Fidget Bars

The new fidget spinner! I have tons of bearings left over from when they were popular. I was designing a hinge for a desk light when I had a two rigid pendulums with bearings in them. I stuck them in wood dowels laying around when coming up with a hinge mechanism. After playing with them around for a while, I tried spinning them in opposite directions and came up with this fidget toy. This is what I came up with after refining the design.

Parts

Assembly

  1. Use a mallet to get the bearings into the bars.
  2. Slot 3D printed pieces and bearings into the wood dowel in the order end cap - bearing - spacer - bearing - end cap. Super glue or hot glue the end cap to keep in place.
  3. Glue on the dowel caps to hide the splintered dowel.
  4. Spin and have fun!

Conclusion

I'd like this to catch on as much as fidget spinners did. We'll see what happens. It took me no time at all to make and it came as a result of me playing with things I had laying around. Hopefully I'll have my desk light done soon. Maybe I'll advertise it as "The light that inspired the fidget bar!".