For this project I decided to make a small turbine fan that spins around an internal axis.

Design:

I made the design in SolidWorks and exported it as an STL file. I put a series of holes in the internal spindle so that the support material would be able to wash out in the bath, but this ended up greatly weakening the spindle.

 

Printing:

The print turned out quite well, and all of the visible support material had melted away after a full day in the bath.

 

Testing:

The actual functioning of the turbine didn’t go so well. Because of the support material that hadn’t yet washed out of the spindle and because of the weakening of the spindle due to the internal holes, when I tried to turn the turbine it snapped the spindle off. I will probably glue the two pieces back together, making the two parts into one solid, nonmoving piece.