Anyone have experience making spinning tops or metal pens?

Machine Shop
#1

you know how little spinning tops are like huge now for some reason? i do think theyre kind of cool, but its got this cult following now. Im a pen guy, love pens. kickstarter pens, titanium pens, tactical pens, all kinds really. but i really wanted to make a pen that had a little spinning top integrated into it somehow. in a perfect world you could allow it to detach somehow and spin by itself, but the main thing would be to allow it to spin while attached to the pen. that way when you wanna fidget with your pen you could just sit there spinning the little top with your thumb while youre holding it. then if it was able to be removed you could like turn it upside, start spinning it and pull the pen away the top would just be spinning on the table…i dont know, just thought that popped into my head. im a total fidgeter and the little fidget cube thats kicking butt on kickstarter right now has got my brain spinning with ideas. hayyyy-yoooo, that was punny wasnt it! rimshot!!!

but anyone have any experience making spinning tops or metal pens?

1 Like
#2

Not mine, but here.
Could have sworn I saw a pen made of metal in one of the monthly show&tell threads. Maybe it’s on the blog…

Anyway. The fidget cube is mind-blowing (as in WTF? $5MIL pledged? Really? wish i’d thought of it).
Sadly, for me, if I can’t take something apart, my fidget is usually ruined. I take pens apart. So after a class, a meeting, or any other time I’m not riveted to the goings-on, I end up with a busted pen, and ink all over my hands. So I like your idea of something that come apart. But not a fan of someone sitting there spinning a top. They tend to be noisy, IMO. But maybe it would help my type of fidgetiness, even if I refrain from spinning and just take it apart and put it back together and take it apart and put it back together and take it apart…

1 Like
#3

it was probably mine from the August show and tell.
Not a lot of magic to it really. Standard pen kit. I just replaced the tube-in-a-wood-barrel with
a solid brass barrel with the correct inner and outer diameters to match the other parts and innards. cheers!

#4

That was probably it.

Thank you for corroborating!
I hate it when I can’t find something I am SURE I saw!
for reference
and