In
plaats van een zweefmolen kan er natuurlijk ook iets anders op gezet
worden. Een kwestie van fantasie en "boodschap".
Tekeningen
Ik heb van deze draaimolen een tekening pakketje gemaakt dat beschikbaar is voor iedere geinteresseerde; klik hier voor een aanvraag
English
The
Idea
Breeding on
a new project I filled some time in between making a less serious
but no less funny little something. A merry-go-round floating on water
in a dish, driven by little steam pulses. A variant of the well known "pop-pop" system mostly used in toy boats. Earlier I made
such a boat for my grandson Wouter; see
concerning page.
The design is very simple so the pictures and drawings speak for
themselves I think. On the video clip you see how grandpa and his five
grandchildren are swinging around as long as the candle delivers its
energy to the system.
This merry-go-round is a gift for my five grandchildren. Because there
are two families involved I had to make two of them.
Some
notifications
See also
the figure below and also the 2-sheet
drawing plan.

-For the floater I used a thin metal lid of a biscuit can. Of course
it is possible to make this floater out of thin (0,5mm) brass plates.
Lacker well to avoid rust.
-After some experiments I designed the little steam pot such that the
heat transfer was optimal and that it was also possible to put the
merry-go-round on it. The pot consists of three brass parts: a lathed
cup, a thin plate soldered on the open end of this cup and a "chimney" through the centre. The two bend 3mm pipes are soldered opposite to
each other in the pot. Here everything is hard(silver) soldered to
avoid that the parts fall apart by the heat of the candle flame.
-The two
curved jet pipes have diameters 4x3mm. They are soldered to to bottom
of the floater, more or less tangent to its circumference. They are
plunging about 12mm upwards through the floater so the 3mm pipes of
the steamt pot can easily be put in and soldered. Here everything can
be soft soldered.
-On the centre of the floater bottom a pin with a diameter of 3mm
is soldered. This pin fits in a hole with some space in a aluminium
foot that is placed in the centre of the dish filled with water. With
this provision the floater stays in the middle of the dish while rotating,
avoiding the floater to touch the dish. If one put so much water in
the dish that the floater just loses contact with the foot the friction
becomes minimal.
-The merry-go-round
consists of two brass rings en thread pieces that I cut from from an
umbrella. Through the holes, where normally the umbrella cloth is
sewed, I tacked a thin rope. On this rope my five grandchildren are
hanging. I had six places available so I could hang myself (grandpa)
on it too. In fact this are two mirrored and cut out pictures, glued
on a a piece of carton.
The merry-go-round can be put over the chimney of the steam pot.
Everything is simple soldering work that I can leave to anyone's fantasy.
That's why I did not put the details of it on the drawing plan.
-The hole system must be filled with water, i.e. with a siphon.
- The merry-go-round is turning around with a constant tempo, but from
time to time it is accelerated suddenly by a firm steam pulse. Cute
to see in this case.
Of course it
is possible to put something else than a merry-go-round on the floater,
depending on one's fantasy and "message".
Drawing plan
I made a CAD drawing plan for this Merry-go-Round available for every one interested; click here for a request