Create a Fidget Spinner

I’m not really a big fan of fidget spinners. I mean the ones with LEDs in the weights are pretty cool, but outside of that I find them rather boring as a toy. Regardless, I decided to take one apart and see how these addictive things work. Then… I made one.

The fidget spinner essentially consists of four parts: the case, the caps, the bearing, and three weights. Sometimes the weights can be bearings as well. This lets you do additional tricks with the fidget spinner.

Model of Fidget Spinner Case and Caps

I was able to create a 3D model of the casing and caps after watching a few YouTube videos on disassembling fidget spinners to learn about their designs. You can find a variety of intricate models on sites like Thingiverse and Tinkercad, but I chose to make a simple one for my first try.

3D model of case and caps

Download or modify a 3D version of the solid model I created.

3D Printing My Design

I used a Tinkerine Ditto Pro 3D printer to create the casing and cap ends. I first used a transparent green PLA filament, but later switched to a solid blue PLA filament for better color contrast with the weights.

3D-printing the case and caps

Weights & Bearings

A variety of fidget spinner weights and bearings can be purchased online. I chose to use Yellow Jacket skateboard bearings as weights and the center bearing. You can also use just a bearing in the middle of the casing and stacks of pennies for weights in the remaining outside holes… and it just cost pennies.

Printed fidget spinner with bearings

Final Design

After going back to my design and tweaking the caps a bit, my final 3D-printed fidget spinner caps produced less friction and this blue iteration spun very well.

Final iteration of my printed fidget spinner

I’m not sure I’ll ever really play with it or decide to design another fidget spinner in the future, but after all the hype around this simple toy I had to learn how to make one.

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