Haven’t worked much with wood axles, but enjoy my Profly. Its a good yo, works well.
I wanted to add some traditional shaped wood axle yos, and just received the 3-set of Duncan “Iron Man” yoyos.
I’m having some trouble with them, and would like to bounce my thoughts off of some of you here, so I can play better and be a little more educated:
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In the past, I’ve had no problem winding up a wood axel throw just by winding it. These three won’t wind up on their own - I’ve got to hold some string out, but in doing so, it winds very unevenly, with a good amount of string sticking out of the outside edge of the yoyo.
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the string that came with these does seem very thick - or its the gap, which is so thin that both sides of the string touch the inside of each yoyo half.
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gaps on these are not adjustable (though I could shim).
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I’ll throw and then tug it back to get a better wind on it, then do a trick, but the spin time is a good bit less than other wood axles I’ve tried, and when I call the yoyo back up as it is about to die, it will come up, but about half of the string ends up outside of the edges of the yoyo halves - like a spaghetti sandwich with the noodles all falling out!
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Looping is problematic, at best.
So, trying to learn, trying to make 'em play better. Appreciate you’re thoughts!
All three act like this for you?
If so then its you.
You can try different string duncans stock cotton string is an odd bird but normally is very good for fixed.
Just try another string. strings go fast in fixed axle.
If these have the axles I think they have shims will only move the body of the yoyo away from each other but the axle will still have those high walls and your gap will really just be the same.
If these are proflys they are butterfly shaped then looping is not going to be good on them. To loop you need the yoyo to flip each rotation, and a butterfly design resist’s this by design. They are made for string tricks.
How ever you can work on some looping tricks like shoot the moon, ect that you don’t want the yoyo to flip during.
I’m not sure about the winding but that may just be sloppy technique as well.
One thing you can do is try and smooth out the axle a bit. take the string and run it through the gap over and over, while its not attached to the axle.
Just wind it a bit like you would a 4A throw, and then pull the string out of the gap. You could also try sand paper to do the same thing. This should help get that axle spinning like you want.
lastly you can try bees wax on the loop of the string. I never liked it but many people do.
Thanks.
I’ve had no problem at all with Proflys (I suppose for obvious reasons, due to their shape).
The ones I was discussing were all traditional/imperial shaped - they’re basically Proyo look-a-likes, if not dupes with different caps (again, they’re made by Duncan).
You’re absolutely right about the shims as to how they would play on the axle, but for me the issue is the tiny space between the halves causing significant problems when winding or returning the yo after a throw…
I past years I have thrown some fixed axle imperials - not consistently, at all - but never had this kind of weird, melt-down performance with there simply not being enough room between the halves. I’ve been yoing on and off for years, so I definitely know how to wind one.
Anyway, I’ll try a couple of things and report back.
Ahh yeah try thinner cotton string. they are proyo’s with different caps.
Possibly shorten the string as well.
Outside that I think I would need a pic of whats happening or a video for me to be any more help. 
sorry about that bud but if you could get a video that would be very helpful.
Thanks, Schnayke 
Really, I suppose its pretty simple - the halves of the throw are too close together - or the string is too thick - for anything resembling effective throwing.
I’ll tried some Zeekio cotton strings, and there was a definite improvement, but I could only try it out for a minute or two before going out to run some errands. I’ll try more strings and making some shims from 100% plastic playing cards to give just a bit more space between the halves.
Report back later… ;D
Edit: Later on…
Made shims from 100% plastic playing cards (not plastic coated playing cards), put 2 shims on each half on one throw, 1 shim on each half on the second throw, and did not shim the third one.
Then experimented with strings, and the difference in size between the thick (!) Duncan cotton strings and the Zeekio cotton strings was very easy to see.
So, all is well, now - there just wasn’t enough space for the string to operate well. All 3 could be heavier - seems like there’s hardly any weight in the rims. Maybe these particular yoyos weren’t made with playing in mind as much as $$$ capitalizing on the Iron Man movie ;D
