Making Room for the 12" Silent Spinner

Eriklover555 · 03-31-2013, 10:20 PM

I thought I'd share how I made my silent spinner work in a bin cage when I couldn't fit the stand in. I can add pics later if anyone would like to see details.

Okay, so the only tools I used were the 12" Silent Spinner, a soldering iron, and a very (very) sharp knife. [note: my knife isn't a craft or kitchen knife, it's a work knife, or what I like to call a "construction" knife. It has a removable blade that can be replaced, and it can be dangerous!!!! Please use caution. They can be bought at hardware stores.]

First, remove the stand. It should pull free from the wheel with some wiggling. Set it aside - who knows if you'll need to return the wheel or maybe you'll get a bigger cage someday and prefer to use the stand.

Next, make sure that your wheel will fit in the bin without the stand. Mine could fit with only a 3/4 in (~1.9 cm) of space. I found that this is the absolute smallest gap you could have, for reasons that will be explained later.

If you've determined that your wheel can fit, mark the spot on the side of the bin where the spindle (big yellow piece) will be. If you have a clear bin, this is easy ^^ If not, you can solder the spot on the inside of your bin instead of the outside.

Plug in your soldering iron and let it heat. Remove the nut. Once it's hot, carefully begin melting a hole. I stopped every so often to see if the bolt (the thing the nut screws onto) fit. You want to stop soldering once it can fit with no wiggle room between the bolt and plastic, or it will wobble.

Wait fifteen minutes to avoid getting burnt by molten plastic.

Once that step is done, it's time to carefully cut off any plastic that's bunched over the hole. I learned this the hard way: if you don't, your nut will not tighten fully, and instead pop out of joint and possibly strip the bolt. So try to get the area around the hole as smooth as possible

Woohoo! Now you just have to correctly place your spinner on, and you're done. Align your wheel with the bearings pointed down, slip the bolt through the hole, and tighten the nut ^^ Try it out by hand spinning it, and it should work.

If it doesn't work, dig out the substrate from underneath. My hammy regularly shoves hers under the wheel, and it can cause a bit of a wheel jam ;p

I hope this is helpful to anyone with a shorter bin. PM me or reply in this thread if there's any clarification necessary.

jesselle · 04-01-2013, 08:09 AM

can we see a photo of it in the bin cage?

Eriklover555 · 04-01-2013, 02:20 PM

Sure, I'll snap one and upload it tonight ^^

Eriklover555 · 04-17-2013, 05:54 PM

Sorry! I totally forgot that I promised to upload of the photo of it in the cage. Here's one:

EDIT, whoops, wrong photo! Right one's here now.

countrygirl · 04-19-2013, 07:49 AM

Very cool! Great idea!

Eriklover555 · 04-19-2013, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countrygirl

Very cool! Great idea!

Thank you, but it was mostly a creative necessity! I had the bin cage all set up, and the stand wouldn't fit ^^ I did this as a last ditch attempt, and it took a few days of tweaking to get it perfect.

Queen Of The High Teas · 04-23-2013, 04:11 PM

That's really clever and a neat idea. I find the sand on a SS tends to add quite a bit of height to the wheel, stopping it fitting in places.

Eriklover555 · 04-23-2013, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wobbles

That's really clever and a neat idea. I find the sand on a SS tends to add quite a bit of height to the wheel, stopping it fitting in places.

lol, you should've seen me panic when I couldn't fit it in there! I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off for about 15 minutes, trying to figure out how to make it work ...