UPDATE 6/26/2024: Giving my 8-Ball a spin today, one of the tiles came loose so I attempted to take it apart and in doing that, I snapped off one of the clips on the 2nd Half. I think I would like to have the option of opening and closing the 8-Ball to resolve any issues that may arise so I'm going to redesign how to two halves connect.

 

Looking through all of the “airless” designs a while back, I had noticed that there was one obvious omission from the airless collection, airless billiards. I thought for sure an airless 8-ball would do well, so I made a quick one and while making that I started to think about a magic 8-ball and how cool it would be if I made a liquid free, 3d printable version.

My initial thought was to just make a hollow ball with four magnets around the window and a dice floating around inside the ball that was also covered in magnets so you would just shake it until the magnets on the die connected with the magnets on the window. The problem with that is it would be super noisy as well as potential damage to the ball, window and die when shaking it. At an impasse, I decided to move onto other projects and let the idea of a liquid free magic 8-ball marinate for a while. Eventually, the answer came to me and it's pretty simple. 

A wheel on the inside of the ball has eight different answer tiles attached to it. The wheel is attached to the 1st half of the 8-Ball via a 6204 Plastic Deep Groove Ball Bearing. There are two 4mm x 2mm magnets embedded between each answer tile on the wheel and one magnet embedded in each half of the 8-Ball. After spinning the wheel, the magnets on each half of the 8-Ball will “grab” an answer when the wheel slows down. Occasionally, the wheel will stop between answers and you need to give it a little shake before the magnets take hold.

 

ASSEMBLY:

First thing you need to do is insert the answer tiles into the wheel. Make sure that the handle is on the right side of the answers as seen in the photo below. Next, embed the magnets into the wheel, making sure that the polarity of each magnet is the same. I would also suggest using supper glue to secure the magnets.

Next, you will need to connect the two face parts with the two halves of the 8-Ball. The face parts are numbered on the inside of each piece. The face with a 1 on it fits into the 1st Half (the one with the 8) and the face with a 2 fits into the 2nd Half. Once you have that done, embed the magnets into each half of the 8-Ball. Make sure that these magnets have the opposite polarity from the magnets on the wheel.

Next, take your 6204 Plastic Deep Groove Ball Bearing and fit it onto the 1st Half of the 8-Ball.

And then fit the wheel onto the bearing.

Next, fit the 2nd Half onto the 1st Half/Wheel, gently snap them together and you're done.