Partly 3D-Printed Wind Chime

Wind chimes are an interesting decoration. They look cool, sound cool, but are hard to make by yourself. That's why we, a group of fellow students, decided to make a partly 3D-printed wind chime. The design is very simple and accessible as long as you have a 3D printer and some metal tubes lying around.

For this project, you will need:

1. 3D designing software (Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, etc)

1. A 3D printer (with filament, of course)

1. Metal Pipes (1 to 1.5 inches in diameter)

1. A Pipe Cutter

1. A Drill

1. Something to string the wind chime (Wire, Fishing Line, etc)

In most wind chimes, tubes are made of aluminum or copper. This is to get that resonant, musical tone that all good wind chimes have.

The first step to make your wind chime tubes are to decide how long they will be. For longer-lasting and more resonant tones, use longer tubes. However, as this is a prototype, our group decided to go with tubes that are 4-5 inches tall. It is recommended to go around double this length. Your tubes should also have a 1-1.5 inch diameter.

Once you have decided the dimensions of your tube, cut them into the right size with a pipe cutter or other tool.

After you have your tubes cut out, it's time to drill in the holes that you will attach to the top piece. Depending on how big your string is, the hole will be about 0.1 to 0.2 inches in diameter. Use a drill or drill press to cut 2 holes on opposite sides. They shouldn't be too close or far from the edge of the tube.

A wind chime primarily has 3 other parts. The striker hits the poles to make sound. The sail catches wind to move the striker so it swings around. The base connects everything together by string.

First, the sail and the striker. These are the simplest to design, but are key in making the wind chime function.

For the sail, make a circle that is 2 inches in diameter and sharpen the end into a guitar-pick design. Then, fillet the edge and extrude it about 1/4 of an inch. Finally, make a small hole for your string to go through.

For the striker, there are 2 options. You can either make it out of metal (which requires more work and machinery) for the best sound performance, or you can also 3D print it for slightly worse sound performance.

To 3D print, make another 2 inch circle, extrude it about 3/4 of an inch and fillet the edges. Then. make a hole in the center for your string to go through.

For the metal striker, you can use a lathe to cut a 2-inch wide circle that is about 1/2 inch thick.

Last, the base of the wind chime. This is where everything will connect to.

First, make a 5-6 inch circle. The size depends on how big the other parts are. Then, extrude it to make it 1/3 inch thick and fillet the sides. After that, make 6-8 holes around the center of the circle. These shouldn't be too close or too far from the edge. Finally, make another hole directly in the center.

After you've made your parts, it's time to print them. Import your files to a slicer and then print out your parts.

It's important to make sure there is no warpage or printing mistakes. Also, depending on the size of your poles, you might have to adjust their orientation.

Once you have your parts printed out, get ready to string them together. This is the most important step in making your wind chimes look good and function well. I recommend looking at wind chime designs on the internet to decide what you want your wind chime to look like.

Once you've assembled all the parts, you now have a functional wind chime decoration!