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Powerful Lego BLADELESS Turbine Generator!
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- Published on Apr 18, 2026
- You can pick up your own Bambu Lab P2S here: tidd.ly/47BXRCr
If you’d like to print these parts, I’ve uploaded them to MakerWorld here:
makerworld.com...
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Tesla Turbines are a type of bladeless turbine invented by Nikola Tesla that rely on a large number of stacked discs instead of traditional blades. Instead of pushing against blades, the fast-moving fluid (air in our case) drags along the surface of the discs through ‘boundary layer friction’, transferring its energy to the rotor. This makes it potentially very efficient, compared to regular bladed turbines - at least in theory.
So today, we’re going to build bigger and bigger Tesla Turbines using Lego, eventually using 3D printing to create our rotor discs. As we scale up our turbines, and the power increases, we’ll build a generator to convert the power into electricity. Let’s see what we can power!
Patreon: www.patreon.co...
See my latest experiments and behind-the-scenes footage!
If you’d like to pick up your own Bambu Lab P2S: tidd.ly/47BXRCr
Is it good?
use onshape or fusio360 instead of tinkercad. they're WAY more capable and time saving
@Tannerridesoffical a lot of creators use it if that helps at all
@Blackhawk20034ok I might get it
Why does every single one sound like a air raid siren?
Babe wake up, new video about lego engineering just dropped
Fun fact: the Tesla Turbine performs about the same as a bladed turbine when under load
Yeah becouse there's nothing forcing the rotor to spin so it an just stay in place
There is friction, air is basically a viscous liquid. That's why you get more torque with more blades.
And friction can transfer torque, see a clutch for example. It's just more prone to slipping than a bladed turbine.
@AGuyWhoDosentKnow Accurate name
And it's because the tesla turbine is moving because of the stickiness of the fluid or gas.
Lie. They are only around 30% efficient
My best suggestion for a bladed turbine is the Parsons type Steam Turbine that powered almost every Ocean Liner since the mid 1900s and still powers a good chunk of modern Military Vessels like Carriers and Submarines
0:28 BRO, WE JUST STARTED
🤨
Why he do dat
Bro stroking it
WHY IS IT SO BIG ALREADY?
25:44 sounds like a V10
yeah like a viper or smth
and a straight cut
That was my exact same thought, it sounds like a Audi R8 V10
Even has a turbo flutter / blow off valve sound for extra points
Also 26:19
I'd love seeing the turbines connected to 3d printed sirens (like air raid sirens) the high rpm would sound amazing on a siren
I'm sure that'd be easy! But my neighbours will hate me 😅
@JamiesBrickJams Ope 😅
@JamiesBrickJams nice cvt mate
26:51 METAL GEAR?!
28:20 And they make better gyroscopes too.
That metal gear held up pretty well, it was very solid.
@ClokworkGremlinIt's pretty good...
22:25
That is a pretty high spec rectifier 😮
i almost can't believe the numbers
its pretty standard actually
@Defianthuman 60 kw lolol
22:06 this is a *solid* experiment
Now everyone is hearing every word they say
Wait... is that. A metal gear?!
Pretty sure by the sound, the vibration was limiting the maximum rpm. Good proof of concept though. So cool to see what you can do with legos.
3:16 at this point make a typhoon 😭
I absolutely love how this guy does these random side quests like building a working lego generator just like that? Like c'mon, isn't that cool?
3D printers excel at round shapes, it's corners they've traditionally struggled with
13:15 The housing tilted during test and you can hear it slow down immediately after that
True
25:44 Sounds just like a Viper V10!
Tesla turbines become more efficient with more blades. the thinner you can make them, and the more you can jam into the casing, the more efficient and powerful they can be.
Which, as you can imagine, also makes it more delicate.
Yeah they are near useless just like 90% of tesla's magical inventions they sonuds cool in idea but fails in everyday use... that was tesla's downfall.... but internet crooks and lunatics keep up the air of mysticism about nikola tesla....
@maszkalman3676 no, it works. The problem is if you wanted it to work at scale, you would need to invent some new meta-material to withstand the strain.
@frankyanish4833 NOOOOO! it doesn't worked in real life at tesla's time or even in our time no matter how hard peoples tried we still don't have that meta material that would make this shłt viable... in smal lscale actually easier to build shłt like this becaus even less force applied to each square inch or cm squared on eact point of this system. If you woudl scale this up it would be magnitudes worse...
@maszkalman3676 wow, it’s almost like that’s exactly what I said.
So I was all ready to buy the Bambu Labs printer and then... they started hinting at a possible subscription model. And I said NO WAY. I am NOT going to buy a $2000.00 piece of gear and have some company say that if you want to actually use your $2K device you have to pay a subscription fee.
I despise these subscription models that companies are increasingly adopting. You should not have to pay a subscription to use something you have _already_ paid for.
Yea it's why no one outside of RUclips who knows what they are doing actually uses one
well thats hilarious timing
some weeks ago i had a bambulabs fanboy try to argue that bambulabs isnt gonna become evil.
he just couldnt accept that every optional "feature" will eventually become mandatory and will eventually get used to lock users to only their products, like has happened with 99% of regular printer companies.
Now you just need to build a Lego air compressor and you can make a fully self sufficient Lego machine
3:16 looks so cool
19:00 why it sounds like a motorbike ?! its awesome
Cause it's vibrating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I tried this myself using just pure Lego a few months back. I used the vacuum cleaner on the outlet to suck the air out. It worked fine. I would like to see 2 Tesla turbines on the same shaft,but the output air of one is connected to the input of the other. Tesla talks about this in his patent.
The turbine equivalent of compounding... Using the exhaust fluid to drive a second or third stage. The Titanic had twin 3-stage compound engines driving the outside screws and a turbine driving the center screw.
Or as another idea connect the output of the Tesla turbine to a Tesla pump. The difference being that the discs in the pump does not have holes in them. The rotation of the pump discs force the air to the edges of the discs then exhausting. So essentially you are blowing air in and sucking it out at the same time.
Cvt transmission in a lego generator was the last thing i expected in this video. Great idea though
18:25 19:39 22:46 23:12 23:35 23:53 24:58 25:38 26:10
2:15 sound like an air raid siren
I'm pretty sure they use the same technique
@Том-ф9дno they use square holes and blades
Specifically a 9-port ACA Screamer
25:03 my GOD that sounded like a mix of Mazda's 7b7 and the tone of a v10! that was heavenly!
12W in electrical power, 120W in acoustical noise
These builds are great. Thanks for sharing your work!
Cheers man 😄
19:00 : It's under NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND
This video giving me some flashbacks from that time I was making flat .4mm wedges for a project lol
You should make a mini power plant
At 26:19 does it sound like a dodge viper?
Fr
Sure does
Yes. Yes it does
Wake up jamies brick jams just uploaded
20:23 HOOOLD ON TIGHTTTT
ofc bro's battery level on his phone was 67%
😔✌
22:33 im very surprised that thing is rated at 1200v being so small and also 50amps, 6kw through that would scare me
26:50 the metal gear is solid
24:42 woke me up like a sleeper cell
Now make a nuclear reactor 😈
10:16 "I must go! My people need me!"
17:10 The reason printers have a hard time making perfectly round circles is mainly due to how the GCODE is generated, modern slicers use smarter GCODE that allows the printer to make truer circle motions
26:23 that’s bright
Sincerely from a fan of muey give it a CVT
Jamie's another day at the lego stress testing factory
26:16 That sounds amazing!
25:07 The sound!!!
4:38 using airflow to generate airflow
The Bob Ross of building legos
You should also make a video on Lego vacuum engines
Now Emmet can go work as an operator at the Tesla power-plant in his Lego city!!!!!!
22:08 solid reason
4:57 Mmm... Giant Oreo...
😂
24:25 Sir I think your capacitor is just to big! Love your videos, keep it up!
wow that's crazy you should try to get it to drive the compressor
13:11 the enclosure bends, I think it hit the disks, slowing the turbine down.
2:09 9 port ACA screamer
He was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!
22:18, that was a quick introduction, they got right to it
Thanks, helps a lot
those metal gears look pretty solid...
Second one sounds like a siren
You can make a siren
So easy to get hooked on these
Yes, build a bladed turbine!
love your vids
I LOVE TESLA TURBINES THANK YOU
Never disappointed with your vids
0:04 ah, the tesla turbine
The only downfall of this turbine is the fact that there's no material that has the strength it needs to avoid exploding. The faster it spins, the more efficient the turbine becomes, but for it to be practical, it has to spin so fast that there's nothing in the world that has the tensile strength needed to keep its shape at such speeds
Tesla Turbines fascinate me. I'm actually in college studying mechanical engineering with a focus in nuclear energy. I'd love to one day be able to run full scale tests with actual loads from nuclear power cores to see if Tesla turbines are a better fit in power generation.
now put a lego smoothie through it
build 4 more of those and you will be fine during a power out.
Must build bladed turbine
By far this is the best thing I ever saw! Thanks for doing this video!!!
one day im gonna become an engenier like you :) your the best example im 11
4:34 using moving air to move air
Airplane engines can explode without atleast weekly maintainance because of the spinning forces can break the turbine shaft disk, this was aspecially a problem on the DC-10 making it famous for craching
I want the insane bladed turbine!
The Tesla turbine is convenient with dense or dirty fluids and in low-flow, high-speed situations. It gives its best on small turbines and above all they are cheaper and easier to maintain.
You need to invest in a blast shield, for more _destructive_ testing. 😉
Damn that thing sounds good! Beautiful build
2:49 "laminar"
Destin pokes his head in through a doorway "Did someone say laminar?!?"?
26:16 THX intro
Turbine ❌️
Civil Defense outdoor warning siren ✅️ 2:09
Not to lie it sounds like a British air raid siren
@Jamiesbrickjams I dare you to try and charge your phone with the biggest turbine. You created at the very end since it produces only 14 volts. Maybe you could try to improve it, Or just try it anyway good luck.
These metal gears looks… solid ;P
Oh! A Tesla turbine!
Fun fact: Air is like water because both are fluids they can flow and push on surfaces making things like discs spin
Mustve been the wind
The humble wind
22:40 As I remember you don’t really need gear box, turbines work such way thats speed operated by load on generator, you can’t spin turbines without load, so for regulating voltage you should balance between pressure and load, but usually it’s probably choosing one lvl like 30 volts and x pressure, then use something too get how much you need from it.
Btw, i believe these tachometers count rotations when they detect a change in light, so try to have your measuring disk be half dark, half light.
The second Tesla coil sounded like a Lamborghini😂😂
video idea if you like loud stuff: making an air raid siren out of lego
God damn that generator made a mini sun
I wish i could do this this looks so cool and fun i need to sub
Try swapping the inlet with exhaust.
Very nice!
One though: as you print your coil holder, try a tear/triangle shape to try to grab more magnetic field.
It shout increase efficiency.
bro, look, mr motor uploaded.
Water turbine would be a good project.
You need to try doing one of the gearboxes, because I'm excited to hear what the shifting is like. Just use either a friction or magnetic clutch to help disconnect it when shifting, then reengage it when it's shifted so it can accelerate. I want to hear the noise of the turbine if it shifts. 😊