Hi Guys, just a brief into about me,
My name’s Brian and some of you might have seen the promo videos I’ve made for Marcus Koh.
Anyway, getting into the yoyo manufacturing business’s a dream that i’ve been thinking and planning for a few years now.
Last year, i decided to master up the courage and just go for it.
I engaged a product designer and worked on my first design.
It’s an experimental design where I decided to push the rim weight further out of the max catch zone of the yoyo. The results of this were pretty interesting. The yoyo gave a super solid(almost too much) highly stable play similar to that of many H shaped yoyos yet still being mostly a V shaped.
However, I come from a film background and I have little to no knowledge on engineering/machining. This led to my prototype being easily damaged to the point of being unplayable. I later found out that I machined the yoyo using the wrong kind of metal (I was using Aluminium, not Aluminium Alloy) this caused the axel threading to completely strip bare just by the slightest overtwist.
Not to mention, my designer wasn’t very experienced himself and I got a pretty shoddy piece of work from him.
The project has since been on hold as I entered university studies a year ago, however, I would most definitely want to continue from where I left off some day in future.
I would like to know if anyone experienced in the indie yoyo manufacturing scene would happened to know any “how to make a yoyo 101” guide or threads anywhere I could refer to for help, and if anyone here does prototyping services.
Also would like thoughts, opinions and questions about the design.
Agreed! That is one interesting (in a good way) looking throw! Nice work and I hope you really get this prototype off the ground and into people’s hands soon!
wow thanks for the replies!
I actually currently have 2 more years of university to go,
but I will certainly pick this project back up once I’m done.
Anyway I would like to thank jbritter3 for introducing me to Autodesk Inventor, it’s real easy
to use and I managed to make some new concepts during me free time, do check it out! Some of them
are a little… “experimental” though, but do let me know your thoughts!
(click to enlarge)
How do you know it was pure aluminum? I highly doubt that was the case as it is rare stuff. Pretty much everything we know of as “aluminum” is some kind alloy. There was probably some other reason why the threads stripped.
Anyway, it’s been a year since I last posted and yes I am still
pretty fixed on the idea of only moving to full scale production after I’m done
with university. Priorities first guys
And with only one more year to go, I’m actually getting a little excited myself.
Anyway, I’m here today with an update.
I’m currently on a long term break till the end of July and I’ve decided to use this time to work on my
next version prototype.
I’ve brought my first version around for certain competitive sponsored players to try and here are
the general comments:
I’ve flush the step back into the yoyo and rounded out the edges of the yoyo
so it would feel better in hand and I’ve also added a slight slop off the bearing seat
instead of it’s previous sharp cut which should theoretically solve the string cutting issue.
The plan for now is to get a completely working playable prototype out by
the Asia Pacifics yoyo championships (26-28 June)
Where I will be featuring it in this year’s event highlight video.
I will then drown in my school work for another year and re-pick this project up in a year
where I will be looking to be producing my 3rd/4th prototype which should be by then pretty
much almost the actual production run version.
Sorry for choosing such a long and slow route but my dad’s paying alot for my school fees and
I believe that it’s only fair if I give school work my undivided attention.
I thank you for holding up and also for all the nice help being offered to me by you guys on
prototyping. Thanks alot but I’ve seem to have found a good reputable source for the prototyping process.
Fantastic shape! The charm of the first proto was that there was nothing else like it. But sometimes “falling in line” with current trends can yield something that’ll catch on a bit better.
Depending on overall weight, it LOOKS to me like a hybrid of the Triumph and the TooHOT. Which is fantastic since those are two of my favourites!
I like that new shape a little better, but I think that protruding part from the first proto was quite cool. Bummer you are getting rid of that but I’m really interested in seeing what you come out with.
Thanks for all your input guys! ;D
Actually I’m a little disappointed that I scrapped the protruding rims too,
but it really felt noticeably uncomfortable in hand, I wanted the design to look
cool, but competition level playability was also a big factor, which led me to the current design.
I’m currently making some minor changes to it since I’ve yet to measure the weight of
the bearing/axel/pads. The 2 halves weighs(according to the program) in at 64g without the guts and it
might end up at 70 with those added in, so i’m probably shaving a couple of grams off.
I hope to get the final design to the machinists within the next few weeks.
Your designss are certainly innovative and very cool. I ould like to see what you come out with. By the way the “guts” of the yoyo usually ranges from 2.5 g to 3.5 g depending on the axle length and bearing type (kk bearings are usually lighter).
