How much would you pay?
Is everything custom?
Material, shape, size, weight, response, bearing, finish, & colorway?
If so, I would pay $200-$300 for one.
This would be pretty awesome too. Kind of like a “Build it yourself” station. You pick and choose how to make your yo-yo and it gets made. It would take a lot of initial work to set up but who knows.
^same. I’d pay extra if they named it and engraved my name on it.
I would buy one. It would require ridiculous amounts of work and raw material but I would get one. I would pay around $200.
3D printing, woot. Can’t wait till it can do metal stuff inexpensively.
Can’t you get a few custom protos made by One Drop for a couple hundred bucks total? So i guess i’d pay that much…
I’d pay up to $400 for some of my designs made. I have a few drawings if yoyos I do in my free time, and I love one of them.
I wouldn’t be paying at store.
If I was going to make a custom yoyo according to my design, I’d have checked out various machine shops, probably had some consulting done to help fix some of my design flaws and triple check my work, had probably 2 or 3 rounds of prototypes made and then finally figure out budget for a run.
Then I’d have to figure out the hard cost per unit, plus mark-up.
I’d probably have to budget around $5000 for the project, but that number may be high. I’d want my top end yoyo to peak out at around the $85-90 range if possible. I like the RecRev, where the performance is amazing, the designs are world class, but the prices are too low to make sense. I’d want my product to be affordable.
They call these companies “modders.”
I’m definitely open to doing custom work when I have more time, but I’m not going to say that I can handle any design and any material. I have my manufacturing limitations.
They aren’t necessarily “modders”.
Let’s look at the many new companies that have sprung up since I’ve join this crazy world of skill toys. This work is clearly beyond the definition of “modder” as they are making a product from the ground up. Many are hiring machine shops, such as One Drop(because it’s the only one I know, but there are others) to produce quantities of product.
You, on the other hand, are starting to move beyond being just a modder. Some of your work I’ve seen lately has really gone far beyond and really shows the effort you’ve put into your design and learning your craft.
If not made by a manufacturer like foxland or onedrop. The machining shop will reject doing your project. But if they do accept the project you’ll pay more than buying possibly 4 yo-yos. Your better buying one than creating one. Plus they’ll screw it up by making “minor” changes (sarcastic tone). So they will screw up and change the design completely.
You can ease the price by allot if you have a 4,500 to 5,000 dollar CAD program to design the yoyo.
So if you have allot of money go ahead. If you don’t then save your money. I haven’t even count the cost for anodizing and blasting. So if you choose to do this, good luck.
I don’t think I could design my own yoyo. I would rather just give all of the specifications and ideas to a pro and have him (or her) make my vision come to life.
Just for fun, here is what I would ask for.
Diameter: 53.2mm
Width: 42.5mm
Gap Width: 4.9mm
Weight: 65g
Response: ODFlowGroove Size
I would want a fairly large string zone with the the little bump separating the catch zone and string zone.
I would like the shape to be very similar to my Arctic Circle.
A nice IRG would be cool… as would the SE system.
I wouldn’t want the weight distributed too far to the rims. I prefer a little float to super stability.
Silky smooth blasted finish.
Light turquoise with a lime green acid wash. Better throw a gnarly purple splash on that bad boy as well.
Heres mine.
Specs:
Diameter: 56.35 mm
Width: 48 mm
Gap: 4.1
7075 Weighs around 67g minus bearing pads axle ect 6061 weighs 64g minus bearing pads axle ect
Rim weighted so really floaty 
But instead of paying $200-300 you could goto a place that specializes in machining and get 10 protos for $500 ???
Couple things I disagree with:
“Your better buying one than creating one.” If that’s the case, why are so many companies popping up? More-so, why are they typically more preferred than most mass production models and companies?
“You can ease the price by allot if you have a 4,500 to 5,000 dollar CAD program to design the yoyo.” No. I don’t quite understand the philosophy behind this. Best thing to compare it to would be yoyos: the most expensive stuff isn’t needed. I’m running a 50 dollar program which certainly does everything I need it to to produce a yoyo design. Then I export into a conversion program and save it as a .STP or whatever format I need.
I do however agree that going outside of the yoyo production community to mass producers wouldn’t be totally advised. I’ve gotten quotes in the thousands for 4 yoyos. Then again, outsourcing gives me quotes of 25 dollars a half which isn’t terrible, but I’d rather pay a bit more and get the promising quality of either OneDrop or Foxland Precision. Perhaps a local machining shop if you know them?
Fox land is $25 a half ^^^ so you would get what you want for the price you want
Is that proto run or a certain number of yoyos and higher?
There is a company that does this - HSpin
I fixed that for you.
H-Spin folded up a bit ago. Wasn’t making any money.
I actually have almost no interest in making my own. What I sort of like about collecting in this hobby is getting a little piece of everybody’s brain in yoyo form. I like to watch the companies’ designs evolve, and I love finding new shapes and new ideas that work much better (and sometimes worse) than I’d have ever thought.
It’s the variety that appeals. Making my own, while possibly an interesting exercise, sort of misses the point.