Chris Young
Well-Known Member
Hello all,
A few months ago I stumbled across the patent papers for an interesting system, purely mechanical (no hydraulics or electrics), for a variable pitch propeller. It was designed by Robert Stanley in 1935 and a version of this was used in the Curtiss Turboelectric propellers of the 1950s.
I had always thought this would be a fun project to do in 3d printing because understanding the mechanism from the drawings and explanations is not for everyone, but up to recently I never took the time to make it real. That was until my favorite 3d print files website, printables.com, ran a design contest for "mechanical marvels". I thought this mechanism was quite in theme and that was the push I needed to get me started. So after a few weeks' worth of short nights and frequent head-scratching, I managed to make something:
It's all printed, not a single bit of metal in it, everything holds with 3d-printed nuts, so that it is easily and quickly disassembled and reassembled for demonstration purposes (I really wanted it to be useable to teach a bit of engineering to children or students). A few special tools (socket wrench and spanners) are also made of plastic and included in the model files.
If you have access to a 3d printer and want to make yours, the files are downloadable for free on Printables.com at the link below :
https://www.printables.com/model/282774-variable-pitch-propeller-mechanism
I though this might interest some of you. If it does, don't hesitate to show your builds here !
Cheers,
Chris
A few months ago I stumbled across the patent papers for an interesting system, purely mechanical (no hydraulics or electrics), for a variable pitch propeller. It was designed by Robert Stanley in 1935 and a version of this was used in the Curtiss Turboelectric propellers of the 1950s.
I had always thought this would be a fun project to do in 3d printing because understanding the mechanism from the drawings and explanations is not for everyone, but up to recently I never took the time to make it real. That was until my favorite 3d print files website, printables.com, ran a design contest for "mechanical marvels". I thought this mechanism was quite in theme and that was the push I needed to get me started. So after a few weeks' worth of short nights and frequent head-scratching, I managed to make something:
It's all printed, not a single bit of metal in it, everything holds with 3d-printed nuts, so that it is easily and quickly disassembled and reassembled for demonstration purposes (I really wanted it to be useable to teach a bit of engineering to children or students). A few special tools (socket wrench and spanners) are also made of plastic and included in the model files.
If you have access to a 3d printer and want to make yours, the files are downloadable for free on Printables.com at the link below :
https://www.printables.com/model/282774-variable-pitch-propeller-mechanism
I though this might interest some of you. If it does, don't hesitate to show your builds here !
Cheers,
Chris
