Carousel Spinner

I nearly spit my cereal out at my laptop looking at this! It’s so simple, but extremely pleasant to the eye. To help with the spinning, I would suggest some skateboard wheel bearings. In order for a wheel on a skateboard to spin, it requires bearings on both the inside and the outside with the trucks (basically the axle) going through these bearings. Basically if you turned your carousel to the side, it would be like a wheel. It’s also exactly how a fidget spinner works.

Anyway, I’d say I’m impressed, but this is exactly the sort of thing I expect when I click on your posts :wink: Seriously, though, this is amazing!

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Thanks! I hadn’t thought of roller bearings, but given how well they work in the roulette wheel and lazy Susan, I might have to see if I can find some really small ones.

Skateboard could work. Redesign ahead.

And we’ll have the kids riding the horses doing this number…:nauseated_face:.
:wink:

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Fantastic work, Jules. This is really something!

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Thanks you guys. :blush:

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Wow…if you know the good job song, it’s playing!!

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Ohmygosh @jules, you just continue to amaze! This thing is adorable—is it a coincidence that it appears to be exactly the right size for a hedgie?:wink:

If you ever hit St Louis, there is a vintage one in Faust Park in Chesterfield that you ought to see. I just about got sick riding the horses—my equilibrium isn’t what it used to be…

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This is absolutely gorgeous! I have thought about doing this as well once I get better acquainted with Cutty.

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That is so cool. I’ve been trying to think of uses for the roller bearings I have 3D printed and this is a great application of it! Got me thinking to do poles going up and down.

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Real ones use rods & axles with articulated joints. For this I’d just embed a wave shaped ring with gentle undulations - probably only needs to be about a half inch tall space to house the ring. The poles would ride up & down on the undulations as you turn the carousel.

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Yeah. Like that wave thing that showed up here somewhere along the line. That’s what I was thinking of.

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Excellent job! I like it. :carousel_horse::carousel_horse:

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I thought → Ah, simple. Face gearing with Spur takeout and an off center disc on far end for pole to ride on.
3D print? Hard to do on forge… Quick doodle and looks promising.
But - Dunno - that is a lot of moving parts and not the Forge Method.

How about a wave track on the outside skirt that the pole rode on as it circled?
Hmm, lot of friction there. Which would have less. Wood plastic metal? Maybe a tiny bearing or wheel on pole end?

Then I took a deep breath, and said → Stop It !!!
Tossed the drawing and went to fill my coffee cup.

That one comment turned into such a rabbit hole over here, heh heh.

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Ummm… This is FANTASTIC!!! Way to go!!

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Yeah, I’m going to worry about getting it to go round and round before i worry about it going up and down… :smile:

(yes, i thought about it too)

And I’ve got an order in for a couple of parts that might work, so it’s in redesign again. With a bearing I might be able to pull off the center spinner.
(Thanks a bunch @Xabbess and @raymondking32:wink:)

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Beautiful ! Another turning option would be to but a music box assembly to mount it on (wind up plus play carousel music !!

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So very awesome! Great design and execution Jules.

I immediately thought of my recent purchase from Tap Plastic. This one is 4" across and they may have had a smaller ones. I had planned on taking it apart and seeing if I could just use the bearings and holder thingy in the middle. Pretty darn cheap too!

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That one’s a little large, but I just picked up something almost exactly like that in metal, and its only 50 mm OD - should be here over the next week or so. (Not Prime, unfortunately, and not $2.30 either. Bleh!) :neutral_face:

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I had a small carousel lamp on my night stand when I was a kid. I remember that it was also a music box. You would wind it up by turning it counter-clockwise and the carousel would turn clockwise as the music played.

I had not thought of that carousel in a very long time. Thank you for bringing back that memory. I remember it fondly. I can hear the music in my head right now.

Your’s looks great too. Perhaps you could find a small wind-up music box to incorporate into it.

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Fun!! Looks great.

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@Jules, I LOVE this one. I grew up in the Carousel Capital of the World (Binghamton, NY) and each summer we would go around to all the local carousels and get a pin or sticker or whatever the “token” was for that year, and once we completed the whole circuit you could present your tokens at various places and get things for free! (I seem to remember an ice cream shop offering free ice cream, and pizza hut doing a free personal pan pizza in exchange for the tokens)

You just had to ride each one multiple times so you could get multiple free things at the end. Very fond memories.

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