Looking for spinner bearings (help)

[grafixmonkey]

Anybody have good ideas for what I could use for bearings, to make a spinner that spins nicely?   I've checked hardware stores and all I've found is funny looks and confused expressions from the sales-robots.

I liked the hard drive idea but I don't think I have any old hard drives, and our local "buy really old computer crap" store just went out of business.

[Xiaou2]

 Trackball bearings work pretty awesome.  Some high grade Rollerblade berings can as well... but, the shaft size will be incompatible with most things.

 All in all though... its easier to go with a prooven quality spinner such as the one at  http://www.slikstik.com/.

  Youll probably save yourself a lot of headaches, mechanical failures, and a lot of wasted time.  I speak from experience in this regaurd.

[grafixmonkey]

I'm thinking about it.  It's the cost of them mostly.  I'm too poor to build this machine.    

Maybe that'll change when I get out of college.

[TheManuel]

I'm thinking about it.  It's the cost of them mostly.  I'm too poor to build this machine.    
Maybe that'll change when I get out of college.

I'm building one using the motor of an old hard drive.
There are a couple of examples of projects like that in the Controls section of this website.  They spin really nice and I'm sure you can find a dead hard drive somewhere.
If you go for it, make sure you get several hard drives as not all of them have motors suitable for this application.  Some of them have part of the motor built into the HD case and you cannot remove it.  Some others, don't have spinning parts that show up on both ends of the motor and are no good either.

Good luck.

[nighthawk2099]

I just finished my home made spinner.  Used motor/bearing parts from a 6gig HD that crashed.  Super glued some large washers on the bottom for weight.  Threaded a #4 thread shaft, some #4 nuts and washers, and a rubber caster wheel for the knob.  Really spins good........ I guess I really should take some pictures of the darn thing..... I'll try and do that tonight.

<update>

Took some pics.... not real great, but hopefully they will help.

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner1.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner2.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner3.jpg

[ErikRuud]

Xiao2,
My spinner was made almost entirely with parts from Ace Hardware (except for the electronics).  It only cost about $30.00 including the mouse.  It took a little more than an hour to assemble, and it has worked perfectly ever since.

GrafixMonkey,
I went to my local Ace Hardware and looked through the little drawers of parts that they all have.  I found a pair of bairngs that had a flange on one side.  I drilled a hole through my cp that was a hiar larger than the main body of the bairing.  I used a large bolt with the head cut off as the shaft.  A pair of nuts on the bottom and the spinner knob on top hold the bairings in place.

The only problem with these bairings was the thick grease that was in them.  A good soaking with WD-40 cleared out the grease and then I lubed them with a silicone spray that I had.  The spin great.

[grafixmonkey]

Rats, and I just a few hours ago sent in an order for a Tornado spinner.  I figured all I was gonna get were "my hard drive spinner works awesome" posts.  (see quote from original message):  

I liked the hard drive idea but I don't think I have any old hard drives, and our local "buy really old computer crap" store just went out of business.

(No worries guys!  Thanks for the help anyway!)

That sounds like some respectable hardware work though.  If I build in a spinner for the second player I'll keep your project in mind.  Guess I got in a money-spending mood, and didn't much wanna mess with code wheels and mouse hacking.  Damn the internet and its instant impulse shopping!  

[Pyronious]

Hey for what it's worth my Torndado spinner arrived today in the mail, and it was like Christmas in July.  The build quality on this thing really is amazing, and the thing spins forever.

I feel like I could have hacked one together as well, but the Tornado is a work of art.  I'm happy and I'll bet you will be too.

P.

[grafixmonkey]

Probably will be.    My favorite games are the spinner games!

[Brax]

I just finished my home made spinner.  Used motor/bearing parts from a 6gig HD that crashed.  Super glued some large washers on the bottom for weight.  Threaded a #4 thread shaft, some #4 nuts and washers, and a rubber caster wheel for the knob.  Really spins good........ I guess I really should take some pictures of the darn thing..... I'll try and do that tonight.

<update>

Took some pics.... not real great, but hopefully they will help.

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner1.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner2.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner3.jpg

"Great, now you've gone and done it. You've broken the Internet.
Way to go! "

Crap, I always do that!

Or as Homer says, "Ooo, they have that on computers now?"

[nighthawk2099]

I just finished my home made spinner.  Used motor/bearing parts from a 6gig HD that crashed.  Super glued some large washers on the bottom for weight.  Threaded a #4 thread shaft, some #4 nuts and washers, and a rubber caster wheel for the knob.  Really spins good........ I guess I really should take some pictures of the darn thing..... I'll try and do that tonight.

<update>

Took some pics.... not real great, but hopefully they will help.

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner1.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner2.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nighthawk2099/images/mame/spinner3.jpg

"Great, now you've gone and done it. You've broken the Internet.
Way to go! "

Crap, I always do that!

Or as Homer says, "Ooo, they have that on computers now?"

My bad.... My bad....  I've been redoing my webpage, and got a little to happy with the deleting.... they should work now....