Forming the wire frame armature

 

Just so you can see what I am making and how it turned. Here it is setup in the Testing Mode.

The KidWind teams would walk up the ramp and place their turbine in the wind tunnel chamber for performance testing. You can see a single blade turbine in the test area.

Here the trailer is set up for Parade Mode. My plan is to take the KidWind shark tunnel to local area parades to get the word out about the KidWind program. A two foot high skirt will be run around the bottom of the trailer with sponsor and program information printed out.

And last here the trailer is setup in Transport Mode. Another two standard KidWind wind tunnels can be loaded inside the shark and the whole trailer can then be loaded on a flat bed truck for shipping to the different World KidWind Challenge locations year after year.

Now getting down to the construction business. I am using 1/2" rebar for the frame. The trick is to wire two of the bars together, as shown, for bending at the same time.

My lawn mower with a ball hitch made a nice solid bending jig for the two rebars tied together,

Bending and welding the formed bars and this is what I got to work with. Added a set of wheels so I could move it around in the driveway. The 1/2" rebar weighs in at 1 pound per foot and I used 14 twenty foot long pieces totaling 280 pounds.

I was happy with the shape and form. Next will be covering the frame with chicken wire.