I’ve been wanting a fixed axle woodie for a while, and have had a BST trade offer requesting one for a few days. Anyway, tonight I decided I would just make one, so I went into the shop and 30 minutes later came out with this:
The axle is just a run of the mill 5/16" dowel. The body is turned out of Teak, and is currently unfinished. It’s shaped kinda like a TMBR baldwin I guess, but with straight walls.
Diameter is 55.5mm
String Gap is 2.6mm
Weight is 44 grams
So… It throws pretty darn good. Smooth and balanced. Decent spin time. It feels a little light to me, but my research shows that I’m in the basic range on weight - maybe a little too light?
Anyway, just wanting some feedback. Is it too light? Is there something wrong with the shape? Is my string gap bad? I’m going to make another one soon and I’m thinking a more dense wood is in order - maybe osage orange?
Shape is all about preference. I actually just got 2 woodies that behave differently, one being the No Jive 3-in-1 (slightly lighter, little more responsive) and the TMBR Baldwin. The Baldwin is also fairly light and both woodies are much lighter than I’m used to. Relearning some fixed axle stuff especially stalls and such, I learned that I actually don’t need to really throw that hard, realizing that I can actually pull off some moves if I’m more gentle with it. I picked up 2 different woodies just to get a feel for how each behaves.
I’m actually glad my Baldwin is on the lighter side otherwise my hand would be hurting right now due to the sharper edges along the outside. Also yours has higher walls which could help with looping. It could also be less forgiving with some other tricks or with crooked throws. A lower walled yo like the Baldwin is a bit more forgiving and makes an excellent moon shooter.
Yours looks like a TMBR Turner, a slightly heavier throw at 58.7g approx. My Baldwin is about 54g and my No Jive actually is only 52. For wood, I don’t think you’re really going to get much heavier.
With all of this said, just try it out, wooden yoyos are generally lighter (much lighter) than our typical aluminum or plastic throws. It won’t hurt to pick up another woodie, perhaps even a different shape. The Baldwin is a smaller diameter as well if you want to try that one out.
So this one I made from White Oak and turned an axle from Osage Orange. Much more dense overall and this one weighs in at 48 grams. Just slightly narrower and larger diameter at 58mm.
Play is night and day better. Very smooth too. I kinda patterned it off of the TMBR Irving LoveJoy with the flared gap.
I just re-read this thread and realized you made these yourself. Looks great! I’ve been tempted to pick up a lathe and learn how to turn wood to make yoyos and tops.
Thanks. I definitely recommend trying your had at it. I use a Harbor Freight mini lathe, but have purchased better live centers and drive center. You can use a pen turning setup to make the halves, but I am too cheap to buy that tooling, so I just figured out how to do it without.
Just like anything, you gotta learn the basics, so you need to get the lathe, get comfortable with it, and do some practice turning with it. Let me know if you every get one and I can tell you the steps I use to make the halves.
Funny you mention the HF mini lathe, was just looking at those a couple weeks ago when picking up a timing light for my car (so I can pass the lovely smog test). After this weekend though I need to start saving for an upcoming vacation. Until then I’ll do more research on this subject.
Wow this thing is nice and smooth. Not as forgiving of my sloppy throws though like the prior one based on the LoveJoy. I think this one in Oak would weigh in around 54-55 grams. I like this one though for now - seems to sleep much better than the others too.
The axle system is a 8-32 screw with the head removed. It screws into a brass threadsert in each half and snugs up nicely. I’ll go get a stainless or hardened steel screw tomorrow though to toughen it all up a bit.
Thanks. It’s a little too smooth though and needs some help in responsiveness. Saw a thread where someone put silicone in the response dots… May have to try that. This one just hangs a little too long at the end in a forward pass or breakaway.
Wow, those are some good looking yo-yos! That last one is beautiful, love the contoured rims and general shape. Having no axle hole on the face is cool too.
BTW, a little natural beeswax lip balm on the end of the string can get you that extra response you want. Makes all the difference on some wide-gap yo-yos with little response on the walls.
