Hey guys, you’re watching QDCrafts and today
I’ll be showing you how I made these DIY
fidget cubes using perler beads and a few
materials that you can get right at home.
Whether you like these fidget toys or your
find them really annoying, I just made these
for fun and I wanted to see if I could actually
make one using perler beads.
I think they turned out alright and I have
to say that it was pretty fun trying to design
the mechanisms for the functions on each side
of the cube and this project definitely challenges
your perler beading and assembling skills.
If you hate these things, well..I’m sorry…
but if you actually find these things fun
or helpful then don’t forget to leave a
thumbs up and now, let’s start with all
the materials you’ll need.
The top of the list should be fuse bead supplies.
Artkal or perler are the brands I use, you’ll
need a round and square pegboard, ironing
paper and an iron.
I also used an x-acto knife, wire clippers
and a hot glue gun.
And lastly, I used a spring from a broken
pen, a paperclip, toothpick, rubber band and
marble.
Here are the designs for the 6 sides of the
cube that took me around 10 minutes to place
the individual beads onto the pegboard.
It’s the same template that I’ve been
using for all my Minecraft figures so this
may look familiar to some of you who’ve
seen my older videos.
I chose a very basic grey and orange combo,
but you can choose whatever colours you like
and don’t be shy to show me what colour
combos you pick.
To iron, I set my iron at 3 and placed a piece
of parchment paper on top of all the pieces.
Some of you may be more comfortable using
the masking tape method which I highly recommend,
but I just wanted to do this quicker so ironed
everything on the board.
The moment you see an imprint of all the fused
beads on the parchment paper, then you know
that that side is done and once the other
side is fused as well, you just have to wait
for the pieces to cool down.
These are how the beads look after ironing,
you can still see the little holes quite clearly
and now I’m assembling all the pieces into
a cube.
So this is the main structure of the fidget
cube and this side is just the bottom of the
cube that also has the function of making
a bead clicking noise that some of you apparently
find satisfying.
The next function that I’m demonstrating
on my prototype cube is the circle spinner.
This is really easy, you just need to assemble
a circular bead piece, fuse it, get a toothpick
and stick it through the middle of the circle
and then through the middle of the grey piece.
You may have to loosen up the space between
the fused beads to get the spinner to move
smoothly, but once you secure the pieces,
that’s all there is to it.
I got some clippers to cut off the excess
wood and sanded the sharp end smooth.
Snap the piece back into place and this is
the completed spinner side.
Now I’ll be building the joystick side so
I’ll need this piece and then I made an
orange ring and a plus sign shaped piece.
The plus sign goes on top of the ring and
then onto the grey piece, but first I glued
the orange pieces together using hot glue.
To attach the orange piece to the grey piece,
I cut a rubber band, threaded it through the
middle of the orange piece, back through another
bead and then tied a knot.
BTW I got the idea of using a rubber band
from a video that I’ll link below.
The other end goes through the grey piece
and I tied a knot to keep it in place.
And now the orange piece is able to move in
a similar motion as a joystick switch.
To make the ball roller, I have to use this
piece, an extra square and circle piece, and
we can’t forget the marble that will sit
perfectly tight in the gap.
Glue the circle onto the square, check that
the marble doesn’t fall through the square
frame, and glue this onto the main grey piece.
I don’t know if kids even play with marbles
anymore, but this is a fairly standard sized
glass marble that shouldn’t be too hard
to find so maybe get a huge bag of marbles
from the dollar store to find that perfect
one.
Next up is the switch and you’ll need to
get an extra bead and a paperclip.
The orange rectangle you see will have to
be cut out from the grey piece so that it
can fit precisely back into it later on.
So whatever colour you want your switch to
be, make sure that it is fused together with
the grey beads for this to work.
I carefully cut the rectangle out using my
x-acto knife on both sides and now you can
see how it moves smoothly between the grey
beads.
Then I took ta single bead and glued it onto
the middle of the switch.
This acts as the pivot point that will allow
the switch to move like a seesaw.
Then I unwound the paperclip and cut a small
rod from it.
The rod can then go through the hole in the
single bead and be glued onto the grey beads
using hot glue.
That’s it, now you can flip the switch and
it also makes a loud enough clicking noise
that sounds really nice.
Finally, this is the last side of the fidget
cube and is the hardest to assemble.
It has a line of rolling beads and a square
button that you can press quietly.
Here are all the pieces you’ll need and
similar to the side with the switch, the square
button is fused with the grey beads and will
need to be cut out using an x-acto knife.
Next I’m taking these 1x2 pieces and gluing
them near the button and then put a small
dot of glue on the button to attach the spring.
The spring will probably be too long so I
took my clippers and cut the spring so that
it’s around the same length as the 1x2 bead
pieces.
Then I took the rectangle piece and glued
it onto the spring and the other two pieces
so this allows the spring to be able to push
down onto a surface.
For the rolling beads, you’ll have to cut
out a strip of 4 beads to create a space for
the beads to go into.
After that, you have to clip off a rod from
a paper clip and it’s length should just
touch the outside of the space you just cut
out.
You can fit 3 beads onto the rod and once
you glue each side of the rod onto the grey
piece, this side of the cube is done.
Snap it back with the rest of the sides, and
this is my completed perler bead fidget cube!
Thanks so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed
this tutorial.
This fidget cube has 7 things for you to play
with, you can spin, flip, roll, press, roll
again, glide and click!
I don’t think I fidget often, so this whole
wave of fidget toys is not something I’ll
really understand, but after making this cube,
I can kind of see the why people would like
to play with this when they’re thinking
or just contemplating their life decisions.
As always it’s really fun to create things
that I never thought I could create using
these plastic beads, so if you’d like to
see more, don’t forget to subscribe and
I will see you guys next time with another
QDCraft!