was not to make a real generator, producing energy. But to demonstrate the major components of
wind generation in addition to power generation, which was the goal of the science project of my daughter.
Hope you enjoy.


Step 1: Materials

List (For single tower):

Cardboard pieces (0.4 cm thick);
pieces of balsa wood
the cardboard cylinders;
three sticks;
two sheets of A4 paper;
a magnet rare earth (taken from an old CD player's);
mold parts (made in CorelDraw but put the photo in full size);
glue, scissors, cutter, paint, etc ...

Electrical materials:

one battery (9 Volts)
tree reedswitch (normally open);
one on / off switch;
one red LED;
one resistor of 500 ohms;
a copper plate pierced;
four terminals for connecting wires
wire, welding, etc ...

Step 2: Cutting and Assembling the Pieces

Printthe piecesonan A4 sheet,then pasteoncardboardand cutthem.
After that,assemble andpaste.

After loading axis (stick), glue the magnet, as shown in figure.

Step 3: Spinner and Propellers.

For each spinner, I used three pieces of balsa wood 3cm. They were cut and then glued on each other.
After this, I used a dremmel with the aid of sandpaper to reach the final result.

Each propeller was made with a piece of balsa wood and a piece of a stick. After cutting, I used sandpaper to get the look of an airplane wing, as shown in figure.

A  did a jig ​​in a sheet showing the position of each propeller (120 ° from each other)
After that, it was enough to mark, drill and mount the propellers in spinner.

Step 4: Mounting the Tower

The tower was made of a roll of cardboard cutout and a cardboard base cone.
To not swing the tower, put a 5 marbles between pieces of cardboard to the balls will not become loose.
After that, I made a hole to pass the wire from the reed switch inside the tower. For this, I used a string as shown in figure.

Step 5: Power Substation

The substation serves to collect energy from wind turbines and add it to the power grid. It was made with materials as the electric wiring diagram. To accommodate it in the model, was made a cardboard envelope.
Works as follows: to turn the turbines, the magnet triggers the reed switch, connecting the LEDs. The faster you spin, the faster the LED turns on and off, giving the impression it is always on.
Obs.: R1,R2,R3 = 2k2ohms and Led1, Led2, Led3 = white leds

Now, just put the turbines and the substation model. Now, your imagination is the limit.
I put two poles and a house, according to the figure.
Hope you enjoyed. Suggestions are always welcome!