DIY Giant Spin Art Made From an Old Box Fan!

I am so excited to share this super fun summer craft! When I saw the Colors of the Rainbow Contest I immediately thought of this project my dad and I worked on a few summers back and thought I'd share it with you guys! If you enjoy this DIY, I would greatly appreciate voting for me for the Colors of the Rainbow Contest!!! This gives you some super cool spin art pieces that you can hang up in your home! Not to mention this keeps your kids occupied and amused. Our family holds an art craft each summer, and this was a no contest favorite with the kids in every single group. It's such an easy craft to make, and lots of the materials are likely something you have lying around somewhere (at least if you're a hoarder like me). Let's get into what you need!

Step 1: Sketching Out a Plan (and Supplies)

Supplies

Plywood

Nails (and obviously a hammer) OR a nail-gun (which is what I used)

Large picture frame

Small piece of rubber and rubber glue

Wood glue

Drill

Box fan

Two tennis balls (optional)

Clothespins

And of course, some paper and craft paint to start making your art!

Plan Sketch

If you can get your hand on an average sized box fan, then these measurements should probably work out for you. If it's a few inches too big/too small, then just adjust your measurements accordingly. Let me explain which drawing is which to make things a bit more clear

Top Left Image

This is a technically not a mandatory step, but as you can see in the rest of the images, a lot of paint gets slung around in the process. This wooden box is very simple to assemble. If you have even just the very most basic level of knowledge about nailing a hammer into wood, then this step will be super easy for you!

Top Right Image

This is simply just a frame I picked up at Michaels just for stability purposes. This one was just a crazy lucky fit, and you might not necessarily find one like mine. Another option is to put some rubber stoppers on the bottom, or even build one if you are so inclined to do so. If you decide to go this route however, be sure that you cover the bottom of the box or paint will go flying everywhere.

Bottom Left Image

This is the spinning part that you will clip you paper to. I used an octagon instead of a square because the edges would hit the sides of the box, and then it doesn't flow correctly and it won't tun out nice and even. The image just above this one to the right is the wooden circle that I super-glued to the octagon so it could rotate.

Bottom Right Image

Lastly, this is an image of the "support beam" used to make the box. Again, I suppose this isn't entirely necessary, but I just lined four of these around the corners of the box for stability. So let's get on to how to assemble it!

Step 2: Building the Main Box

For simply putting the four sheets of plywood together, I nail-gunned the four sides together, using the little "support beams" as a means of connecting them. It's pretty self explanatory, but if you just have any questions just ask down below!

Step 3: Disassembling the Fan

For this step all you need to do is take of the front cage/screen, and pull of the fan blade. Seriously, it's that easy. Notice that little knob in the middle of that circle where the fan used to rest? That's important for our next step.

Step 4: Making the Wood Circle for Rotation

If you look closely, you can tell that I glued two wooden discs together. This was of of a trial and error piece. You can especially tell that we didn't really know what we were doing when you see that haphazard rubber all around the middle. Luckily you can learn from our mistakes! We were nervous about the wood being a bit too weak to support the octagon and powerful rotation. Thinking back on it, I don't think it would have been too big of a deal if we had left it on the thinner side. We drilled a hole in the wood, but after a few times of using it we began to realize that wood+friction+paper=trouble. We then used some rubber glue to apply some scrap rubber onto the bottom. Be careful when drilling though! You want this part to snugly fit on top of the little knob I was talking about earlier. If you do happen to mess up however, just do what I do when I mess up something and just superglue it together! I'm sure it'd be fine. Once this part is assembled, you can use some wood glue to attach it to the center of your octagon. Then just pop it on to the knob of the fan!

Step 5: Optional: Tennis Balls to Make the Fan More Snug

Another thing we noticed after a little bit was that the fan made a ton of noise, and often shook around. We decided to buffer the sides with some tennis balls, and it worked out great! Every fan is different, so you might not run into this problem at all.

Step 6: Try It Out!

Now all you have to do is place a piece of paper on you octagon, pin it down with your clothespins, and turn on you new spin art machine! Just pour some craft paint onto wherever you want a ring to be. I've really wanted to try watercolor recently as well, so I might be doing that next.

Step 7: Show Off Your Work!

There are endless possibilities to what you can create! So get creative with it! If any of you decide to make this, I'd LOVE to see what you can do! Show me down below in the comments! Again, if you like this project, it would mean a lot to me if you would vote for me in the Colors of the Rainbow Contest. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm always here!