The YYF Short Circuit is a great little top. It’s remarkably stable for its light weight, but I wanted to play around with it a little to see what I could eek out of it. My two goals were to increase the apparent weight a small amount and improve stability.
Here it is in the start. I hit the logos on the body with brake cleaner to remove them.
I’m going to remove the bottom of the string pod feature to remove some center weight. Here I’m indicating where the center of my drill hole is going to be by using the good ol’ pokey mcpokerson.
Plug the crown back in to the rest of the top and it’s ready to play. The string capsule will still function the same exact way, and only results in a minor visual difference compared to an original Short Circuit.
Although this modification is very subtle, it does change how the top performs a good deal. While the original felt a little light and fast in play, this mod adds just a tiny amount of weight, but a considerable improvement in stability for those tricks you need a little more power for.
This is great! I also like to remove the string bucket (I have a lathe so it is a little easier). I can’t say that I feel a noticeable difference afterward removing the bucket alone but I sure do like being able to dump all the string in there quickly, and having access inside for fine tuning. I have not tried your o-ring idea yet but it sure seems like a worthwhile mod to me.
Another thing I have used to add weight in a small top is to add silicone in the bottom third. Just dump it in there, level it and let it cure. This mod may not work with this top however; I heard even adding the weight of a metal tip confuses the spin axis (totally not the correct scientific term but yeah) and the thing just spins wild.
Mmmmm silky. I love that finish on tops, I like to sand the glossy finish of the bottom half so my fingers don’t grab when I scoop. Kinda like what anno does for finger grinds compared to polished chrome. It’s funny, I believe the Bearing King’s orange peel surface on the bottom half was designed to “grab the string”… well less surface area is grabbing the string, so NO, and unless it has peaks to hook into the string, which would hurt… yyeeNO. BUT! it makes a great surface for fingers to scoop. Only the clammiest of hands can’t scoop a Bearing King.
The O-ring addition could perhaps fix the metal tip instability that Neff mentioned. Our theory is that changing the plastic tip for the metal tip makes the top behave more like a ball by equating the transverse and longitudinal moments. This would make them different again. I have to try it.
It is nice to have more room for the string. I have been throwing these a bunch lately, the only mod I do is to take a 1” hole saw and cut out the bottom of that bucket, and replace the string and get rid of that super heavy button.
These tops are a great value.
Eyy looks good! The O-ring looks great through the transparent crown. A couple years ago I picked up another fistful of these tops to do a variety of tuneups to and I particularly like the dayglo ones, except I like to swap up the crowns :>
When I do a satin on polycarb I like to leave it a little coarse and break it in by hand with a denim or canvas rag. If you put a tiny drop of brake cleaner on the rag and buff it down with gloves, it’ll give you a really nice even haze. It’s also really easy to haze up the crowns this way so they match even if you’re not sanding them.
I think I’m up to six of these guys now - they really are a great value.
