Ferris Wheel Shelf

Hey everyone! My name is Jason Chin, and I am currently a Senior at San Jose State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I am also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at my university.

For this project, I decided to make a Ferris Wheel shelf that will allow you to store small objects, like paper clips, staples, and even candy, into separate box compartments, or storage shelves, that is easily accessible at your workstation. Moreover, you can move the shelves by rotation the red knobs, as the box compartments will move in a 360 degree motion, similar to the motion of a Ferris Wheel that you see at amusement parks/carnivals.

This is a fun and quick project to do in your free-time, so be as creative and design it anyway you want.

To create the necessary parts, I used the Ender-3 S1 Pro from Creality along with Ender PLA+ filament, specifically the blue, red, and white colors to make my project look bright and lively. All CAD models were made in Fusion 360 and rendered/modelled in the Creality Slicer application. the Additionally, I used a caliper to check the dimensions of my 3D printed parts in case I needed to make adjustments so that everything fits properly.

Here is the complete supplies list for this project:

• Computer with Fusion 360 & Creality Slicer (other applications like Ultimaker and GrabCAD are acceptable) loaded
• Ender 1.75 mm PLA+ 3D printing filament (1 kg)
• Welcome to use any color/material to make each part
• Ender -3 S1 Pro 3D printer
• Can use any printer with at least a volume of 180 x 180 x 180 mm
• Calipers
• Gorilla glue (optional)
• I didn't need to use it, but may come in handy to keep parts in place

The frame supports serve as the foundation for this project. I made them a simple and unique design to handle the weight of the heavy and rotary parts that are attached to each other.

In my iteration, I made a 20-mm diameter hole to place my main rotary part through, while the two 10-mm diameter holes near the bottom is where the beam supports would go. For the thickness, I had it set to at 30-mm, but you can make any adjustment to the dimensions and design at any point during the process (same goes for all the other parts in this project). After printing the frame supports, I used my calipers to measure the diameter of the holes so that I can change the dimensions of my other parts in Fusion 360, if necessary.

The dimensions for the left and right standing frame supports are the same with the only difference being that the left one has the 'Autodesk' text extruded on its surface.

The next part I designed were two rotary frames that would be placed through the large circular hole and would help move the storage shelves by rotating the red knobs with your hands.

My design consists of a 19.40-mm diameter knob extruded 56-mm from the center of the model that is 5-mm thick. I also made three 8-mm diameter holes that would serve as the placeholders for the storage shelves, as my design will consist of three box compartments.

The beams served as extra support and stability for this project, as it is simply a 9.5-mm diameter beam that is 172.5-mm long. While printing out the beam, make sure it is properly stuck onto the hotbed, as there is a possible chance that it could pop off the surface and ruin your model.

These were the primary parts for this project with the sole purpose to hold small items/objects for later use. In my design, I had each storage shelf contain two separate compartments, as the design of this project would have three storage shelves. Originally, I made this design with circular extrusions on its side in Fusion 360 to fit through the small holes of the rotary frame. However, as I tried printing out the parts, the support parts that would of held up the extruded parts kept popping off the plate and ruining the overall model.

Instead, I redesigned the storage shelf with holes through its sides, and decided to make the circular extruded parts separately. Doing so reduced the complexity of the design and limited the waste of filament and time.

To ensure that the storage shelves did not touch each other nor interfere with the beam supports, the height of this box was 25.4-mm.

These small circular pieces are placed through the holes of the storage shelves, as I made the part long enough to hang on to the rotary frame and cause the shelf to move when rotated. In total, I had to make myself six dowel pieces, as one will go on each side of a storage shelf.

Make sure that you have been checking the diameter of the holes/parts and thickness/length of every part, as this is a major factor in whether the dimensions were over/under-sized. During the project, I had encountered minor issues in which parts were not fitting together (i.e., diameter of the beam was too big to go through the hole of the standing frame or the diameter of the dowel piece feeling loose as it goes through the hole of the storage shelf).

Do yourself a favor, spend time checking the dimensions so that you can edit the parts on Fusion 360 to be accurate and have them fit properly.

After making the parts, assemble everything together to produce the Ferris Wheel shelf. If necessary, use Gorilla glue to keep parts together and prevent the structure from loosening and falling apart.

Considering that this is my first time using a 3D printer, I felt that I did not do a bad job printing out the parts and assembling this creative and interesting project. Although I need more experience to build more complicated projects, I feel that this is just the beginning of something greater. If I were to improve on this design, I would like to make it bigger and support more storage shelves. In addition, I would integrate electrical components to make it remote-controlled or automated as well as light up with LEDs.

Thank you for spending the time in reading my Instructable, and I hope you have fun with this project!

Here are the necessary files that you can use to recreate the Ferris Wheel shelf and make any kind of modifications.