You are a brave one printing all those little parts at the same time. Wishing you good luck!
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I’ve not really had many issues with bed adhesion in a good while so I’m not worried about them popping off. My biggest issue is I’m still getting some stringing which I can’t tell if it’s an extrusion issue or something else.
This plate also has battle wounds from mistakes in setting the z height wrong.
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That’s a lot! The most weights I’ve printed at the same time was I think 7…
I have to say printing weights is way more fun than printing yoyos 
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more successful because even a bad print on a cw can probably be salvaged or still used. can’t say the same about a messed up yoyo half.
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I don’t think I’ve seen anybody here do this yet, but you should try making some of your counterweights out of multiple pieces and glueing them together.
Candy Dice are printed as three separate pieces and glued together. Gives you a lot of options to play with for using different filaments or infills on different pieces and all that kinda jazz to create differently weighted/feeling CWs with the same external shape. Or using flex filaments like TPU to make softer counterweights that are significantly quieter when they collide with the yoyo. But some TPU counterweights drastically reduce noise while others feel a bit negligible, so I think design matters a lot in this regard.
I’m pretty ignorant on 3D printing, but feel like 3D printed counterweights are really unexplored still. Lots of fun stuff to potentially try if you’ve got the setups.
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TPU is a bit out of my ability to print on my rig without getting into upgrades that make me ask why not a new machine but I agree multi material would be really cool. Also embedding weights into the print or using magnets or bearings or any other variety of fun ideas.
There’s also some cool things on 3d printing horizon like non planar printing which will let the print head move with the shape of the print in 3d instead of printing more in a layered 2d making a 3d object we do today but that’s still a few years off so there are some hard technical limitations that makes some of the cool stuff not work out as well.
There is resin printing that has different limitations but that’s a hard material and creates fumes when printed.
Right now I’m printing a bunch of things I know I’ve printed before successfully for giveaway cw for yoyo club this weekend but I want to break out my wood filled pla and make some simulated wood feel cw next
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Does the wood infused PLA filament actually have a wood feel or smell to it? Chunkeez had it in some of their models but I never got to try it. It sure looks cool at any rate.
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I really like how wayne (layer infinity) does the monster ball and would love to think up something that’s not a pure knock off of that to print lol
I got some for a project that the person decided not to move forward on before it arrived so I haven’t used it yet. No idea how it prints to be honest. It’ll be a fun experiment. I imagine someone who has used wood pla has some more insight than I and I hope it’s not just a gimmick but I’ll see once I get through my printing backlog
It smells like wood when it’s printing that’s for sure. There is a very faint wood smell when I just have an opened roll a sniff.
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I’ve done weights in a few pieces with threads, glue, and friction to hold together. It works pretty well. I mostly don’t have the patience for printing the many pieces and assembling 
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Took me forever to locate this one. It was in my work bag on my Snack.
It’s 4 pieces press fit (the shaft won’t come out of the second half without tools which isn’t worth it for a pic). The print is much cleaner this way.
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Final Towie Ball came out great! Settled on 12g for all three counterweights I printed.
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If you make relief slits in the 3d model you can make the press fit hold while not being impossible to remove and install. Reduces the need to get near perfect with tolerances
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I mostly use “hard” TPU for my weights. I do not like them too bouncy or to soft. As you describe they are way less loud and they are super durable compared to e.g. PLA.
For most weights there is no need for glue since you can change filament, infill etc as setting in your slicer and they will just melt them together. I normally have a high infill rate at the first 25-30% of my weight and less in the rest to have it in the very back of the string.
For sure if you want very crazy shapes you maybe better of glueing them.
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Hey all, some people asked me about the 3d printed fixie that I used for Fixed Axle February this year. I promised to release it to the public once I’d done a bit more testing and tweaked the design a little bit. Well today’s the day!
The yoyo (please read the description carefully as there are some helpful tips to improve playability):
Some basic matching counterweights that I created for Modern Responsive March:
Thanks to my muse, @Captrogers for testing out the prototype and inspiring ideas to reduce the barrier to entry. Most notable changes to the design were:
- the inclusion of a 3d printed axle as an alternative the 8mm x 20mm wooden dowel which can be hard to source and
- use of standard 19mm silicone response pads over flowable silicone (although you can still use flowable silicone if you want to).
Specs:
The yoyo comes in 2 weight classes. 48g standard, and the Capt. Rogers special edition which comes in at 55g.
60mm D x 31.4mm W x 2.5mm gap
Print it out and give it a throw!
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The original version I printed I believe is floating around with the LKglass PIF .
I really like this antman printable YoYo
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My biggest argument for cutting a design in half is if it’s round. My machine is not great at round nor overhangs.
Just want to hop on this thread and shout out Antman’s printed fixies. The shape and weight is spot on. Very comfortable and the diameter is nice and pocketable. If there was one thing I would alter it would be the string gap, but that’s nothing to do with the actual printed design. Making the response gap maybe a couple millimeters tighter when you glue it up may be the ticket to mega snappy response.
Also, I should state that in my yoyos I’m searching for rapid snappy response. That may not be everyone’s cup of tea, so take my gap suggestion as you see fit. One of the coolest things about printing your own is you get to fiddle with the small tuning of things. And like I said, very solid 0A/modern responsive design. I really enjoy mine. The black and white color-way is rad!
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