I imagine I'll take some ribbing for this post, but here it goes anyway.
I remember as a kid buying hovercraft plans that were advertised in Boy's Life, but couldn't make one since my parents wouldn't let me "borrow" their vacuum cleaner for the motor. This fall I bought a cheap cordless leaf blower and it reminded me that you could build a hovercraft with one of these. Surprisingly, the web is full of plans if you google "leaf blower + hovercraft". The link that I found most helpful is http://amasci.com/amateur/hovercft.html, but there are lots of alternative plans out there.
This project only has a few items of woodturning in it -- but in case some of you are interested I've posted a few photos and a link. Basically, you need a leaf blower, a 3-4' disc of plywood or particle board, a shower curtain, lots of duct tape, and a few turned parts. You could get by without turning anything, but where's the satisfaction in that?
I had thought that I could turn the main disk on my lathe (34" swing), but realized that a 42" disc would be better and a jigsaw is really a preferable tool for making such a large disc out of plywood or particle board. Those of you set up for outboard turning may disagree. The leaf blower fitting, however, was turned on the lathe, as well as the skirt disk (on the underside). I've attached a few pictures of the turned items, as well as the whole setup and an 8-second video of it in operation. (The pull string in the video was used only to get it moving; it doesn't have a forward engine yet.) In the end, I gave the hovercraft to my daughters before Christmas because I couldn't wait to try it out. I suppose it was as much for me as for them.
I remember as a kid buying hovercraft plans that were advertised in Boy's Life, but couldn't make one since my parents wouldn't let me "borrow" their vacuum cleaner for the motor. This fall I bought a cheap cordless leaf blower and it reminded me that you could build a hovercraft with one of these. Surprisingly, the web is full of plans if you google "leaf blower + hovercraft". The link that I found most helpful is http://amasci.com/amateur/hovercft.html, but there are lots of alternative plans out there.
This project only has a few items of woodturning in it -- but in case some of you are interested I've posted a few photos and a link. Basically, you need a leaf blower, a 3-4' disc of plywood or particle board, a shower curtain, lots of duct tape, and a few turned parts. You could get by without turning anything, but where's the satisfaction in that?
I had thought that I could turn the main disk on my lathe (34" swing), but realized that a 42" disc would be better and a jigsaw is really a preferable tool for making such a large disc out of plywood or particle board. Those of you set up for outboard turning may disagree. The leaf blower fitting, however, was turned on the lathe, as well as the skirt disk (on the underside). I've attached a few pictures of the turned items, as well as the whole setup and an 8-second video of it in operation. (The pull string in the video was used only to get it moving; it doesn't have a forward engine yet.) In the end, I gave the hovercraft to my daughters before Christmas because I couldn't wait to try it out. I suppose it was as much for me as for them.
