What is a bead spinner?
A bead spinner is a tool that helps you get beads on wire fast for making French beaded flowers or other types of beadwork. If you would like to see how it works, check out my French beading fundamentals video on youtube >> The timestamp for bead stringing is at the 14:59 min mark. If you would like to purchase a standard wooden bead spinner, this is the one I recommend > Spin n Bead Jr.
DIY Lego bead spinner for French beaded flowers
If you are in a country where you can’t find a bead spinner but have access to Lego bricks, then this post (and video) is for you!
Last year, my son (9 years old at the time), designed a bead spinner using Legos! Since he didn’t want to make a video whenever I asked him, I decided to go ahead and do the best I can.
The Lego bead spinner is designed like a conventional spinner with two parts: the base and the bowl. I’m not good with Legos and don’t know how to write instructions for them so hopefully these specs are understandable. If you love Lego bricks or know someone who is a fanatic, it should be figure-outable 😉
Specs for the bowl:
- 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) in height
- 8 X 8
- Two walls with 1 X 8 pieces
- Two walls with 1 X 6 pieces
- Bottom of bowl is lined with 6 (six) 1 X 6 flat top pieces
Specs for the base:
- 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) in height
- 8 X 8
- can be built with any pieces
- Crucial part to attach the bowl to the base is the 2 X 2 “spinny” piece
- Line the outer walls with flat top pieces
The Lego bead spinner with slide if it’s used by itself and it will be less effecitve. Put the spinner on a larger Lego and use it in a tray with a edge and it will stay nicely in place as it is spun.
Overall, the bead spinner made with Lego bricks is not as fast as a conventional bead spinner but it definitely works very well. I love using it!
For more DIY Beadspinners, check out these other posts:
DIY Bead spinner using VCR parts
