DFTBA 24mm square bearingless spinner

thingiverse

Don't know what DFTBA is? It's short for Don't Forget To Be Awesome - picked up from the Vlog Brothers on YouTube, John & Hank Green. Hopefully the animated gif is working (the photo where my laptop is visible in the background if it's a still image is SUPPOSED to be showing that this spins). I was inspired by the few bearingless spinners I saw here to try to make my own. Took a couple attempts but I managed it. I was trying to see how small of a functional bearingless spinner I could make to facilitate putting as many as possible set to print overnight. My intention is for this design to be used as a fundraising object for various non-profits I am involved with. I grant permission for others to use this for NON-PROFIT fundraising purposes, otherwise no commercial use. If the settings are done properly, I think you should be able to edit the text via TinkerCAD (link below). Outer dimensions are 24mm by 24mm by 7mm high. It prints in place, no assembly required. I use a New Matter MOD-t which has a 100mm limit in one of the horizontal planes so being this small means I can set the printer to make a grid of 16 of them overnight. With as small as this is, I STRONGLY recommend 100% fill and the smallest layer height your printer is capable of, the tolerances inside for the spin mechanism are TIGHT. Feel free to scale it up a bit if you aren't aiming to print a bunch of them at a time or if your printer is more than 100mm in one direction. I sprayed a little bit of silicone-based lubricant in, which helps the smoothness of the spin, but this will NOT spin like one of the weighted bearing ones - which is actually part of the appeal to me. I'm a pen clicker type fidgeter, this "scratches that kind of itch" better than the ones that keep spinning without frequent interaction. Want hints on how to make your own? Other than the text, this consists of 5 shapes in TinkerCAD: four cones (two as "holes") and a cube. See if you can figure out how to do it from there ;). Once it occurred to me, it only took me about 5 minutes to get the base made. The text is the pain in the tush part (tip: make sure you've got all your parts grouped every time you go to move your design). I'm a mom, a social justice activist on various topics, and an educator so if you get stuck in trying to recreate this and need another hint, leave a comment and I'll do my best. This thing was made with Tinkercad. Edit it online https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7Q0cqZjZwLl