Stringmaking & yoyos: A deep well of a hobby

  • Have you found anything else that works better? and
  • What was your ideal ballpark tension force per string?
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planning on making up a batch today! :smiley:

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I go by feel for the force, and try to keep it consistent while I reduce the length to the right take

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Why was the scale not very useful though? Was it because of the device itself, or was it because it was difficult to fine tune the tension of the reduced threads for consistent results?

I was considering purchasing one of these to use every once in a while just to check reduction consistency:

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The process was just terribly onerous. Fixing a string’s tension required moving the hook to the scale, and then to a swivel, then back to the scale, etc etc. The benefits seemed to be pretty marginal for how much it increased the stringmaking time.

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I still want to experiment with something like this bar of electric motors:

I’d like to take it a step further though, and program the motors to stop at a specific time/ specific tension at a specific reduction length.

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I would like to try this

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Benefits were marginal for me too, but surprised me it did test out that way. Just a digi fishing scale on the dremel to keep standard tension to reduction points and then also different weights of tension to those points. Un-winding in portions or the whole string at once after the fold resulted in noticeable changes too.

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my dad has a fish scale but its mad for big carp (we use to bow fish) so it does not pick up the small amount of tension that my strings make

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From what I can tell from this thread most people are using a single string rig. A few may be as many as 5 strings. Has anyone managed to built a ‘mass-volume’ rig which still has that homemade feel?

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I have a 5 but I want to make one like this

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I remember that video. Small RC motors. Tonnes of floor space. Surely there is an easier way?

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it has to be

I got to 3 string rig and didn’t progress to more for my personal needs. Literally just testing some of my string ‘questions’ was a nightmare of joy.

Good to see ya! The recent string prices are going for $7 a five pack!

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do you sell strings, im planing on selling some soon

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Not me. Just wanted to see what it was like making my own strings.

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what is that way?:thinking:

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one idea; have three stepper motors in a “Y” pattern. The two at the top of the Y spin in the same direction, bottom one spins in the opposite direction. A fourth stepper motor attached to a screw-jack will rotate and push the “bottom of the Y” motor away as the three string motors turn.

For the ease of making the string, Attach a ring to the “Y” intersection to act as a guide and help prevent binds.

At it’s closest, the bottom Y motor will have it’s hook protrude the ring for ease of setup.

Wind the string going from top Y motor to bottom Y motor to other top Y motor and back.

Spin the motors.

The next level of automation for this is to include limit switches that auto stop the screw-jack motor when the bottom Y motor reaches the desired string length, then returns the bottom Y motor to origin.

Yes it sounds more complicated, but much of the backend operations of automation is complicated. Operationally simpler, as with this idea, you wind the strings, then push a button, then cut and tie off a new string.

EDIT: Forgot another level of automation. Putting force sensors on the bottom Y motor, that reads the string tension to increase/decrease screw-jack motor speed.

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so with a 12 foot rig your reduce your string length by X many inches (how many inches is that?) but i have a 10 footer how many inches should i reduce my string length by?

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Go by percentages. I reduce about 12%

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