Overengineered Gear Fidget Spinner(Print in Place)

The overengineered gear spinner is a mesmerizing fidget toy that prints fully in place with custom supports that can be easily removed. It's over-engineered design features meticulously constructed gears surrounded by a complex cage of printable angles and perfect clearances. 

This is the most complex thing that I have ever designed. All of these Intricate features went through countless prototypes to create the polished and functioning fidget that you see now. I could have taken the easy way out and removed the bottom, removing the need for most of the complex engineering, but that was not good enough for me. I wanted the fidget spinner to be completely symmetrical, meaning that the top half and the bottom half are mirrored perfectly(except for the supports on the bottom half). This required there to be little to no overhangs, cantilevers, and bridges. To achieve this, I had to replace all of the flat faces with printable angles, which as an unintentional side effect, makes it look more futuristic. 

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The gears had a lot of thought put into them. I tried a bunch of ways to make them print in place, but decided on making this V shaped cutout that you see on the final product. The bottoms of each are designed so that they only have only 2 points of contact to build off, which are the 2 sides of the bottom custom support. This makes it so that the gears do not have to touch the body in any way, allowing them to spin freely and independently from it, interlocking smoothly with the other gears.

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The custom supports were designed to make the experience of setting up the fidget spinner quick and seamless. Each part was specifically designed to support a critical region of the print, allowing the printer to be able to actually print it. Clearness was one of my main criteria when designing these custom supports, so I decided to label every single one with the word “support” to make it clear that it is a support and not a part of the actual print.

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The center gear was simple enough to make but still was prototyped over a dozen times to ensure that it can spin as smooth as possible without any problems. It acts as both the center gear and as a grip, acting as something for your fingers to hold onto and spin the fidget. It locks into the main body of the spinner with carefully tested clearances and angles to make everything print in place.

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The main base was a huge challenge to design. It had to fit everything inside of it, while still remaining fully print in place. This was achieved through this admittedly weird shape that you see below. All of the sharp angles are so the printer can print them without having to bridge or cantilever. It houses the 3 rods that the outer gears spin around, and also the chamfered track that the middle gear rotates along.

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I think I had a pretty clever solution for the rods that are holding the outer gears in. I made them this complex hourglass shape to allow the outer gears to rotate freely and have the ability to be easily printed, with reasonable angles.

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All of these components work together to achieve full print in place functionality and fidgeting capability. I hope you enjoy all of the work I put into this model and give me a boost if you feel like supporting me.