Charles River Museum
After volunteering there this summer, I decided to return to the Charles River Museum of Industry and Design to work on an interactive exhibit. The project was to create a large-scale 3d Printed waterwheel and functional pump system that would allow visitors to experience the water wheel that once powered the Boston Manufacturing Company.
I then began 3D printing the central water wheel in layers on a large 3D printer that I learned to use.
First I designed the wheel, gears, linear motion and belt systems in Fusino 360 as a digital design.
Between prints I needed to clean up the layers using rasps, sandpaper and other tools to get rid of excess material.
I used an adhesive that melds the plastics together and inserted a large ball bearing into the center.
I constructed the central water wheel which I am working to mount on a backing board. I am also actively printing other parts of each section on smaller-scale printers to be assembled and added. On the right is a 3D scan of the completed
water wheel with a ball
bearing inserted at
the base.Â