I have a 6 year old autistic kid. I got him some blazing teams yoyos and those didnt last him more than a few hours. Expensive garbage.
We are in Mumbai India at present, originamly from Los angeles.
I have a friend who owns and operates a lathe machine and access to top quality stainless steel 304 or 316, and i can buy flat or grooved ball bearings. I understand the basics of making a yoyo.
2 bracket shaped ends are joined by an axle. Axle ia fixed to both brackets. On the axle is a ball bearing. The brackets have grooves to allow outer edge of ball bearing to fit in but allow free rotation.
I also understand that the 2 sides have to be equal weight.
I want to make something durable. But then it will be heavy. Also i understand it has to be a high speed bearing.
My concerns are that the bearing might be too large, is there a ratio for bearing size to bracket size?
Any other tips would be appreciated.
And please go easy, completely new to yoyo’s.
Edit: i am trying my hand at it.
Got some 304 steel two ( 63mm x 20mm ) steel discs. Ball bearings and a steel shaft for the axle / spindle. (Getting 2 spindles made, thats why the long length of steel rod and the 2 ball bearings)
Going to the lathe operator tomorrow to try to have it made. It is not costing me much, less than $12.00 for materials and labor.
One thing that puzzles me, do we tie the string directly on top of the ball bearing?
Here’s a thought… And before I go into that thought let me just tell you that I wouldn’t try to discourage anybody from making anything. But, that being said, I think it would be far less trouble and far less expensive if you just found out which yoyoe stores like starting with this one, which ship yo-yos to Mumbai.
There are so many high-performance nonmetal yo-yos in a few dozen metal yo-yos that play far beyond the level of where your son is at right now.
You see, here’s a problem you may confront> making a yo-yo is not that difficult at all. Now on the other hand, designing a yo-yo that functions very well can be a very daunting task. If you want to make yo-yos for your son to learn on, the last thing you wanna do is have somebody machine some yo-yos that might play kind of funny. Because your son may have enough trouble Learning tricks on a good yo-yo. You sure don’t want to give him a yoyoe that doesn’t have the right plane characteristics and expect your son to have to deal with that shortcoming in the process of trying to learn tricks.
As has already been stated, there’s no shortage of information that you can find using a search engine. But executing a good design with the proper weight distribution and other important factors that result in a good playing yo-yo. There is no magical formula for just getting some steel and knowing a friend that does machine work and coming up with a miracle that your son‘s gonna have fun with.
Now…… if your mission is to build a yo-yo just because you want to build a yoyoe whether it’s for your son or not, then go on and do it… Time to rock ‘n’ roll.
On the other hand Unless you got deep pockets, A better suggestion would be to just go into the yo-yo store on this site YoYoExpert and just look around at yo-yos that don’t cost too much. Go to the contact YoYoExpert link and tell Andre and or Garrett what you’re trying to do and how much you have to spend and where you’re at. I’m just trying to save you a headache. Good luck
This is the best advice in the above post. @yoyodoc knows more than most and takes a commend sense approach. @AndreBoulay is all about making simple amazing.
If the point is to build a yoyo go for it, the above resources are a great starting point.
If the point is for your 6y old to have a durable yoyo there are better options even in India. Let me know if you need help looking for options in India(im from there)
in the above post. 