I heard about the whole Fidget Spinner craze early on, but it took me a while to finally make one of my own. I had seen so many folks come up with their own version of them, from the beautiful to the outlandish, but if I was going to carry one around, I figured I might as well get some use out of it.
I first came across this bottle opener concept in my beginning metalworking class at Tech Shop. Its design could not be simpler – you drill a pretty big hole in a piece of flat metal stock, and then use a bandsaw to give it a few openings so that it forms a hook. Then you hook it under the edge of the cap, and pry it off.
I wanted to use this same design in a fidget spinner. It went through a handful of different design iterations – making sure that the body of the spinner had enough leverage to pry the cap off, but keeping it short enough that it could spin freely in my hand. One of the breakthroughs was adding these bumps to the flat part of the opener. This acts like an anvil or fulcrum against the top of the bottle cap, helping to fold it over as you pry it off.
If you are interested in making your own, please feel free to use my design files. I used Fusion 360 for all of my cad/cam work, but you can also use the DXF or SVG files in whatever cam software you like.
.SVG File (Right-Click, Save-As)
The design was intended to be cut from quarter inch aluminum on a CNC machine, and the parts should be far enough apart that you can use a .25 inch diameter bit. I would love to see what you come up with in this design!
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