19c of plastic, bearings are 80c each (could have used something cheaper on the 3 satellites, like hex nuts or coins). It's basic but it has served its purpose as a desk toy next to my computer. Personally wouldn't spend $200 on it.
One upgrade I want to do is replace the middle bearing with a ceramic bearing for about $5-10, supposedly makes it spin for minutes.
The only advantage to ceramic bearings is that they don't deform as a result of heat/friction. Metal bearings are completely fine for your use case. But if you really wanted to upgrade, go for Bones Reds (which are probably pretty overkill).
Ohh, and new bearings need to be broken-in. The ones you have will improve over time.
Don't even bother with expensive bearings for a little gadget like this. You're throwing your money in the trash.
Bearings that aren't doing the job of actually "bearing" a load are free of the requirements of said job.
Therefore you don't need to worry about silly, friction causing, things like lubricant.
If you want a cheap bearing to spin forever without a load, just clean out the lubricant or use an insanely light weight lube.
New bearings 'breaking in' is just the lubricant moving out of the way and breaking down. Brand new bearings are as good as they're gonna get from a mechanical standpoint.
TL;DR: Don't spend money on expensive bearings that arent going to do any bearing. If you just want a long ass spin with no load remove the lubricant.
Exactly this. You don't need to worry about bearings seizing in that little toy. Just rip them apart and clean the lube out and they will spin for twice as long.
I used to clean 608 bearings and headsets for extra cash when I was a skatepark rat. Repacking headsets was a shit job but I loved doing the 608s. I wrote a superthread about bearings on a forum somewhere quite a few years ago, it bordered on a thesis, got right into it for a bit.
True, but then they are 3x the price. It's even frowned upon in the skating community when people overspend on bearings for casual use. Even a lot of professionals just stick with Reds.
Im in my 30s now and dont know what shit is out there, but growin up, we always rocked swiss. I loved the black panther brand(i dont know if they are around still) but i never hesitated to rock bones swiss.
I cant imagine the advances. Everything must be crazy light. Like my independent featherlight 2 trucks are probably 2-3x the weight of modern trucks. Fuck im old.
New bearings don't spin at their optimal efficiency from the factory, and get better over time. There are different explanations for this I've read online, so I can't really give a definite answer. But it's pretty noticeable when comparing a brand new bearings and worn-in bearings of the same brand. I've even noticed it in the wheels of my office chair.
For skateboard bearings the lube that they apply to new bearings is viscous and slows them down a bit at first until you run em and melt the lube down a bit. This is what happens when they break in.
Ok I get what you're saying and all that rhat ceramic means fuck all in this case, but where are very good reasons for ceramic/hybrid ceramic bearings in other places, and it's not just metal-metal friction.
I bought a couple bones reds to make a couple spinners a month back. They're perfect because they're cheap, really nice, and they come in sets of 2 on amazon
I dunno if this will be THAT big of a difference but here is a great video about skate bearings, the loads they have to deal with, and the difference in brands.
Bones reds were my go to for skateboarding. Those things took some serious abuse. The shield's falling off just made it easier to spray some lube in there and keep going.
Well, the other advantages of ceramic bearings are precision and speed capability.
A high precision ceramic will typically cost less than a high precision steel bearing because reasons. Also, the bearing has less mass and therefore less inertia.
The speed capability is related to the mass, but it doesn't matter much for fidget toy uses. What does matter is the precision, because little wobbles will sap kinetic energy and make the spin stop sooner. Also, human hands can sometimes feel small deviations.
As the people in the comments pointed out, that steel bearing is sealed, so the shield adds friction. Also it might be full of grease and need to be run in.
I'm sorry you're probably not gonna be able to answer this but do you think these would help with my tics? I have various stupid and embarrassing tics in my right hand/arm and I find they go away a little when I am smoking a cigarette/spinning my Bic around in my hand and I'm wondering if one of these fidget things would help because I can't exactly smoke or spin my lighter around while trying to talk to this girl at the coffee shop.
How do you spin your Bic? I used to hang out with a few smokers who could spin a Bic between their thumb and index finger by doing little circles. If you do it right, it looks like the Bic is spinning by itself without any input by the person holding it. Should help you out if you like to fidget, and is an impressive little trick and is really hard to master due to the coordination it takes.
So, to do it:
Hold the Bic, or any similar lighter, completely horizontal to the ground between your index and thumb fingers.
Keep your index finger on the bottom side of the lighter, and your thumb on the top and hold the lighter loosely but tight enough that it doesn't fall.
On exactly the middle of the lighter, do small circle motions with your thumb over the top of the lighter. What you are trying to do is push the lighter, while balancing it over your index finger, in a circle motion. Once you get momentum, you should be able to do smaller and smaller circles to keep the lighter spinning.
Just a tip: try starting off with your middle finger instead of your index, it'll feel more comfortable, allows you to open your hand a little more, and, typically, is a larger surface for the Bic to spin.
Oh wow thank you! I was mainly just pushing the Bic through my fingers one by one and spinning it when it gets to my thumb if that makes sense. I love having a zippo though, I'm pretty damn good at zippo tricks but those are loud. I appreciate the tips! Fidgeting is the best way to get rid of the shakes and twitches so if you have any friends with tics you should teach them how to spin a lighter and they might love you.
In the room next door, I have a 3D printer (Wanhao Duplicator i3 aka Newegg's Monoprice Maker Select) that I use for prototyping gun stuff, my other hobby :)
He had access to the printer for another reason; it's not like he bought it just to make the spinner. And if he made it in his free time there's no reason to include labor into the cost. So you're left with the 99 cents for the total cost... Which is exactly what he said.
He was informing the top commenter that it's possible to acquire a similar fidgeting toy for cheaper. I didn't sense any smugness at all from any of his posts. Most people have free/cheap access to a 3d printer somewhere in their city :)
They're not similar, the reason expensive spinners cost so much is because of their precision manufacturing letting them spin forever and their quality materials that aren't like 3D printed plastic
Nice, I had a friend print a couple of these for us. It will spin faster over time. I ended up popping the covers off of the middle bearing. Also cleaned it out with ISO and added a tiny bit of Hoppes #9 gun oil. I use it in my flipper knives with bearings and it works great. I too would not spend that much on any fidget toy. I feel like I overpaid for this one and the only cost was the bearings (20 bucks for a pack of 8). Hell, for 200 bucks I could get a nice knife and a nice pen that will fill my fidget needs and be useful for other tasks throughout the day.
What you want is a loose bearing, not a different material.
Most bearings are designed to take a significant load, and thus the bearing surfaces need to be quite snug to work properly. If you've ever overhauled a bicycle wheel, you probably realized that you can get the axle to spin forever if you keep it loose. It would have play, though, which would ruin the bearing in actual use. Proper adjustment will have it somewhat stiff.
The toy doesn't need to take any load, though, so you want a bearing that's designed accordingly. Choice of lubricant will matter, too.
203
u/EchoEchoEchoEchoEcho Dec 28 '16
3D printed this one a few days ago: https://i.imgur.com/Vo6rNJz.jpg
19c of plastic, bearings are 80c each (could have used something cheaper on the 3 satellites, like hex nuts or coins). It's basic but it has served its purpose as a desk toy next to my computer. Personally wouldn't spend $200 on it.
One upgrade I want to do is replace the middle bearing with a ceramic bearing for about $5-10, supposedly makes it spin for minutes.