extra piece from kit

[2cethan]

Hello. I am doing the project "Put your water to work" and ordered a kit from you, Order No. SBD-8237. When I finished putting everything together, I realized that 1 piece was not used, the nylon washer. I reread the whole procedure over 3 times and still couldn't figure out where the washer goes. Did I miss something?

[rmarz]

2cethan - I'm not familiar with the specific kit, but I did note that the list of materials includes a nylon spacer and a nylon washer. The instructions have you glue (with epoxy) the thicker nylon spacer to the aluminum pie-plate water-wheel you created. There is no mention of the washer. The purpose of the spacer is to form a hub for the water-wheel such that it will ride perpendicularly on the axle. Without the hub, the thin aluminum foil would wobble about the shaft (axle) and not efficiently capture the energy of the moving water. I think you can disregard the washer, or glue it to the water-wheel on the opposite side of the spacer to give added support to the water-wheel on the hub.

Rick Marz