Thumb Drum, a 3D-printed thumb drum
Photo: LoboCNC via Printables, CC BY-SA. Resized and converted to WebP.
Percussion · Thumb drum

Thumb Drum

A pocket drum played by flicking two printed drumsticks with your thumbnail

Designed by LoboCNC, published on Printables

CC BY-SA Commercial use OK Build info 5/5

Licence verified on Printables, 20 October 2026.

Size
Pocket-sized
Skin
Exactly 2 layers at 0.2 mm
Parts
Drum with skin, 2 drumsticks, 2 fulcrums
Colours
Single colour, or print-on-print two colours
Difficulty
Easy
On Printables
283 likes · 885 downloads · 11 makes · 15 comments (as of 20 Oct 2026)

About the Thumb Drum

'More annoying than all those clicky-clicky fidgets', says the designer. It's a pocket-sized drum that keeps your fingers busy and is surprisingly loud. The drum body and its skin are in one file. Print it as is for a single colour, or split it in the slicer: print the skin in one colour, then without removing it, print the body on top in another. Use 0.2 mm layers so the skin comes out exactly two layers thick. Also print two drumsticks and two fulcrums.

Slide each fulcrum over the thumb lever of a drumstick. It pushes the stick closer to the head and stops it bouncing after each beat. Then clip the sticks into the side brackets. Hold the curved finger notches between your index and middle fingers and flick the end of a stick with your thumbnail. Changing the angle changes the intensity. The video is a short solo by 'the world's most rhythmically challenged engineer' (the designer).

What you'll need

Printed parts

  • Drum body with skin
  • 2 drumsticks
  • 2 fulcrums

Bought parts

  • Nothing

Build overview

Video

Play video: Thumb Drum (loads YouTube)
Thumb Drum, Jeff Kerr (the designer). Plays from youtube-nocookie.com after you click.

Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Video thumbnails are © their creators.

Photos

All photos: LoboCNC, from the design page on Printables, licensed CC BY-SA. We resized them and converted them to WebP. These adapted versions are shared under the same licence.

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