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Chad Ellis and the Wheel of Chaos, Winter 2003.
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Build your own wheel of chaos - by Chad Ellis, Chemistry '03
Materials List:
- One old bicycle wheel in true alignment with a good bearing and axle, without tire and sprocket.
- Eight brass dowels, 6.25" x 1/8"
- One threaded dowel approximately 10" long of appropriate width and thread spacing to fit inside the bike wheel axle
- Eight tin cans of equal dimension with two 9/64" holes drilled diametrically opposed near the top and one 9/64" hole drilled in the center of the bottom
- a soldering iron and solder
- One 2" x 4" x 16' piece of straight pine
- One 2" x 8" x 8' piece of straight pine
- Many 3" wood screws and a screw driver
- fencing staples
- One 120 gal/hour Little Giant fountain pump and tubing
- A reserviour tub
- An angular velocity sensor, a rubber band, a mount, and Data Studio
Work Instructions:
- Make a frame out of the wood.
- Drill 8 9/64" holes, equally spaced, all the way through both rims of the wheel. These holes whould allow a dowel to protrude perpendicular to the wheel plane.
- Place the brass dowels into the drilled holes of the wheel. Make sure the vast majority of the dowel protrudes to the side of the wheel plane that opposes the sprocket cog. Drip solder on the dowel on either side of the holes, but do not prevent free rotation of the dowel.
- Using fencing staples, secure the threaded dowel onto the frame so that it sticks out over the reserviour.
- Screw the wheel onto the dowel, making sure the axle turns, not the threading, when the wheel is in motion. The brass dowels should point away from the frame.
- Put the cups on the dowels and solder into place, taking care to maintain free rotation.
- Put the pump, tubing, and reserviour into place so that water flows from the reserviour into the cup at top dead center and back into the reserviour.
- Mount the angular velocity sensor to the frame so that a rubber band can be looped over the sprocket cog and the sensor. The sprocket cog must be hot glued into place so that it moves consistently with the wheel.
- Grab some WD-40, turn on your software, and let 'er rip. It's Chaos!
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