Fidget spinners, those little devices you twirl around on your fingers to keep your hands occupied, have been a phenomenon from around 2017 when they seemed to be everywhere and every kid seemed to be spinning one.
They’re not expensive to buy, but there are also loads of ways of making your own, so for anyone who wants to try, here are the best 21 homemade fidget spinner plans you can try to DIY at home.
1. Easy Fidget Spinner DIY
Here’s are some simple plans to make not just one but three fidget spinners. There are templates for two “tri” fidget spinners as well as one for a double spinner. They’re easy to make, don’t require anything other than very basic materials and there are plenty of photos on the site to help inspire you to have a go. The site also includes printable templates, so it’s an ideal place to start if you’re a DIY novice.
2. Wooden Fidget Spinner
Although fidget spinners are pretty cheap, making one yourself is a great little project to get stuck into – and is also a perfect way to introduce kids to the world of DIY and creating things with their own hands. Here is a set of instructions for how to make fidget spinners out of wood. The materials required are inexpensive, and we also think these wooden versions look much classier than many you can buy in a store. Great effort guys!
3. Wooden Fidget Spinner – Instructables
When it comes to looking for plans for DIY projects, the Instructables website is always one of our first stops. The plans they put up are always clearly written and simple to follow – and great for teachers to use too. This plan for a wooden fidget spinner is no different, making it a great option if you want to introduce kids to the basics of woodworking. As always on this site, there are plenty of useful photos to show you what you should be doing, and the whole process is broken down into logical steps.
4. Fidget Spinner from Bullet Shells!
One of the things we love most about going online to find DIY plans is the amount of creativity and inventiveness we come across. Some people come up with crazy DIY plans, sometimes people try things that, quite frankly, are super-dangerous – and sometimes, like here, we find people who just have some amazingly quirky ideas. Check out this video to see someone make a fidget spinner from old bullet shells. There are no words until the end, it’s just a video of him at work – but it’s fascinating to watch, and we can’t take our eyes off it!
5. Batman Fidget Spinner from Bullet Shells
If you liked #4, you’ll love this. It’s a video from the same guy who made the fidget spinner from bullet shells, but here, he’s trying something even more ambitious. In this video, he uses his melted down bullet shells to make a special Batman fidget spinner! We’re not sure how many people will be able to replicate this at home, but one thing’s for sure – this is someone with loads of ideas and bags of talent!
6. Fidget Spinner from Lego
Here’s an original one. What does just about any kid have at home? And what did we all grow up playing with? Lego! Lego has changed over the years, becoming far more sophisticated than it once was, but it’s still based on those same plastic building blocks we’ve all used to make castles, trains and pirate ships. And here’s one more use for them – this is a plan to make a really cool fidget spinner from Lego bricks! It might not work as well as a “real” one, but it will be fun for kids to try – so why not give it a go?
7. Three Different Fidget Spinners
Here’s a useful YouTube demonstration of how to make three different fidget spinners from some very basic materials. Everything is easy to follow, and the narrator is funny too. We like this video because these are plans that just about anyone can try at home – plus it’s also entertaining to watch. We always enjoy observing skilled people at work, and we hope you’ll find this as interesting as we did.
8. Fidget Spinner using Fusion 360
This is another plan we found on Instructables, but this one is a bit more complicated and advanced than the one for a wooden fidget spinner in #3. This plan uses a piece of software called Fusion 360 to design the fidget spinner on a computer. Once you have the necessary software, you can follow the steps in the plan to design your fidget spinner, first in 2D, then in 3D – and when the whole thing is done, you can bring it into being by 3D-printing it. Perhaps not everyone will be able to try this, but it’s one of the coolest plans we’ve seen and is well worth checking out.
9. Fidget Spinner from Gallium
This is another fascinating video – it shows how to make a fidget spinner from gallium, a kind of metal that turns to liquid at relatively low temperatures. He starts by making a mold in plasticine by using another fidget spinner (which is kind of cheating, no?) and then proceeds to pour the gallium into the mold to create the fidget spinner’s body. If you’ve never seen anything like it, you’ll be captivated. The first time we saw it, we were blown away. Also, make sure you watch all the way to the end. Gallium is such a strange material – watch what happens to his fidget spinner when he drops it onto the table!
10. Spiral-Effect Fidget Spinner from Gallium
This is another video from the same person who made the video in #9, but we liked that one so much, we decided to include another one showing him at work. Here, he creates another gallium fidget spinner, but this time, he gives it a stylish spiral effect. These gallium fidget spinners are awesome, and this one looks even better than the first. Check it out, it’s amazing!
11. Fidget Spinner that Melts in Your Hand
If you want more about Gallium, here’s another video about making fidget spinners using this extremely bizarre metal. The guys in this video come up with several creative designs for fidget spinners, showing what you can do if you put your mind to it. Unfortunately, gallium isn’t really a very practical substance to use for making these devices since it’s too fragile. But it’s still a fun material to play around with – and that’s something these guys obviously love!
12. Wrench Spinner
Ok, so we’re borrowing lots of material from Instructables here, but it’s only because they have so many exceptional plans for a range of funky fidget spinners on their site. This is another one that requires the use of a 3D printer, so not everyone will be able to attempt it, but we love the design and it’s super-easy to do. There’s a video on the page as well as lots of good photos – so even if you can’t make one yourself, at least you can see how it’s done.
13. Fidget Spinner from Coins
Here’s a creative young DIYer from Hong Kong we found on YouTube who made a video showing you how to make a fidget spinner from some coins, some bearings he picked up at a skateboard store and a hot glue gun. We love his enthusiasm but he’s also a talented kid. It looks like he loves making stuff – and he also loves sharing his creations on his YouTube channel. If you’re looking for something super-simple to try at home, you can easily give this idea a go.
14. Fidget Spinner using a Trotec Laser Machine
This is another plan that not everyone can try at home since you need a laser cutting machine to complete the job. However, we thought we’d include it because it gives you some ideas about what’s possible if you have the right equipment – and it might even give you some ideas about what to do when you make simpler fidget spinners at home. As you can see from the photos, these are high-quality homemade fidget spinners and would make great gifts.
15. Fidget Spinner with Rob
This is a DIY video from a YouTuber named Rob. He makes loads of cool stuff on his channel, and this is his video showing how he made a fidget spinner using simple and inexpensive materials including bearings, sandpaper, epoxy adhesive, toothpicks and colored shoelaces. We love this video for the clear, calm way he imparts his knowledge and experience, telling you everything you need to know to do it all at home. If you’re looking for a video that shows you how to make an uncomplicated DIY fidget spinner, this could be a great one to try.
16. Fidget Spinners You Can Make at Home
If you liked the video with Rob in #15 because of the way he only uses simple materials, this one will probably appeal to you too. In this video, they show you how to make 10 different fidget spinners from stuff you probably have lying around at home, including coke bottle tops or old cigarette lighters. It just goes to show how even pieces of household trash can be put to unexpected new uses.
17. Captain America Fidget Spinner
Fidget spinners don’t need to be complicated or difficult to make. But when you make them, the only limit to the designs you can produce is your own imagination. This YouTube video shows you how to make a fidget spinner that looks like Captain America’s shield out of a few strips of tin. Oh, and if you think the style looks familiar, we’ve already seen this guy twice before – he’s the one who likes making fidget spinners out of bullet shells.
18. The Fastest Fidget Spinner?
This video is almost mesmerizing. It shows someone making a fidget spinner with several layers of bearings to create a version that seems to spin forever. Is it the fastest one ever? We’re not sure about that. But he sets it spinning at the end and times it to see how long it takes to stop by itself – and the result is astonishing. How long do you think it lasts?
19. Fidget Spinner from Candy
You remember the two guys who made the fidget spinner from gallium in #11? The guys who seem to love playing about with stuff? Well, one of them is back, and here he has a video that shows you a fidget spinner he made from candy. Yes, a fidget spinner you can eat! We’re not sure if that’s such a great idea…but you can check it out on YouTube and make up your own mind.
20. Basic DIY Fidget Spinner
So it might be a lot of fun watching people making fidget spinners from candy or crazy metals, but maybe you’re looking for a plan that’s a bit more practical to follow and that will give you a fidget spinner you can actually use. If that sounds like you, give this video a watch. Here, the YouTuber – or perhaps we can say “artist” – makes a fidget spinner from resin. And check out the end result – it’s as professional as anything you might buy in a store.
21. Fidget Spinner from Paper
To finish up, here’s one last ingenious design for a fidget spinner, this time made from paper and using no bearings. This is about as easy as it gets – we know that some of the plans we’ve included might be beyond some people’s capabilities, but at least this last one is a design that anyone can try. It’s another video with no commentary, just someone demonstrating how it’s done. So why not see if you can do it too?
A fun and challenging DIY project
There are so many ways to make fidget spinners, from the simple to the highly advanced. They make fun and challenging DIY projects to take on and are a great way to motivate kids to be creative. And if you liked any of the plans in our list, why not have a go yourself?