Help with small top throw!

#1

I made a little top and I can’t get it to work. :frowning:

My problem is that every time I throw it it never stands up and instead wants to land sideways with the tip pointed left perpendicular to me.

I hollowed out the top, it is very tip heavy. I still can’t get it to land tip down. I am using fat kitty string. Should I try to find some smaller diameter cotton string and use a longer string?

How can I determine the “line” of the top?

Is there a special way of throwing micro tops? This one is 1.75" tall and 1.187" around.

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.

#2

I’ve heard small tops are harder to throw. The problem might be off balance, if you turned this on a lathe your tool would have to be perfect center, even a couple of thous of an inch could reduce performance a bit; this effect would definitely be more prominent on a smaller top because the distance off center would be more percentage of the total radius. Bottom line you need more precision to make a fine small top/micro top

#3

After I posted this I made a full size top. I can get the fullsize one to more or less work. I have concluded that I just suck at throwing tops.

The top is balanced very well as far as concentricity. It is bottom heavy. I make lots of finger tops and I know how to machine very even and how to index my pieces so that everything is true.

Here are some of my finger tops. http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,73462.0.html

I might have to break down and spend the 10 dollars on a plastic beginner top. :slight_smile:

#4

Make sure when your throwing it that its upside down in your hand
It seems backwards but then again, everything is backwards with spin tops! :smiley:

#5

Yeah your’re craftsmanship looks quite solid sorry if it seemed overly critical (didn’t mean to come off like that) , I’ve only dabbled in machining and you’re undeniably experienced. Anyways, it is easier to throw larger tops (still requires practice though). I’m not exactly sure why but i think it has to do with how accurate or rather how level and smooth your landing is. Large tops seem to self correct a bit more or in other words give you more room for error in technique (even though they look awkward as hell). I’m interested to see what you make in the future.

#6

You should colour peoples ti yoyos as a service. You’re much better then Jasonwongzero or anyone else I’ve seem offering it IMO.

#7

Thanks for the compliment. :slight_smile: It helps that working with titanium is my job. I have colored hundreds and hundreds of pieces of titanium.

I am giving up on making throw tops until I buy a real one and get a better feel for weight distribution and technique.

#8

Too much string there. The string should wind up less than halfway up the top. If there is more string than that, it will not flip over the full 180°. If the string is too short, the top will flip over more than 180°. String length can affect the throw greatly.

Try just a few wraps less, and try an over-hand throw - by that I mean hold the top up by your head, palm away from you, tip pointing left (assuming you are right handed) and just push it out away from you and let the string do the work.

Lemme know if that does not work. I wish i could get my hands on it, I could size the perfect string for it in seven minutes.

#9

These tops are really wonderful! Truly works of art.

However, I don’t think he’s anodizing the tops after they’re machined… The colors appear that way because of the machining technique. You would not be able to offer this as an aftermarket service.

Jason

#10

There are two common ways to color titanium I believe. One is heating it and the other is anodizing it, although the process is different from aluminum anodizing. I believe the colors that Jon achieved was through heating the titanium, but correct me if I’m wrong. One cool thing you can do with anodized titanium is that you can “brush” the colors on.

#11

Yup I played with the brushing on technique a bit when I was anodizing. It worked well enough, but since I’m not a skilled painter I always ended up creating designs that looked childish, so I stuck to solids and fades.

Jon’s technique is a combination of heating and the manufacturing process of folding and layering the titanium. The heating part you can do after the yoyo is created, but the folding part has to be done while the yoyo is being made. Thus, it would be impossible to offer his designs as an aftermarket service. It’s part of the manufacturing process itself.

That said, these are absolutely killer. Super jealous!

#12

Oh, well thanks for the info, I cam definitely relate to being a bad artist.

#13

So Jon Walker sent me this top in April of 2014. It’s a really nice little top, spins very smooth, it just needed a very thin very short string. I made a string for it, took a picture of it, meant to post about it, meant to send something to Jon in return, and… I didn’t.

So. Lame. Of me.

Here’s the picture of it with the string.

Jon, I know you said you wouldn’t be comfortable accepting anything in return, but would you like a hot-rodded BK? Eh? Or would you like to have it back and give it a go?

#14

Nice, now post a pic if it spinning in your hand!