Water Wheel

Welcome to a way to make a small water wheel generator out of things around your house.

Please Note that there are many better ways of doing this, and many parts you may skip in certain cases, but this is how to make a simple one from scratch (sadly doesn't provide much power).










You will need:

A pen
 Bare copper wire
a flat magnetic metal
a round magnet  (two in diameter) or series of rectangular magnets.
Binder clips
plywood
1" pvc pipe
A nail about 2 1/2 in.
wire/string
box (preferably cardboard)
cardboard
Aluminum can
12x24 in board (wood)


As Well As:

voltmeter
sand paper
a drill
wood glue
duct tape
hot glue
Epoxy
pencil
ruler
clamps

First build the main body of the generator based on these pictures 

Notes:
Drill the holes into the pen carefully
The last two in of the pen was the naile epoxied on as well as duct taped in order to make longer
Please find a different way of attaching the metal sticks together, this is NOT the best way
Make sure the metal is towards the bottom of the pen
Remove ink cartridge before drilling.
FOR ALL GENERATOR STEPS TO COME I RECOMMEND LOOKING AT THIS LINK FOR THIS IS WHAT I BASED MY DESIGNS OFF OF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdF_qWNXyhA

Coil the copper wire make sure to leave some at the beginning and the end, and use one giant peace not individuals

Note:
the copper wire MUST be bare and have limited Coating if not none.  (I made this mistake)

cut an aluminum can into strips that can barely wrap around the pen once. Then cut in half

Note:
Sand off all sides, make sure to scrape off as much paint as possible

Do what it looks like in the following pictures


Note:
Make sure the aluminum and the copper wire ARE touching, i suggest sandpaper to rough up the wire.
Make sure that the two Aluminum strips are NOT touching.

Assemble the magnets in this arrangement with hot glue. (if applicable)

Drill small hole into middle of magnet/group of magnets

sorry no pictures came out with you able to see the whole

cut two circles of cardboard about an inch in diameter, then stab a hole through them both with a similar pen, Make sure the pen can spin fairly easily.

Place everything in a box, hot glue the magnet to the bottom, and create supports like so

Put some copper wire just like the last one, but in the opposite direction, make sure wire does not cross and to sand the wire first, as well as have it touch the aluminum on both sides. twist the two ends of the SAME wire together on the same side of the box.  As well as place cardboard circles underneath the pen/generator.

Use binder clips to bring the copper wire tighter to the aluminum, then put box on its side and hook up the bare copper wire to a voltmeter and while spinning measure the current and see if electricity is being produced.

Measure and mark two 8.5"x8.5" squares
measure and mark four 6"x3" panels

cut out the two 8.5" squares
in the center of both squares drill a hole the size of your pvc tube

Cut out the four 6"x3" rectangles
apply glue to three of the edges of the rectangles and position along the pvc and the walls of the wheel
clamp the walls together and let the glue dry overnight

when the glue has dried apply a second coat to fill holes
glue the pvc tubing on the outside and inside of the waterwheel

Put Epoxy in tube and duct tape it to motor

Rig a support system, Originally we had the thing below, then someone broke it, so we improvised and came up with this with the broken wood and left over duct tape.

Since This was for, of all things, a Math project we are going to talk about some of the area and volume stuff.  The volume of the pvc pipe is approximately 14.137166941154069573081895224758 cubic in.  I got to this conclusion through finding the base of the pvc pipe  through .5(radius) squared times pi, then I multiplied it by the height which is approximately 18 in to get 14.137166941154069573081895224758.  I also found the volume of the water wheel which is the following equation: (8.5*3*8.5)- (6*3*0.25*4)-(0.5*0.5*pi*3)=196.39380551 cubic in meaning at any point in time the water is touching approximately 98.1969027549 cubic in.  To find the total surface area of the water wheel do (8.5*8.5*.25)*2+(6*3)*8-(6*.25*8)+(1*pi*3)=177.549777961 in squared.


HOPE YOU ENJOYED AND ADAPTED OUR DESIGN TO MAKE IT BETTER, I know several ways to make this better next time, but PLEASE COMMENT ANY IDEAS FOR NEXT TIME.