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    Build A 15,000 RPM Tesla Turbine Using Hard Drive Platters: 9 Steps (With Pictures)

    Uploaded by

    Dragan Pitic
    The document describes how to build a 15,000 RPM Tesla turbine using hard drive platters from dead hard drives. The turbine uses the boundary layer effect to transfer kinetic energy from the fluid to the edges of the thin hard drive platters. It can be built using dead hard drives, stock material like aluminum and acrylic, and machining tools like a milling machine and lathe. The document provides step-by-step instructions to construct the various components of the turbine like the rotor assembly using the platters and spacers, the chamber to house the rotor, and side panels to direct the exhaust.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Build A 15,000 RPM Tesla Turbine Using Hard Drive Platters: 9 Steps (With Pictures)

    Uploaded by

    Dragan Pitic
    472 views12 pages
    The document describes how to build a 15,000 RPM Tesla turbine using hard drive platters from dead hard drives. The turbine uses the boundary layer effect to transfer kinetic energy from the fluid to the edges of the thin hard drive platters. It can be built using dead hard drives, stock material like aluminum and acrylic, and machining tools like a milling machine and lathe. The document provides step-by-step instructions to construct the various components of the turbine like the rotor assembly using the platters and spacers, the chamber to house the rotor, and side panels to direct the exhaust.

    Original Description:

    Build a 15,000 Rpm Tesla

    Original Title

    Build a 15,000 Rpm Tesla Turbine Using Hard Drive Platters: 9 Steps (With Pictures)

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    The document describes how to build a 15,000 RPM Tesla turbine using hard drive platters from dead hard drives. The turbine uses the boundary layer effect to transfer kinetic energy from the fluid to the edges of the thin hard drive platters. It can be built using dead hard drives, stock material like aluminum and acrylic, and machining tools like a milling machine and lathe. The document provides step-by-step instructions to construct the various components of the turbine like the rotor assembly using the platters and spacers, the chamber to house the rotor, and side panels to direct the exhaust.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    472 views12 pages

    Build A 15,000 RPM Tesla Turbine Using Hard Drive Platters: 9 Steps (With Pictures)

    Uploaded by

    Dragan Pitic
    The document describes how to build a 15,000 RPM Tesla turbine using hard drive platters from dead hard drives. The turbine uses the boundary layer effect to transfer kinetic energy from the fluid to the edges of the thin hard drive platters. It can be built using dead hard drives, stock material like aluminum and acrylic, and machining tools like a milling machine and lathe. The document provides step-by-step instructions to construct the various components of the turbine like the rotor assembly using the platters and spacers, the chamber to house the rotor, and side panels to direct the exhaust.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 12

    BUILD A 15,000 RPM TESLA TURBINE USING HARD DRIVE

    PLATTERS
    by sbtroy (/member/sbtroy/) Follow

    715,307 725 333  

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    Arduino Project Builder

    Here's a project that uses some of those dead hard drives you've got lying around.

    In the Tesla Turbine, air, steam, oil, or any other fluid is injected at the edge of a series of
    smooth parallel disks. The fluid spirals inwards and is exhausted through ventilation
    ports near the center of the disks.

    A regular blade turbine operates by transferring kinetic energy from the moving fluid to
    the turbine fan blades. In the Tesla Turbine, the kinetic energy transfer to the edges of
    the thin platters is very small. Instead, it uses the boundary layer effect, i.e. adhesion
    Download
    between the moving fluid and the rigid disk. This is the same effect that causes drag on
    airplanes.

    To build a turbine like this, you need some dead hard drives, some stock material
    (aluminum, acrylic), a milling machine with a rotary table, and a lathe with a 4 jaw
    chuck.

    Wikipedia has a good review article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine


    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine)), as well as articles about

    Nikola Tesla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla


    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla),
    the boundary layer effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer)),
    and Reynolds number (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number))
    (which determines if the fluid flow is laminar or turbulent).

    I run my turbine on compressed air (40 psi), and it easily reaches speeds of 10-15,000
    rpm. While the speed is high, the torque is low, and it can be stopped with your bare
    hand.

    I have more details on my webpage


    (http://staff.washington.edu/sbtroy/turbine/turbine.html
    (http://staff.washington.edu/sbtroy/turbine/turbine.html)).

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 1: Make Ventilation Holes in the Platters

    Download
    Step 1 should probably be to disassemble some hard drives but I assume that if you
    read Make, you've already figured out how to un-Make a hard drive.

    The easiest way to make vent holes in the hard drive platters is with a milling machine
    and a rotary table. Center and clamp a stack of several platters to the rotary table and
    then you can cut any radially symmetric pattern fairly easily. Just be sure that you use
    aluminium platters because ceramic platters will shatter when you drill into them.

    I made two sets of platters; one with a radial array of holes, and one with radial arcs.
    The platter with radial arcs in the picture was on the top of the stack and took the most
    damage. The platters beneath it have very little tear-out and look much better.

     Tip V Question | Comment

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    Step 2: Make or Reuse Spacers

    The ideal spacing between the platters depends on several variables including the fluid
    viscosity, velocity, and temperature. You could go through the calculations
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier-Stokes_equations) and make a set of spacers, or be
    lazy and just reuse the spacers from the disassembled hard drives.
    Download
    I was lazy and reused the spacers that were originally in between the platters. The
    advantage to this is that they'll have the same inside diameter as the platters. They're
    about .050" thick where the ideal spacing is closer to .012" but the increased distance
    doesn't make that big a difference in this case.

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 3: Make the Shaft

    This is just a piece of aluminum stock turned on a lathe. The center diameter is about
    .98" (which is the inside diameter of the platters) and about 1.77" long (so it will fit in a
    piece of 2" thick acrylic).

    The thinner sections on each end are turned to fit the ball bearings I pulled from a box
    of scrap.

     Tip V Question | Comment

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    Download
    Step 4: Make Collars

    Download
    The collars are made from more aluminum stock are wider versions of the platter
    spacers. The inside diameter is also .98" but they're about .3" thick to hold a #10-32 set
    screw.

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 5: Rotor Assembly

    Center the platters, spacers, and collars on the shaft and tighten the set screws to hold
    everything together. I used 11 platters, and 10 spacers. Try to line up all of the
    ventilation ports. If there isn't enough tension between the two collars, the platters can
    rotate around the shaft instead of with it.

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 6: Make the Chamber


    Download
    This is a 4.75" x 4.75" x 2" piece of acrylic that was bored out on a lathe using a 4 jaw
    chuck. The intake hole is taped for a 1/4" pipe fitting and all of the other holes are 1/4 -
    20.

    I used acrylic because it's what I had around and because it's going to be used for
    lecture demonstrations. You can use metal or even wood. However, if you plan to use
    steam instead of compressed air, wood might expand too much.

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 7: Make the Side Panels (stators)

    Download
    The side panels are 4.75" x 4.75" x 0.47" acrylic with untaped .25" holes to screw to the
    main chamber. The center hole is 0.6" and the counterbore is 0.28" deep.

    The two 0.6" holes (one on each side) are the ONLY exhaust ports. The air spirals
    inwards across the face of the platters, through the ventilation ports, around the air
    spaces in the bearings (2nd picture), and finally out through these two holes.

    However, more exhaust holes in the side panels might improve efficiency.

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 8: Assemble Everything

    Download
    | technology (/technology/)

     Tip V Question | Comment

    Step 9: Complete Turbine and Movie

    Download
    Tesla turbine made from hard drive platters.

    Please post (or email me) any questions or comments and I'll do my best to answer
    them.

    Thanks for reading,


    Steven
    Download
    srah1 (/member/srah1/) made it!

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