I’m always forgetting I own a drill press. Maybe I need to make a goodwill trip for some G.I. Joes and use their heads. Seems like that would work.
I usually just put the slipnot /fingerloop around the die and pull closed. Just like it goes on the finger.
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I use a 45 pound barbell
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Surprisingly easy to make! This was the first counterweight I ever made or used and I know basically nothing about 5a but I noticed that when the counter hangs at the end of the string, like to get rid of string tension, it will stop spinning but then when I check it, the tension keeps being like three wraps loose from neutral.
I definitely missed the perfect middle of the dice so the weight is not balanced. Is the weight imbalance what’s causing that? Is this some other 5a thing? Thanks y’all! This post made me think “huh I should try that” so I did and then as soon as I tossed the counterweight i made I was like “oh wow this is about to be super fun” so thank you @RaRa as OP and @Orion22 !
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Probably just the weight pulling down untwisting the string slightly. I would be willing to bet that a heavier CW will untwist it more vs a lighter one. Not sure about how this plays out with the bearing CWs.
Glad to see someone else trying my method. I had half a mind to put a few of mine on the BST for shipping cost just to see what others think.
P.S. hearing protection recommended if using with titanium. Very hard plastic hitting a titanium throw sounds like the flashbang tinnitus sound effect.
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Think I might go raid the bottom of the kids toy box. Pretty sure I would find several Candidates.
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String torsion when there’s no force being applied to the end of the yoyo is always gonna be weird. When you’re actually swinging the counterweight and force is being applied to the end of the string then the torsion will mostly work itself towards neutral, although it still usually won’t rest at neutral. 5A isn’t a particularly slack heavy style so it doesn’t really matter, and if you do wanna do more slacks you can just pay more attention to it and manually adjust.
A perfectly centered hole in a cw with a bearing will still leave the string with some extra twists in it while just hanging, so the groove not being centered doesn’t really matter.
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I find myself with looser torsion than normal when playing 5A too, not sure why lol
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Force needs to actually be applied to the end of the string for it to totally go back to neutral. Think about how when you take the slip knot off your finger the string won’t untwist all the way unless you run your fingers across while lightly pulling along the entire length. String twists up even during 4A.
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Prepping for 5A May with a Paul Escolar FH1 and a matching DIY counterweight.
The counterweight is awaiting a gloss coat for added protection and durability.
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dude thats so cool!! Where did that CW come from?
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I made it with my resin printer.
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Damn that’s hot.
I’m going to crochet a CW tonight. I got an idea in my head and that’s never a good thing haha.
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Not a fancy printed guy, but it sure is filled with dry chickpeas.
It works very well, and is a great weight. Thinking about making a few for sale to bolster the PayPal account. Any interest?
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Others have said it already, but that looks really good! You’ve got the colours spot on.
Awesome! I had that idea for a long time, but I could never figure out how to get a good consistent hole through the middle. I did make one with a piece of wood that I shaved down and drilled a hole through, and then used glue at both ends so that you can feed a string through, but it was such a pain that I decided it wouldn’t be worth it to make them to sell. Plus having made a single one, the idea was out of my head so I lost interest haha
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I tied a quick monkey’s fist around a standard d6 die and it seems to work ok. But it’s also probably worth noting that I’m nowhere near good enough to jump into 5A yet. 
But I did do that thing where you land it in a trapeze and drop the CW to swing the whole works around the outside of your NT hand. It seemed to swing well and I caught it, so there’s that.
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I got lucky in that Elegoo’s Mint Green resin is a perfect match for the Paul Escolar colors right out of the bottle. Matching the light green cap color was just a matter of mixing in the right amount of white resin, and that was pretty easy.
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