A spinner is an interesting thing for children, although, to be honest, I don’t understand what’s so interesting about it... just like the rest of the older generation. But recently, after looking at this thing in action, I thought, why not make one myself? Just out of curiosity – can I, or can’t? And you can give it to your children later instead of buying it... As I understand it, the main thing in this design is balancing. The more accurately all the blades of the structure are balanced, the longer the spinner will rotate on the bearing.
Will need
- Bearing (the smaller the better).
- Plexiglas, 5 mm thick.
- Self-adhesive colored film.
- Scissors.
- Emery machine.
- Compass.
- Ruler.
- Marker with a fine nib.
Making a stalker spinner
You can purchase a suitable bearing at any store that sells auto parts. So, first you need to cut an even circle out of plexiglass on an emery machine. To do this, take a piece of plexiglass with an area of approximately 8×8 centimeters and a thickness of 5 millimeters.
Using a compass, draw a circle on the plexiglass with a diameter of 7 centimeters.
Now, having installed a thin cutting disc on the sanding machine, we saw off along the drawn circle.For greater convenience, you can first cut off all the corners, then cut off the remaining pieces until you get a more or less even circle.
Now, on the side plane of the disk, we align the circle along the stripe drawn with a compass.
After the circle is completed, you need to find the middle in it. That is the center. This is as easy as shelling pears - there was probably a mark left there from the compass needle when we drew the circle on the plexiglass. If suddenly it was not found (maybe it got lost during work), then we take a sheet of paper, apply our plexiglass circle to it, trace it with a marker, and cut out the same circle from the paper. We fold it into four, as evenly as possible. Smooth the folds of the paper tighter. Let's expand. The center can be immediately seen where the four sides are folded. Using this template, placing the circles next to each other, we mark the center of the plexiglass circle. Remember; The smoother the circle is, and the more accurately the center of the circle is determined, the better balancing the structure will have, and with perfect balancing, the spinner will rotate many times longer than with poor balancing with the same bearing. Now you need, using a ruler and a thin marker, to mark the circle in the form of divisions into six equal parts and a small, 1.5 centimeter, circle in the center - these will be the boundaries of the holder by which the spinner is usually held.
Cut out the parts; one - after one.
Now it's time for the bearing holes. We measure the diameter of the bearing, take a drill suitable for this diameter, and drill a hole in the very center.
If the hole is small, refine it with a round needle file, and if it is large, add a layer of electrical tape to the outer surface of the bearing. We insert the bearing into the drilled center of the workpiece.
Don’t forget to process the edges of the workpiece with a needle file to remove burrs. The main part is ready.Now you can cover it with colored adhesive film. For a figure like mine, a poisonous green color (bright lime green!) would, of course, be suitable, but since I didn’t have that in stock, yellow would also do.
Now we cut out two circles, 1.5 centimeters each, on an emery machine. These will be the holders. We also cover them with film of the same color.
In the center of each of the holders we drill recesses 3 millimeters deep (not through ones!) for the bushing. The sleeve can be made from any tube of suitable diameter. We thread the sleeve into the bearing and put holders on both sides of the spinner.
If the holders are loose, drop a drop of second glue into their recesses. Just make sure that the glue does not get into the bearing mechanism! Otherwise you'll have to install a new one! Well, that’s basically all... A hand-made spinner is ready, and your child will appreciate it much better than a purchased one.
