Spinworthy All-Wood Fixed Axle Poll

If you are a wooden fixed axle player, would you like to have the option of Spinworthy, all wooden take apart yoyos?

  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
3 Likes

All wood? I don’t really like the way tmbr utilizes the all wood/wood thread system. It is a really cool concept, but idk. Just not my cup of tea.

What are you thinking? Something similar?

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It will be different to TMBR’s design. Mine will not thread right through the body and will have a finer thread. That’s at least what I would aim for. I have not created anything like this with wood as yet, so It will require a lot of workshopping.

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I’ve thought about this before. I’d be interested to see if a smaller thread will work wood on wood. It seems like they’d be easy to mess up (strip?).

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I’m sure a slightly finer thread could be achieved without any stripping. I haven’t tried it though and some woods will definitely handle it better than others.

Without the halves threaded right through, the theory is that the axle end with snug up tightly in the body without coming undone easily.

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Sounds like a cool idea. My only concern with a finer thread (and I’m guessing narrower axle too?) there would be the chance of breaking with the torque of twisting the yo-yo together. I look forward to seeing what you come up with though!

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I’ve experimented with that. Didn’t work out. Came to the conclusion that Colin has the right ratios going with his. I tried a 1/4", 3/8" & 1/2", using maple & walnut for the wood.

Also, found out that you need some type of cap like on the TMBR’s. Only drilling partially through the halves made the halves almost every other trick come loose. Having the caps allows a counter torque applied against the axle keeping it tight.

The issues I had were the same that were commented on below:

Finer threads that we tried didn’t last, they’d strip. After a few times taking them a part the threads would mushroom or flatten and eventually not want to go together very well, then leading to the comment Garrett made:

This was the biggest problem. The smaller axles would break pretty easy.

But I do know that some of the woods you have access to Glen are borderline as hard as metal, so maybe those will work out.

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Might be cool to try the plastic axles that you’ve already had success with in a wooden yo-yo body.

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There would definitely be a limit to how fine the thread can be.

It’s very important to drill the hole the right size and make the axle the correct thickness before threading and tapping. It will nees to be within tenths of a millimeter. I do believe that when this is all done correctly there really shouldn’t be any significant stripping.

Yeah, this is my primary concern. But I still believe it’s possible without a cap. It may just require perfectly flat axle ended and equally clean hole bottoms. The right combination of wood species could make a big difference, too.

You would definitely need to be gentle with it. I find the same with TMBR wood thread axles. The axles I make will be thicker than 1/4", closer to 7.5mm.

I haven’t tried this properly yet, and it is likely that I will run into all the above mentioned problems, but I’m sure they can be worked around.

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I’ve come up with a good idea today for how to make the wood thread axle stay snug in the halves without coming loose. You’ll have to just wait and see.

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PTFE?

(Had to type these extra characters because the software doesn’t think “PTFE?” is an acceptable response.:man_facepalming:)

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Haha, It’s annoying how some responses aren’t accepted.

No PTFE… It will remain all wood.

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Pretty sure Glen doesn’t use PTFE. He uses Acetal. So it’s technically … not acceptable… by Glen :wink:

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PTFE is thread tape. Not a yo-yo material.

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Oh, I see. Perhaps if you had typed a bit more in your reply, that would have been made clearer to anyone reading.

Just a thought.

I love the all-wood axle concept, but I’ve never fallen in love with it in execution. The TMBR one is a super cool design and Colin is a super-cool creative guy. But I’m generally pretty happy with wood throws that use other axle systems. After over tightening and ripping one in half (I’m not that strong) I tend to stress about the all-wood ones. That said, I’m sure I could learn to love them, particularly if I took some lessons from @edhaponik.

But overall, I don’t think it’s a NEED for a wood throw. Now, if you can come up with a new evolution of the concept, that’s always a cool thing.

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Yeah if you’re using a lot of wood, you’re likely to strip/break SOMETHING.
I’ve overtightened a bunch of No Jives, often with the effect that the sleeve is ruined (no bigs), once stripping an axle (more bigs) and once stripping most of the hex nut indentation (big bigs). When TMBR was using set screws and axles I ruined at least one yo-yo half and a few axles. I’ve scorched through plenty of non take-apart axles in play. Ironically, I’ve only totally crunched one wood-thread axle since 2015, but I definitely do understand the intrinsic liabilities.

2 Likes

You know, that’s a really fair point. I’ve cracked no-jive axles. Messed up set-screws. My favorite old-school throw (ProYo 1) was notorious for those hex axles that would crack at even a hint of over-tightening. So I’m not sure why I’m holding the, likely much tougher, TMBR system to a higher standard just because I screwed it up once.

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If it doesn’t quite work out as a take apart design, maybe threading and gluing would make a super secure non-take apart system?

PTFE, who doesn’t know?
If you didn’t, you do now. Learning in context, perfect. :wink:

1 Like