An interview with a VECTARY maker: How to make a fidget spinner
The fidget spinner craze is in full swing. A “fidget toy” originally created for people dealing with ADHD, autism and anxiety, was in April the most searched gadget on Amazon, with huge success among the general population. What started as an innocent stress-relief toy has suddenly become part of our popular culture — there are even memes and comics that make fun of this little fellow.
Maybe you feel the urge to have a fidget spinner, too. But why buy something that you can create yourself? It’s way more fun!
We interviewed our user Johnnyal who created his own 3D printed fidget spinner with our free 3D modeling tool VECTARY:
What was your inspiration for the fidget spinner design?
There’s plenty of inspiration on the internet (YouTube, Pinterest, Thingiverse). The key was to remember the technological principle, the rest was just my own creativity.
What is the most important thing to consider when creating a fidget spinner?
It’s important to measure the dimension between the axis of rotation and the tip of your thumb, so the spinner can rotate freely. A dimension somewhere between 50 mm to 45 mm can be a universal fit even for smaller hands. Also the size of the bearing matters a lot. I picked a universal bearing from my inline skate (ABEC 5) with a diameter of 22 mm.
What was your very first step after opening the VECTARY 3D modeling editor?
I started 3D modeling a cylinder (using the Draw cylinder tool), because it is a basic element of the fidget spinner.
Which part was trickier?
I don’t think there was any tricky part. However, you should be careful and add more faces when creating the cylinder, so that after smoothing, the final diameter of the circle stays the same.
Some people think VECTARY is more suitable for organic shapes rather than technical ones. What do you think about that?
I think VECTARY is great if you want to 3D model organic shapes. However, technical 3D modeling with specific dimensions is not a problem either (creating a hole, chamfer, radius) you just have to play with it :)
Did you make any preparations for 3D printing in VECTARY?
In this case it wasn’t necessary. I just smoothed the 3D model of the fidget spinner and exported it as stl.
How long did it take to 3D print it?
I printed the fidget spinner on an SLA Formlabs 3D printer. The process takes longer, but the final 3D print is really nice. It took like 4 hours.
Is there anything you’d like to change?
No, it spins perfectly :)
Watch Johnnyal’s 3D modeling tutorial:
