Hey! I want to know y’all’s thoughts on throwing yo-yos with some war scars/ or raw throws in a rock tumbler with some ceramic beads? What do you think will happen? Will it give it a better finish? Will it eventually strip off the anodizing? Will it completely destroy the throw?
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I would bet it would completely strip ano and potentially introduce vibe if done for a full tumbling period of a month. I’m not sure, however.
I think it will eat your anno and wear down metal in important spots you don’t protect like the bearing seat, etc. but it might have a nice feeling surface. i’d probably test a yoyo I won’t miss first because it could be ruined.
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I’m def considering masking the bearing seat with a sacrificial axel, washer and nut with some silicone was thought. I’m thinking to leave it in for a day, check, 2 days check, 4 days and so on; to see how far down the rabbit hole it gets.
Is there any examples of someone doing this?
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I wish I remembered who it was but someone made or printed something that was like a plastic shield that went over the pads and protected all of the important parts.
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Depending on the size of the tumbling media and method of tumbling, would you even need to mask the guts? One Drop uses relative large ceramic tumbling media and just tosses yoyo halves in without masking, since the guts also have the pyramatte finish on them. Although they use what I think is a vibratory tumbler, so maybe with a rotary tumbler method it’d be different.
Tumbling will definitely strip the anodization off though.
@adamantiumpops I remember rock tumbled a yoyo in their washing machine a few years back and liked the results
If you have a yoyo you don’t care about much, I’d just tumble it in the lowest effort way possible first to see what you can get away with, instead of potentially making extra work for yourself.
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Tumbled in a washing machine???
I really wouldn’t think it would shave the mess of the bearing seat but I suppose it best to mask it to be safe.
I plan to use this as media. I’m going to try it Monday when it comes in. And I’ll def post progress pics!
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Yeah LOL
The yoyo halves along with some water and the tumbling media put into a water bottle, then wrapped up in a sweatshirt and tossed into either the washing machine or dryer, I think it was the dryer actually.
I thought it was a pretty slick solution, if a little jank. But hey, it worked. And if that worked well I’d imagine you’ll probably get good results using an actual tumbler.
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Yeah, so many factors to consider, i’m willing to bet one drop has calculated the thousandths of a micron removed from the surface of the raw half by their tumbling process to get their anodize to correct thickness to compensate for it.
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I have done this before and it has yielded decent results. I would suggest at least masking off the bearing seat. In my experience it didn’t introduce any vibe or any other curious artifacts. When I did it, I stripped the yoyo first. I’ve used small tumbling medium like walnut and ceramic and also large non-traditional media like lava rock. Both came out fine. You don’t have a lot to worry about as long as you’re not marring up the hub. That’s the main thing to consider. I’ve done it in the washing machine and also in a traditional tumbler and both yield great results.
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Here are before and afters of a 12 hour run! I’m actually impressed with the finish. Pics don’t really do a justice. It did seen to go for the rims more than anything else. I ended up just using a poopy bearing as a mask and it worded great. Just put the whole thing in.
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Update #2
A copy wooly Marmot 2
Originally a red, green and yellow, de-anodized and polished, then thrown into the tumbler for 12 hours.
What do y’all think?!
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Looks great! What’s the texture feel like?
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it’s very similar to a soft blasted/ OD pryamatte finish. it grinds almost as good as any anno/blasted. Surprisingly it corrected the very minor vibe.
on the MYY V12 it cleaned up a scuffing/ dings etc.
I will def use this method again for restoring a beater to glory again, or just strip poopy colors
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I really love how “raw” it looks. Kinda of an industrial/street vibe to it.
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Man, you did fantastic
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That came out great!
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i HIGHLY recommend Greased Lighting to remove the anno. to me it works bettter than a spray and you can soak the mess out of it! I used basic silicone to mask the seat. What are you using as a grit medium?
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I’m gunna have to try tumbling a Yoyo now, I have a rock tumbler too that wooly marmot looks dope
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