You just can’t be a mad scientist without one
Mu-ah-ha-ha!
LightningPhil just uploaded designs to Thingiverse for a Van de Graaff machine. A Van de Graaff machine is a device for creating an electrostatic charge. We’ve all seen these devices before – they essentially make your hair stand straight up and create lightning. While the details and instructions for actually assembling his designs are still sketchy, this is a very exciting development. 1 As his directions suggest, “A Van de Graaff generator is essentially a box, a tube and a ball with some gubbins that connect it together and move the charge about. A box, tube and ball are easy. With a 3D printer, so are the gubbins.” I can’t wait to see his finished product!
As soon as I saw this I had an idea for how to make use of these designs from some parts to which just about every MakerBot operator has access. 2 If you own a Cupcake CNC you can extend the Z axis threaded rods above the level of the Z drive belt. Most users opt to lower these Z axis threaded rods so that they extend into the lower cavity of the Cupcake, saw off the excess rod, or sometimes leave them extended off the top of the Cupcake and add a Z axis rod topper or Z axis crank.
I would think it very possible to modify your Cupcake to use the top of one or more Z axis rods to act as the drive for a Van de Graaff generator.
3D printing is a lot of fun, but it would be a lot MORE fun with lightning.
- Seriously, what the heck is a “gubbin??” [↩]
- Photo courtesy of tobascodagama [↩]
| Tagged with | cupcake, electrostatic, lightning, static, van de graaff | 5 comments |
5 Comments so far
Zh4x0r
ummmmmmmmm yes, 3D printing would be more fun with lightning, but I think the electronics already have to deal with more EM than they can really handle as evidenced by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo9qyhslKsc
Knowing the amount of EMI produced by a VannDeGraff generator (which by definition, produces enormous amounts of EMI) I really, really, really wouldn’t want to put one ANYWHERE near my precious Cupcake CNC…
Just my $0.02
Matt
It could be like an annoy-o-tron or TV-B-Gone for MakerBotters. Just hide the Van de Graaff machine under the table, and watch the sync issue gremlins hit.
Man, that is an awesome picture. Was that from MakerFaire NYC this year or another one of their performances?
Twotimes
The picture is from the Boston Museum of Science. They have the worlds largest Van de Graaff generator. The posts are 3 stories tall and the belts that run it are around 6 stories tall. It used to be MIT’s.
=ml=
Great minds think alike: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4667
Go!
=ml=
Charles Shapiro
The _Best_ Mad Scientist thing might be a HERF gun. This would of course violate the informal no-weapons policy on thingiverse. Wouldn’t be the first time though.