December 19, 2025
Description
A fast & smooth spinning fidget that makes use of planetary gears and a spiraling vortex motif. Spins well both held vertically or horizontally thanks to the herringbone (double helical) gear design. This is a completely print-in-place design, and will print reliably even with silk filaments thanks to solid circles where the model adheres to the build plate. It should spin nicely right off the build plate after you let it cool, but a drop of oil will do wonders if you want even higher speed.
Three different print profiles are provided, for either single color, two color, or four color prints (the dual color one shown in the featured picture was my very first print using the Vortek System on the H2C). The standard size is 8.5 cm in diameter, and also provided is a scaled / smaller profile that is 7 cm in diameter. Scaling to even smaller sizes should be possible as well, depending on how tight of tolerances your printer can handle (if you give this a try, consider scaling the z-axis separately from the x/y).
For the other designers out there, I'm sharing below the key settings for what I found to work best after numerous tests:
License:
MakerWorld Exclusive License