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Thread: Fidget Spinner

  1. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    Outboard bearing are mainly for weight to keep it spinning. cheap ones just use metal slugs. The center bearing is shielded for low friction. the outboard ones are rubber sealed but they will spin somewhat.
    Crazy thing is the bearings are like class 7 or even 9! which is a huge waste of money. This is a step or two up in precision, and cost, from most metal working machines. I can not even understand how that tolerance is calculated. You are talking run out which most measuring gear can not see much less measure unless you spend hundreds on the micrometer and take all precautions such as, climate control, body heat, vibration etc.
    Motors and woodworking machines are maybe class 5 or even class 3. might be better in a router at high rpms.
    Bill D.
    If you look at how they do it.. They cheat! Its all about less rolling resistance - and that doesnt necessarily require ultra high precision. They do it by reducing drag...

    For example....
    Very low drag shields. Very thin metal with the merest coat of rubber... Just barely big enough to fit in there... Made so it doesnt drag both races - only one.
    They only put shields on the "outboard" side. The inner seal groove is empty = less drag.
    Few rollers. My super zoot bearings have like 5 rollers inside...
    Super low contact/friction bearing retainer spacers. The spacers ade made of something like acetal or UHMW PE and fit the balls fairly loosely for minimum resistance.. Remember - at most, these things support what - 300 or 400 lbs across a full set of 8... So like 50#/bearing load.... More likely to be 25% of that...

    What all that adds up to is a really fast bearing when its perfectly clean - but a bearing that clogs and jams up if dust even gets near it... Dont ever use those fancy pants high zoot skate bearings on your saw guides... They choke on sawdust about 3 seconds into the cut...

  2. #17
    Join Date
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    I've been making these for the past couple weeks to sell at our local farmer's market. They are very popular. I've been buying plain open bearings (no shields, no lube), yesterday I grabbed a random large spinner and timed it at six minutes 40 seconds. It uses 16 7/16" steel balls for weight, the frame is laser cut acrylic. Others use nickles or quarters for weights but I weigh them on a grain scale to sort them out for balancing purposes first. Also the center bearing hole is reamed for a precise fit because a laser cut hole is not precise enough. All of them will spin for two minutes, many for three minutes or more.

    I've received suggestions that I need some that are more appealing to the girls, so I am going to experiment with making them a bit more sparkly using Swarovski crystals.
    Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
    Gerber Sabre 408

  3. #18
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    Rich,

    I've seen some at about 2.5" and some smaller, about 2". Seems like at some point it would be too big to hold in one hand. By "large", what diameter do you mean?

    I'm making some for the grand kids and got some bearings I have to pry off the shields and clean out the grease. Do you have a good source for the bearings?

    Do you use a straight (22mm?) reamer or a tapered reamer? I'm making the spinners from wood, turning on the lathe.

    JKJ

    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Harman View Post
    I've been making these for the past couple weeks to sell at our local farmer's market. They are very popular. I've been buying plain open bearings (no shields, no lube), yesterday I grabbed a random large spinner and timed it at six minutes 40 seconds. It uses 16 7/16" steel balls for weight, the frame is laser cut acrylic. Others use nickles or quarters for weights but I weigh them on a grain scale to sort them out for balancing purposes first. Also the center bearing hole is reamed for a precise fit because a laser cut hole is not precise enough. All of them will spin for two minutes, many for three minutes or more.

    I've received suggestions that I need some that are more appealing to the girls, so I am going to experiment with making them a bit more sparkly using Swarovski crystals.

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    Rich,

    I've seen some at about 2.5" and some smaller, about 2". Seems like at some point it would be too big to hold in one hand. By "large", what diameter do you mean?

    I'm making some for the grand kids and got some bearings I have to pry off the shields and clean out the grease. Do you have a good source for the bearings?

    Do you use a straight (22mm?) reamer or a tapered reamer? I'm making the spinners from wood, turning on the lathe.
    The large ones are 92mm in diameter.
    I use a 22mm reamer (straight) in my drill press, after turning down the shank so that it would fit. I have an adjustable reamer on order, the current 22mm reamer makes for a perfect fit but they slide too easily. It should be a few thou undersized for an interference fit.
    Last edited by Rich Harman; 05-28-2017 at 9:52 PM.
    Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
    Gerber Sabre 408

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Harman View Post
    The large ones are 92mm in diameter.
    I use a 22mm reamer (straight) in my drill press, after turning down the shank so that it would fit. I have an adjustable reamer on order, the current 22mm reamer makes for a perfect fit but they slide too easily. It should be a few thou undersized for an interference fit.
    Thanks,

    I wondered about the clearance. For wood, I bought some metric forstner bits and 22mm cut way too big. Using a boring bar for metal or plastic should work but I'm afraid it wouldn't be clean for wood. I thought about reducing the diameter of the bit by grinding but drilling 21mm and reaming for a press fit would be better. All my over/under reamers for metalworking are too small. I see a Uxcell 21-23mm adjustable (hand) reamer on Amazon that looks good but it's not Prime.

    I'm going to try some Cocobolo and Lignum vitae, both fairly woods. Maybe one from aluminum or brass (or a combo of the two or with wood). I made one quick and ugly sample from scrap burl with turned ebony finger buttons to get started, epoxied a bearing in the sloppy 22mm hole.

    JKJ

  6. #21
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    Mar 2011
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    Olalla, WA
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    This is the reamer I ordered;
    smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FXJEHKM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    Ordered it on Saturday and is supposed to arrive on Tuesday.
    Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
    Gerber Sabre 408

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    Bearing fits should be a bored a few 1/1000 undersize but... loctite and others make special glue to hold bearings in place if bore is too large.
    Bill

    http://www.jegs.com/p/Loctite/LOCTIT...42113/10002/-1

    http://www.skf.com/us/products/beari...its/index.html

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    ... loctite and others make special glue to hold bearings in place if bore is too large.
    It's definitely an advantage for the bearing to be removable by the end user, for cleaning or upgrading.
    Shenhui 1440x850, 130 Watt Reci Z6
    Gerber Sabre 408

  9. #24
    Question on the bearings .....

    I have a steel bearing, probably not stainless. Originally it barely spun a revolution due to all the grease. I took the shield off as described above and soaked it in a degreaser (TSP) overnight. Then it spun pretty good (while still soaked in the degreaser fluid) ..... until it dried off. Dry, it spins just so-so. I've resoaked it and hit it with compressed air, but still not great dry.

    Should I try WD40 ? Or a silicon lubricant? Thanks for the advice!

  10. #25
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Helles View Post
    Question on the bearings .....

    I have a steel bearing, probably not stainless. Originally it barely spun a revolution due to all the grease. I took the shield off as described above and soaked it in a degreaser (TSP) overnight. Then it spun pretty good (while still soaked in the degreaser fluid) ..... until it dried off. Dry, it spins just so-so. I've resoaked it and hit it with compressed air, but still not great dry.

    Should I try WD40 ? Or a silicon lubricant? Thanks for the advice!
    One article said a bit of silicone spray lube will work but I haven't tried it. (Keep silicone overspray away from any wood you might want to finish someday!)

    I also like dry lubricant (applied wet, dries to a film) for things that might be subject to dirt or dust but again, I haven't experimented with the spinner bearings.

    Also, I bought a variety of 608 bearings to experiment with and I found the quality varies widely. In some the tolerances are sloppy and the spin is impaired. The good ceramic bearings are better. Note that none of them will spin for very long without some weight an inch or so from the center. I drilled a hole in a piece of heavy wood (dogwood) to push in the bearings to test.

    JKJ

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    North Virginia
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    I've built a number of them out of wood in various shapes and sizes - bubinga, snakewood, walnut, kingwood. I like the white ceramic bearings because they spin for longer - but keep in mind that they are a lot noisier than metal bearings. For weight, I use barrel fishing weights drilled into 0.187" holes around the rim. You can fine tune the balance with little pieces of tungsten snapped off of a tungsten welding rod.

  12. I was avoiding it some time, but broke down

    20170528_205804.jpg

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    El Dorado Hills, CA
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    Here is one I made from a batch that my daughter gave out as goody bag gifts for her birthday party. They were a big hit.

    I cut them with a CNC router. The first picture shows plugs to fill pockets that are filled with pennies for weights. I cut a tight fit on the center hole to press the bearing into place. This leaves the wood stressed and a few of them broke in half from a slight drop. I cut the hole larger and epoxied the bearing on the rest of them. A 1/8" roundover bit was used to shape the edges. The center piece was left unsanded with bandsaw marks to provide a bit of grip. The wood is a chunk of big leaf maple that I had laying around. 20 of them can easily be made from a board foot of lumber.

    fidget1.jpgfidget2.jpg

    Steve

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Peterson View Post
    Here is one I made from a batch that my daughter gave out as goody bag gifts for her birthday party. They were a big hit.

    I cut them with a CNC router. The first picture shows plugs to fill pockets that are filled with pennies for weights. I cut a tight fit on the center hole to press the bearing into place. This leaves the wood stressed and a few of them broke in half from a slight drop. I cut the hole larger and epoxied the bearing on the rest of them. A 1/8" roundover bit was used to shape the edges. The center piece was left unsanded with bandsaw marks to provide a bit of grip. The wood is a chunk of big leaf maple that I had laying around. 20 of them can easily be made from a board foot of lumber.

    fidget1.jpgfidget2.jpg

    Steve

    Looks GREAT! Thanks for sharing
    "Remember back in the day, when things were made by hand, and people took pride in their work?"
    - Rick Dale

  15. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Harman View Post
    I've been making these for the past couple weeks to sell at our local farmer's market. They are very popular. I've been buying plain open bearings (no shields, no lube), yesterday I grabbed a random large spinner and timed it at six minutes 40 seconds. It uses 16 7/16" steel balls for weight, the frame is laser cut acrylic. Others use nickles or quarters for weights but I weigh them on a grain scale to sort them out for balancing purposes first. Also the center bearing hole is reamed for a precise fit because a laser cut hole is not precise enough. All of them will spin for two minutes, many for three minutes or more.

    I've received suggestions that I need some that are more appealing to the girls, so I am going to experiment with making them a bit more sparkly using Swarovski crystals.
    Bedazzle Spinner!

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