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Fidget Spinners

M

Mike Johnson

Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Messages
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Location
Nebraska
This might be an interesting project for some of the wood turners to put a "Spin" on things.
Fidget Spinners are very popular with the younger crowd these days with a wide variety and
broad price range available in the market for these items. These items can be readily adapted
to a lathe project on a wood lathe or metal lathe. The main item needed are the dry bearings readily
available from many sources on the internet.


fidget spinner.jpg

fidget spinner 1.jpg
 
Mike Johnson said:
This might be an interesting project for some of the wood turners to put a "Spin" on things.
Fidget Spinners are very popular with the younger crowd these days with a wide variety and
broad price range available in the market for these items. These items can be readily adapted
to a lathe project on a wood lathe or metal lathe. The main item needed are the dry bearings readily
available from many sources on the internet. ...
Click to expand...

From the New Yorker magazine:
If you are not a parent of a middle-school-aged child (yep, that's me), do not commute to work on public transportation (check that box, too), avoid the lifestyle section of the newspaper (ditto), and refrain from watching all television news (double ditto), it is just about possible that you have yet to be exposed to fidget spinners.​

While a casual observer might think that the New Yorker touched all the bases, let's not be so quick to jump to conclusions. They obviously were negligent in failing to mention the AAW forum, the source of all that's important in the world. So, fret not fine friends, fidgeting is in fashion and woodturners can be at the forefront of turning fidgeting into a fine art form.
 
The origin of this item was developed for kids with autism.
These would make great stocking stuffers for any age group.
These items vary in price from a $1.00 all the way up to a $1000.00 depending on materials and quality.
There are hundreds of designs which presents many possibilities for a wood turner to incorporate some
nice looking wood components to a popular item in today's market.
 
For what it's worth, the original invention of a Fidget type spinner has been credited by some to a person named Catherine Hettinger of Florida who registered a (now expired) patent for a finger-spinning toy back in 1997 but wasn't able to get toy companies interested. At the time there were other more interesting crazes that the toy companies were pursuing such as the Tomagotchi digital pet.

While the Fidget might be considered a mindless spinner toy by many people, research has shown that it and other toys that give fidgety hands something to do can have actual therapeutic value including autism as you mentioned. Also in 2016, researchers at the University of Missouri published a study indicating that blood circulation in the legs of a sedentary person improved very significantly with just periodic foot tapping. Maybe this means there could be a market for toe fidgets for people who must sit still for long periods while driving, flying, or working at a sit-down job.
 
My son and I made one last week out of some scrap oak. We used regular skate bearings, but removed the shield on the inner bearings and cleaned the oil out with mineral spirits to make them spin freely.

The design we used was a 3 pointed model, and I used it as an opportunity to learn how to use a compass to draw 6 equilateral triangles to get the angles. He drilled the holes for the bearings on the drill press and used the spindle sander to clean up the piece. I turned the hubs that go in the center of the bearings on the lathe. None of his friends had ever seen one that someone had made themselves and wasn't held together with hot glue.

I think I earned some daddy points from this project. He already wants to make another one.
 
Bill Boehme said:
Also in 2016, researchers at the University of Missouri published a study indicating that blood circulation in the legs of a sedentary person improved very significantly with just periodic foot tapping. Maybe this means there could be a market for toe fidgets for people who must sit still for long periods while driving, flying, or working at a sit-down job.
Click to expand...

So why does that make me think of Wall-e?
1322337746_b504365daffc.png
 
Mike Johnson said:
The origin of this item was developed for kids with autism.
These would make great stocking stuffers for any age group.
These items vary in price from a $1.00 all the way up to a $1000.00 depending on materials and quality.
There are hundreds of designs which presents many possibilities for a wood turner to incorporate some
nice looking wood components to a popular item in today's market.
Click to expand...
About 10 miles from my home in Puget Sound, patent-holders struggling in a market of cheap knock-offs::
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...r-will-beat-the-competition-local-makers-say/
 
I see plenty of specialty items that are designed and brought to market and within several months
you see plenty of knock-offs coming in from China. Most people don't even bother with patents anymore
because it is a waste of time and money to defend the patent and the only ones who get rich are the lawyers
and the courts.
 
olaf Vogel said:
Hey. I'd love to have an idea, Bring it to market, make millions and retire. Like Trvial Pursuit.
But, really? It's a cheap toy, fad, will last 12 months and die...lik Beanie Babies.
Click to expand...

Olaf, you have no idea how many teachers across the USA are hoping that this "fad" will end ASAP. As a former professional in the special ed field I have seen quite a few fidgety items that kids in the autism spectrum have been allowed to take into a classroom. Often that has to be written into a specific behavioral plan, and it can help kids like that a lot. It calms their sensory system, which is often very disrupted. The problem with the spinners today, is that loads of kids are bringing them into classrooms and it can be a major disruption when the things are spinning off desks, out of hands and across the room, bearings come flying out and kids are trying to scoot around and pick them up. It has gotten so out of hand-- no pun intended-- that many schools have begun banning them from classrooms all together except for the few students with a specific behavioral plan.

I am not in any way trying to discourage the idea of making them as a project as the original post suggests. Just addressing a different point of view.
 
Tom Albrecht said:
t loads of kids are bringing them into classrooms and it can be a major disruption when the things are spinning off desks, out of hands and across the room, bearings come flying out and kids are trying to scoot around and pick them up.
Click to expand...

Of course "none of use ever did that as kids....."
🙂

Overall, it seems like an interesting project. And would be fun to make.

I'm a huge proponent of looking out into other fields for inspiration and idea.
Very frequently I;m surfing forums on metal working, stone turning, metal spinning etc, to try and solve my woodturning issues and challenges.
 
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