Well as much as I hate being compared to walmart, I see your point. What I was trying to say is this is more of an introductory price type thing. I won’t always do powder coating for free, obviously. I just can’t do that forever. I am using my powder when I have the color and Yomagic sent me some. But once I get my technique down then I can start offer it at a fair price. Competition is good for the community in my opinion. I highly doubt that I could ever kill downtown as you put it. Also, as I said I want to offer several other services which I have not seen people offering. The laser etching for example and the leather work. Hopefully people see that I am bringing more skills to the community and more options, rather then me taking business away from others.
Competition happens to be my middle name! :-*
It really is not as complex as what everyone wants to make it out as. The method that one would normally use to tune a yo-yo works by modifying how the halves are oriented to one another when the yo-yo is fully assembled. This technique is then used to cancel out as much vibration from the yo-yo as possible. On a square or other non-round yo-yo, this same method could be used to align the two halves of the yo-yo without much trouble.
Does a Tondo just use tapped threads, or does it have a mechanism whereby the pieces “click” (not necessarily a sharp audible click) into place?
I can’t say I have firsthand experience with them, but judging by all the pictures the Tondo it has a simple setscrew axle, which could align the halves as I outlined above. Sometimes simplicity really works better than a complex, over engineered solution.
Well everyone it has been a little while since I posted. The reason for that is I was busy powder coating the rest of YoMagic’s yoyo. I really got a lot of practice and it was helpful to see how different things changed the out come. I also got to try 4 new colors and use some of my current colors a little more. I wish I could take better pictures. These photos look really bad, but the yoyos look look much better in real life. I think I might need to invest in a macro photography light tent. Anyone gotten into taking really nice photos of their yoyos? Any advice for me?
Here are some pictures:
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0661.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0676.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0677.jpg
I learned a few things. The first is that I am putting the powder on pretty even, or at least as even as I can measure. The scale I have only goes to tenths of grams and every yoyo I measures we exactly equal or off by 0.1 grams. If they were off it was usually before I coated them, and then they were off by the same amount after I coated them.
I also learned that the colors came out brighter if I used the chemical stripping method. Stripping them with the sand blaster cause the colors to be slightly darker. Also, the sand blaster gives the yoyo a texture and you can see that through the powder coating. It makes it a little grainy. I this could be that the sand I have is too coarse. But trying to change it in the shop is a bit of a pain. Maybe I will try sand blasting them, and then tumbling them with the sand or walnut shells to make it smoother and shiny.
I also tried several method of masking the powder bearing seat. I tried laser cutting the high temperature tape. This works well to make the shape very accurately. But the bearing seats are raised in the middle and it causes the tape to warp and not sit flat. I also tried cutting them by hand and that is very tedious. Most of the work powder coating is preparation. I already knew this, but it was very obvious when you are doing 11 yoyos. I also tried using silicon to mask it. Someone at the shop was making a mold and we poured some liquid silicone over the bearing seat. This worked out well. It masked the powder really well. I think I might be able to use regualr RTV silicon as long as I can find something that says it can handle 400° F. This would be nice because I can put the silicon on at home and prep them before going to the shop. That would make it much easier. I also like being able to cover the bearing and possible the screw that is holding the yoyo up and silicon is really cheap.
Here is some photos of the silicon.
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0658.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0659.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0660.jpg
Also, I tried to powder coat over the annodized layer. I learned that colored annodizing will change the color of the powder and it can be seen through. I was thinking the powder would cover things up better than it really did. I had to strip this one down again and do it again. In the end it turned out fine. That is how you learn. Powder coating over the clear coat annodized yoyos worked out great. So you don’t need to strip clear annodized or polished yoyos before powder coating them. But colored annodized need to be stripped. Unless you want it to bleed through. Here are some photos of that.
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0657.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0656.jpg
I still have to laser etch two of these yoyos and then I can send them all back. Hopefully everyone will have happy with them when they get them.
Here are a few more pictures
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0662.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0671.jpg
http://www.joshupdyke.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0675.jpg
As I said the colors in the pictures are kinda off because of the light.
Anyway, look forward to your comments.
Josh
You don’t need a light tent if you have access to the outdoors during daylight hours. Overcast is actually better than bright sunlight.
Your results are looking promising! Loving the gold ones, although the gold on the Wrath is much nicer than the gold on that OD (Cascade?).
Yeah, daylight would be nice. But I tend to be up late working on things well after the sun has gone down. lol
Work looks great Josh! For the photography, contact TotalArtist or GregP. They both know what they’re doing, and are great photographers. Oh, and I saw your Razer mouse pad. Are you a gamer?
Yeah I am a gamer. I just built my new desktop. i7 processor, liquid cooled, 32 gigs of ram, solid state harddrive. I use it for the 3d modeling software and to run simulations. But it is a hell of a gaming machine. I don’t get to play as much as I used to. Lately I have been playing Minecraft and League of Lengends. Neither of which require a fast computer. lol. I got the expansion to StarCraft 2 which I am most of the way through.
If I am not working, or building something, then I am usually messing around on the computer.
Josh
If we ever played together on LoL, sorry if I ever bad called your momma.
You’ll have more work coming your way for sure. Once the powder peels off the one’s you didn’t strip you’ll have some more practice.
All,
Well I really hope it doesn’t peel off. 
But if it did, I wouldn’t mind him sending it back and I will strip it and paint it again. As I said I tried various things on these. I stripped most of them. The only ones that didn’t get stripped were the ones that were clear annodized. I don’t claim to be an expert, but also want to make it clear that me not stripping these was not because I want to get them done faster. It was also not done until after I did my research.
Based on a conversation on the Caswell Forum several people said that annodized aluminum held the powder fine. Several people commented on their own success powder coating their own anodized parts. Also, here is a quote from that forum:
“The larger powder manufacturers state that anodizingicon AL is 1 of the preferred pretreatments for AL actually.”
And the link to the forum where you can read it all yourself.
http://forum.caswellplating.com/powder-coating-questions/7141-powder-coating-over-anodized-aluminum.html
Based off of reading this I decided to give it a shot and see what I can learn. I obviously learned that the you can not do this to colored annodized parts. Not because of the peeling, but because the color bleeds through.
I don’t mind the comments on where I could do things better. But I want everyone to know that I do my research. Also, these yoyos were sent to me to get practice and to work on my technique.
Thanks,
Josh
You’re doing a sensational job mate! At this rate you’ll be a one man yoyo company soon! =P
I’m well versed with the other sites no need for links. Most of the stuff if not all that those people do is not rotating. I’d say 95% of it is on a static piece. Your spinning yoyo that’s rubbing strings and landing in your hand at speed is completely different. Did you think about that.
I’ll be done posting in this thread right after I mention a few things to yomagic.
Since you are already milling other things, you could fairly easily machine some scrap material to make a solid piece that can be bolted into a yo-yo, mask the bearing seat and response, and be reusable.
Permatex High-Temp red gasket maker would work.
Light boxes are very handy for taking good pictures of yo-yos and highlighting the work that you have done. Depending on how highly you value your time, you may want to look into making your own as they are very simple and can often be made with only materials found around the house. You should definitely take a look through the Amateur Yo-Yo Photography thread and feel free to ask questions.
Washer and gasket maker can be touchy to use as masking agents. Reason why is the area right at the edge of the response and where the powder starts can chip off or peel when you remove the mask. The thinner high temp tape works the best for me. Less to grab thinner parting lines etc.
Save stock pads and place them under the tape prior to powder. It helps.
Have you (or anyone else) considered Cerakote? Allegedly 8x as durable as Duracoat, which is in turn more durable than powder coat (or so is my understanding of what the internetz say).
My understanding is that the finish goes on super thin, and is super tough. I’d love to see someone do some cerakote.
I have not worked with either of these coatings. They are typical for firearm applications. The way they are applied is quite different from powder coating. Powder coating uses electrostatic charge to cause the powder to ‘cling’ to the parts. This causes the powder to cover in a very even manner. The Duracoat and CeraKote are both applied with an airbrush. My concern would be that the paint is not getting applied evenly and would cause vibration. It would really rely on the skill of the person painting them to apply an even coat.
Maybe some of the guys that airbrush yoyo would be willing to give it a shot. The airbrush equipment is on my list of tools to own one day. But until I have a specific project that needs them I probably wont buy one.
Cool idea though.
Josh
I looked into it a while back but never really was to thrilled by it. Colors were limited and it was pricey. Which means cost gets past along to the consumer.
As far as application goes that wasn’t a problem for me. I do airbrush work and some general spraying with larger guns. I do believe the ceracoat is tough on equipment as far as nozzles. Something like one or two runs then its done. That may be one particular type or I may be wrong all together but I distinctly remember reading that somewhere.