Fidget Spinners - 3 Designs, Fully Printable, Print-in-Place by guppyk

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Fidget Spinners - 608 Bearing Fully Printable
A set of three different fidget spinners. Basically a by-product of my research into printed bearings, which I published a few weeks ago (see https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4821342 ). I wanted something to see how smooth my printed bearings can run. And yes, they spin really well. Never thought I would actually use them but turns out they are really fun.
The spinners come in three flavors (and 3 fancy names ;-) ):
Space Station. A simple circular spinner that feels good in hand and looks great.
Angel Wing. Three arms formed like angel wings (you can add 3 M6 nuts to add weight to this one).
Aerodyne. A circular spinner with aerodynamically formed wings (which should create a little uplift to make it spin easier - in theory...).
They all have in common that they use 608 bearings. Originally I had the bearings designed into the spinners (so they would only be a single print), which, however has a few disadvantages, e.g. that you need to use the same (slow) print settings (which you need for the bearings) for the larger spinner body. Also this way you can actually swap the bearings. So here are the options you have for the bearing:
Printed bearing. I have included the .STLs for my 608 bearings with 3 different clearances (lowest is best but also most difficult to print). Please see https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4821342 for the bearings.
Ceramic bearings. Full ceramic bearings are absolutely amazing, don't need any lubricant and give by far the longest spinning time out of the box (but at approx. $ 4/piece are more expensive than their steel counterparts).
Hybrid ceramic bearings. Hybrid ceramic bearings are a good compromise between spinning time and cost (approx. $ 2/piece). Make sure they are not pre-greased.
Steel bearings. Steel bearings are amazingly cheap but usually have the disadvantage of being pre-greased, which is great for your e.g. skaters, but no good for fidget spinners, so you will have to remove the grease (e.g. in a solvent bath).
Filament.
As usual I print mine using a cheap, strong, and easy to print Carbon Fiber PLA (but any strong filament will do - I have only tried PLA)
and in Silk gold.
Printing. The spinner bodies are really easy to print. Use any resolution, infill, your favorite filament and color. No supports needed. However, I use 80% infill, for bodies and rings, simply to add a little weight to the spinners. Print one each of the body, ring (except Angel Wing), and handle. All parts should stick without glue but I would add a drop of glue to secure them. However, if you decide to use printed bearings, things become a little trickier, so please refer to the tips and tricks section of my bearings (see link above).
HOPE YOU LIKE THEM, AND IF YOU LIKE THEM, PLEASE LIKE THEM. THANKS!
Happy printing and keep them spinning!