Hey everyone! I’m pretty new to the forums here, and just wanted to get involved a bit. I’ve read a ton of posts about string making and wanted to share some I’ve made recently. I just make strings for myself, not to sell, and I don’t think I’ll ever sell them because I learned from a good friend who sells strings and told me some of his secrets so I wouldn’t want to profit from his kindness. Anyway, here’s some strings I made, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you guys and learning more! These are all polyester/nylon blend, even though I’m pretty new to yoyo I got spoiled having really good strings early on.
Thank you! I got some tips from Cody over at Lifeline Strings, and my mom happened to have a few spools of the thread Cody recommended, so she let me use them so I could find which colors I like best before buying a bunch. That grey is one she loaned me, and it worked out really nice! I’ve made about 40 strings in the past few days just trying out a ton of color combinations lol
Thanks! Bright yellow is one of my favorite string colors since it shows up so well on videos, and I’ve been uploading a ton of videos on my Instagram to document my progress as I learn new tricks. That yellow with white is basically a reproduction of Lifeline Strings Glass Cloud, although I’m not as good at making them consistent yet. They play fantastic though, and I can’t thank Cody enough for telling me some of his secrets! He closed his string shop to spend more time with family, so he helped me out a lot with learning how to make strings like his. Credit where credit’s due, I couldn’t have done it without help.
Haha yeah, my wife and my dogs are really getting sick of the sound of the drill…
I bought a few colors of thread, but then my mom loaned me several spools, so at the moment I have around a dozen different colors to play with. So of course, I’ve made solid colors, 2-color blends, 3-color blends, poly/nylon blends, pure poly, pure nylon, and in addition I’ve made multiples of some of my favorites. Plus I had been making strings before but with worse quality materials, so I had to remake strings for all my yoyos, and I have a new yoyo coming soon (the World’s Edition Hero from Circle City Yoyos) so I made some strings to match that…
Like I said, I’ve gone a little string crazy this past week. I’ll post a big pic later with most of them, some are on yoyos but I took a pic last night with a bunch laid out next to each other. I completely filled a yoyo box lol
There’s four more on yoyos not pictured. They’re all the bright yellow and white, except one is the pink/yellow that’s in the bottom left of this pic. I made several of that color because my new yoyo coming soon is a pink/gold fade so I wanted a few strings ready to match when it gets here.
BTW sorry for double-posting a couple times in this thread, I’m not trying to brag or anything I’m just really happy with how these are turning out and had to share my excitement
You have every right to brag! Lol those are nice! As far as noise goes, a dremel is much quieter. The only reason I bring it up is I had the same issue with my wife lol. It’s also much faster.
Thanks, I really appreciate that! I’ve actually been thinking about getting something quieter, since I often make strings while my wife and I watch TV so it sucks having to pause every 10 minutes or so once I’m finally done running the thread Also my wife and I are currently living in her parents’ basement apartment while I go back to finish college, and I don’t want to keep them up all hours lol
Figured I’d just go to Home Depot and try out the demo drills they have out, since my local Home Depot has a bunch of drills out to mess around with. But a dremel sounds like a fantastic idea, thanks! I’ve been thinking about building a string making jig too, since I’m making so many and it takes forever to run thread back and forth so much, it’d be nice to have a few hooks so I could at least get a few strings done at once. I’ve drawn up blueprints and figured out cost, should only be about $20 for a rig that will let me make 6 strings at a time so hopefully I can get that done and show it off soon too! It’s basically just a couple 2x4s with some hooks at each end, and more hooks at the point where the strings are the correct tension so I could theoretically run the thread for six strings, pop it off the hook onto the drill one by one, and when I’m done tightening each string I just hook it onto the second hook until I’m ready to fold them over.
Definitely get a dremel (or two) instead of a power drill.
I have one of the Dremel 7000-series models with a rechargeable battery, where I opened it up and flipped the contacts around so it spins in the opposite direction for doing the final “unspin” step for consistency. I also have a heavier duty corded one for the main spin. They’re both way quieter and WAY faster than using a power drill. It’s made the process a lot more enjoyable for me. The tiny cordless dremels/other-brand rotary tools are pretty inexpensive, too.
I bought some metal hooks to use to hold the string on them, but I did have to file off the threading on them so they would fit in the tiny chuck that dremels have.
I have a few Dremels around, and been thinking about string making so this is super relevant for me. If I want to make inverse string, I just do the spins opposite directions?
Yeah, the wind of the string is “Z-lay” (right handed) if you reduce clockwise. They become “S-lay” (left handed) if you reduce counter-clockwise.
I’d recommend just making your first string completely by hand, no need to get fancy with tools until you want to invest some time and money into making it faster. By far the most important thing is the thread you use, though. Each type of thread has a different feel and weight to it.
Is there a point to lefty strings? I’m a lefty but I’ve only used right-handed strings, as far as I can tell it doesn’t seem to make a difference but I’d love to hear what other lefties think. Somebody on Reddit mentioned the string loosening could let the yoyo fly off, but I’m kind of obsessive about tension so that’s never been anywhere close to being a problem.
I’m not a lefty, but I feel like lefty string might be more beginner friendly. Your string tension would mimic that of right-handed throwers instead of opposing it.
Unless you’re using a mini yoyo, the string loosening enough for it to pop out is incredibly unlikely. It’s really not a huge deal. It’s just nice having something catered to being a lefty.
I yoyo a bit both ways and it’s not really too big of a deal. If you get used to standard string, then you will have vastly more options if you ever decide to start buying strings or trying other people’s. The strings are looking great so far, keep up the good work!
Thank you very much! I figured since I’m making it myself, I can make lefty string and try it out. It just seems like the difference between tightening or loosening when you throw doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal.
I get the point of things being made for lefties though. It’s nice that there are left-handed scissors too, but to be honest I’m so used to using right-handed scissors that I have trouble using lefty scissors. I wonder if this could be like that.
I got a Dremel today. MUCH quieter than my drill, and way faster! My drill was super loud and had a max speed of 1500 RPM, while my Dremel 200 is way quieter and the lowest setting is 15,000 RPM, literally 10x faster! And Lowe’s will price match Amazon, so I got it for $35. Not bad at all. I went with the Dremel 200 since it’s corded, and I didn’t want to deal with buying tons of AA batteries or having to recharge a cordless model. Of course I can still use a drill to make lefty strings if I need to, but this is working really well for me now. I didn’t have any S-hooks, so I bent a couple split rings to make my own S-hooks for the time being, and between all that stuff I’ve cut my time down from about 15 minutes per string to 7 minutes. I’m hoping soon I can get some lumber and hooks to make a jig, which will make it even faster. This is such a crazy fun adventure!
I can’t imagine the volume of strings you could put out with a rig!! It’s just another little thing that shaves time and makes life soo much easier!! Congrats on the dremel btw! They are amazing
I’ll post a big pic later with most of them, some are on yoyos but I took a pic last night with a bunch laid out next to each other. I completely filled a yoyo box lol