Behold the Gear Cube!

Welcome to the Gear Cube, a fun fidgety contraption. This satisfying quiet toy is sure not to distract your friends. It has been modified for complete quietness. It is the quietest thing I have ever printed—that is a moving object fidget of-course—I am sure you friends will love it. It is 100% teacher approved as they will never hear it; unless, physically having a fidget is against the rules then, I am so sorry I cannot help you there. It is so addicting my teacher asked to see mine and then could not stop playing with it for the next 20 min of class. Also, there is enough room in between the gears to make it almost impossible to pinch your fingers!

Why the remix? 

Over my year of fidgeting with the fidget, I found the original gear cube was hard to turn, squeaky, and was quite disturbing to others. I also found the edges to be pretty sharp, even for me—I do not want to admit how many times I have stepped on it because my dog pulled it on the ground. Anyway, I thought it right to fix these changes, as I used to bring it to school, but my teacher did not like the squeeeeeeak sound it made as it turned. Credit to the original designer Emmett, it is really addicting!

What's changed?

• The Center piece has a new rest inset inside for the pins, this way they do not squeak because they were constantly under tension.
• I redesigned the corner gears, so now the edges are less sharp and are filleted to make holding the model more comfortable.
• Scaled entire model to 125% (on the large print profile) to make it easier for kids and adults to both use. (scale back to 80% for original size or use the other print profile)
• Adapted pin sizes, so they do not squeak and have less friction against the center.
• Also, increased spacing between the gear pieces and added more flex, so finger pinching is almost impossible, also even it does happen, fingers are not pinched because the gears flex outwards instead of squeezing the skin. 

Recommended Filament:

You can print in just about anything. But know, different filaments will produce different tolerances for the pieces. I suggest if you use other filaments that are not PETG or PLA (those are what I have tested) you should test different pin sizes because the pin's grip will change depending on the filament.

MAKE SURE YOU DRY YOUR FILAMENT! Otherwise, the more wet filament will make it squeak, as imperfections in the pins could cause squeaking.

Silk PLA (not necessary but looks really cool!)

• I recommended some filaments that look amazing with it. (see BOM above) 

Other Recommendations:

• I would highly suggest Ironing on all top surfaces; yes, I know it increases print times, but it looks so much better! Especially on the filleted corners!
• I highly suggest printing the large print profile because it is so much more fun to use, and it fits so much better in adult hands!

Assembly:

*NOTE* Pliers could be helpful, but I have not needed them myself. 

The assembly is very simple and self-explanatory.

Step 1:

• Press all the pins/connectors into the center piece.
  • Small pins go in the holes on the small faces of the center piece. (see video)
  • Big pins go in the holes on the big faces of the center piece. (see video)

Step 2:

• Assemble the big gears on the large faces.

Step 3:

• Assemble the little gears
  • Use the same assembly method as the big gears, aligning each gear to mesh with the ones next to it.
  • Keep track of "alignment" when pressing them in, when done they should make a cube that has the tips cut off. Any offset gear will be obvious. This is important otherwise it will not work properly! Try to align each side edge of each gear with the other one to ensure that the gears all line up in the end.

Step 4: 

• Enjoy the finished product! If you did it correctly it should look like the one below.

Assembly Guide:

Notes:

Over time the fidget might become less quiet. (this happened to me after using it for 6 months) If this happens, there is a simple fix, disassemble the gear cube, and then reassemble it. This has worked for me, if this does not work for you, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to find you a solution.

With my practice printing it I have never run into issues with it squeaking; it is always dead silent, but if you have an issue:

1. Try disassembling and reassembling the fidget. (I know this sounds weird but squeaking normally happens with a certain pin with a specific gear section so switching them helps a lot.)
2. Try to add some lubricant to the pins. 
3. If none of these ways work, please leave a comment describing your problem, with your printer + material and I can see if I can change some tolerances to fix it.

If you have any feedback let me know! I'm sure this can be improved even more; I'll do my best to correct it. 

That's it! Fun Fidgeting!