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.

Comments

Tippe Top Design

The physics behind the tippe top toy have been the subject of studies by scientists for years - dating back to the early 1890s. The tippe top is spun just like any other top, but pulls a surprise stunt. The top flips over and spins on its stem when given a strong twist. Why does the tippe top flip over? What does this mean for anyone planning to make one on a 3D printer? Nobel Prize winners, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr, take a break with a tippe top at the 1954 inauguration of the Institute of Physics in Lund, Sweden. Early Top Patents The first patent for the top, listed as “Wendekreisel”, was filed in Germany by Helene Sperl in 1891. While the patent seems to describe the top’s inversion property, reproductions of the top have proved unsuccessful. The patent expired after one year because the fee wasn’t paid. During a trip to South America, Danish engineer Werner Østberg noticed kids spinning a small, round fruit. While spinning, the fruit would flip over (or...

micro:bit Fireworks with Python

I used the MicroPython editor to program a fireworks animation that controls the brightness of the LEDs as the firework explodes on the LED display. For young computer science students, this is a great introduction to text-based programming, arrays, and animating LEDs. Code # Display message and show pacman with firework option from microbit import * firework1 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00000:00200") firework2 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00200:00100") firework3 = Image("00000:00000:00200:00100:00000") firework4 = Image("00000:00000:00900:00000:00000") firework5 = Image("00000:07870:08580:07870:00000") firework6 = Image("60706:01210:72127:01210:60706") firework7 = Image("30503:00000:50005:00000:30503") firework8 = Image("10201:00000:20002:00000:10201") all_firework = [firework1, firework2, firework3, firework4, firework5, firework6, firework7, firework8] while True: if button_a.is_pressed(): ...

Sprites & Games

Any graphical object or character in a video game is known as a sprite. Code provides instructions for sprites. A game’s program can tell the sprite how to move or react when a button is pressed. Every time Mario bops his head on a box and a mushroom appears, sprites (Mario, the box, the mushroom) are interacting with each other and responding accordingly based on the game’s code. You can create your own sprites to use in your video games! I used Piskel , an online sprite creation tool, to create my m4ttbit sprite for a blob-catching game I made using Scratch . Piskel lets you create an 8-bit or pixelated sprite and even animate it. To create an animated sprite, you’ll want to develop a frame for each movement. A frame toolbar in Piskel lets you easily create a frame for a standing sprite or a series of images to make it look as though your sprite is running, jumping, or flipping. When you’re finished creating the frames or series of images for your sprite, export them by savin...

Matt's Lab

Search This Blog