Hello all!
My name is Gregg and I’m trying to figure out if there might be anybody willing to take a chance on a new manufacturer. The long and short of it is that I’m a machinist in California, and I’ve recently taken up yoyo design. I’ve come up with a few designs inspired pretty heavily by the old yoyos I used to play with as a kid in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. My most recent design seems to be worth something, and everyone to whom I’ve shown the prototypes I’ve cut has very much enjoyed the way it plays. I’m confident enough in it that I’d like to see about setting up some orders so I might have the money to get a production version to market.
First, a bit of basic information about the design and some photos of the actual pieces:
Material: 6Al4V Titanium (Grade 5)
Diameter: 2.24in/56.9mm
Width: 1.375in/34.9mm
Gap: 0.100in/2.54mm
Mass: ~58-60g
Bearing: NSK MR105 5x10x4mm (Flat Size A)
Response: Cork Brake Pad
That’s right. Brake Pad.
I played with yoyos a lot in elementary school and up through junior high until I just kinda…stopped. Over the last several months, however, I’ve uncovered my old collection and rediscovered my love for the hobby. Some of the more modern design philosophies really show a love for the craft and a grasp of physics that truly impresses me as a machinist. That said, my experience is firmly rooted in that earlier era of play and my designs reflect it.
I took a lot of inspiration for this piece from the exterior design from my favorite yoyo, my trusty old Turbo Bumblebee GT, and as such I’ve taken to calling it the “Queen Bee.” It’s a touch heavier than the original, but comes with a much longer spin time to match. I’m not a particularly advanced player by modern standards, to be perfectly honest, but I’ve been putting it through its paces as simple 0A retro yoyo and really enjoying myself. I’ve recently been able to put it into the much more talented hands of more “modern” players, and it turns out that it also plays very well on the string in a way I didn’t think was possible.
One thing I really, really wanted to include was the presence of the old brake pad style response. While I don’t have an incredible amount of experience with modern responsive play, from what I’ve been able to experience so far I prefer the feel of brake pads to the modern silicone.
My design is tug responsive, but very stable on the sleep with a surprisingly strong capacity for string tricks if the mood strikes you to do more than 0A. It also gives satisfying, solid “THWACK” sound on a good catch that I love beyond words, but it doesn’t feel too strong coming back to the hand and isn’t painful to catch.
I’ve received enough positive feedback that I have decided that I would like to really take the time to refine the prototype design and machining process and get them into a state ready to properly market. The main roadblock is that getting it there comes with a fairly high start-up cost that my hobby budget can’t bear. I will need to be able to buy the proper tools and fixtures to make these things quickly and cost-effectively. The design is a throwback to a simpler design style, but being made of titanium means it isn’t particularly simple to cut. To that effect, I’ll need to make a fair number of the prototypes so I can fine-tune the process and form to make sure that I can cut them properly, quickly, and efficiently.
I’m looking for anybody out there who might want to buy into a USA made prototype run. The current state of the prototype is very throwable, so I have no qualms about taking orders whatsoever. That said, the program design is not yet optimized for production. What you get will likely have process blemishes here and there that will not impact the function of the yoyo in any real way. In essence, they’ll almost certainly be B grades on the finish aspects but otherwise entirely playable.
Errors you might expect to see on the units you receive would range from an axial cut mismatch at the outermost diameter of the wings to slight variation in the depth of the brake pad’s recess. Fixing these variations at the level that lets me hit proper production will require the purchase of a few things I don’t currently have to remedy issues that currently take me too much time to work around. Purchasing things that are specific to the cutting of yoyos like more effective fixturing for the lathe and mill and some more efficient tools for cutting titanium are necessary if I am to get into production. Titanium also isn’t free, but it gets slightly cheaper the more you buy at once. This is a hobby for me and I’m just starting out, so I don’t have the cash on hand to make these kinds of purchases. Machine tools are expensive.
The goal in the short term is not to make a profit, but rather to fund my pursuit of the process so I can buy what I need to take it to a fully finished state of production. I will be relying on the feedback from those who buy these prototypes to really perfect the design as well as my process. The equipment I purchase and techniques I develop would also be carried forward to future designs cut for myself and others.
As you take your time to consider, it is incredibly important to me that you keep in mind that these will not be flawless units. I will reiterate that what you receive will most likely be B grade in some way or other, especially if you get one of the early units. Some of you might get cutting errors, others might get flawed surface finishes, and as I get to the stage where I am testing out my anodization process, some of you might get odd colors or blemishes in the coating.
My current thoughts on price would be to keep the prototypes at an initial price of $150 + tax and shipping each, with a deposit of 50% to reserve your unit. My goal is to get at least 20-25 orders going, but I think I’ll cap out this initial run at ~75 units if there’s an unstoppable wave of interest. Depending on the number of orders I manage to get, the price for the prototypes might come down a bit as I can distribute the cost a bit easier. The production version will be more expensive, but I will need to see how the final process works out in order to calculate how much it should be.
I would like to start making chips on these in late February if I can, and I’ll be taking orders until the end of January. An order form can be found here.
Current orders: 16
Units reserved: 18
Numbers updated 12/23/2024
Discount break points:
35 orders - 10% discount
50 orders - 17.5% discount
75 orders - 25% discount
