Fidget toys are a great way to give your hands something to do when you’re thinking, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll want more than one of them. It’s always nice to have a little library of fidget toys to have on hand, but it can get pretty costly pretty quickly. However, what if you could just 3D-print toys instead? Fortunately, there are a ton of projects out there that let you do just that, so let’s check out a few and see what you can print.
And there’s a whole bunch to choose from
First up is the article that inspired me to write this one. These little 3D printed musical fidget toys are a little unique, but very easy to make. They consist of about three or four parts that you pick clean and snap together to make what’s essentially a little box full of prongs. You also get a little tab you can slide along the top.
The idea behind this box is that, as you slide the tab, it catches on each of the prongs, which are sized to resonate at a specific frequency. This then plays a note, and when you combine it with the other prongs, it reproduces a song in a method not too unlike a kalimba.
The best bit is, there are a ton of these little musical boxes you can print off and play, so you can fidget to your heart’s content with an entire arsenal of these things. You can check them all out over on Makerworld.
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3D print a fidget cube for endless toying
It’s an easy print, too
Have you tried a fidget cube before? They’re one of my personal fidget toys, but it’s hard to explain what they actually do.
Fidget cubes are a 2×2 cube where each segment is connected via hinges. The hinges allow you to fold the cube in one of two ways. When you fold it in one direction, the cube enters a state where it can either be folded back to its original state or folded into a new state. If you continue forward, the cube takes on different forms and states before it eventually “wraps around” to become a cube again. People usually call these “infinity cubes” because it feels like you’re making endless forward progress while toying with it.
Want to give one a try? Well, you can 3D print one. Enter the Kobayashi Fidget Cube, a remix of pkobayashi’s fat-hinged fidget cube, which in turn has been remixed several times by the community to appeal to different tastes. Give it a print and see how you like it; then check out the remixes to find one that suits your needs best.
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Check out this veritable smorgasbord of stuff you can 3D print
Look at them all!
If neither of those two toys does it for you, then boy, have I found the collection for you. This video by Marc3DP not only shows off a ton of toys for you to consider, but they’ve also done the right thing and linked to every single toy they demonstrated in the video, so you can make one too.
There are a ton to choose from, and they all come with different printing complexities, so be sure to pick one that suits your 3D printing skills. My personal pick? The Bolt Action Barrel Toy. I’ve never seen a fidget toy that looks like it was modelled off the M1 Garand reload process, including ejecting the bullet cartridge, but I must admit, it looks like an absolute blast to toy with when you’ve got the itchy fingers.
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3D print your next favorite fidget toy
When I first saw the little music boxes you can 3D print, it got me thinking if you can create other fidget toys to keep your hands happy. Well, turns out, you definitely can, and they come in all kinds of levels of complexity and fidget styles. Hopefully, you’ve found the next best thing to toy with while you’re figuring out why your cost isn’t working.
