i watched a 30 minute documentary about Shapeways after seeing this. VERY interesting stuff.
You don’t get it.
The reason that they can use hollow parts in the Fluidprint yo-yos is because their yo-yos are plastic and plastic is a whole lot lighter than steel. If you made my yo-yo in plastic it would probably be about 10 grams and would be unplayable. My yo-yo is already 73 grams, which is on the heavy side for yo-yos and it would be difficult to remove more material from the profile because it’s already so thin. Fluidprint’s yo-yos need to have a really thick profile anyway in order to make them heavy enough to be playable. In that case, they can play around with hollow areas because they have extra material which is not part of the necessary support structure. There is very little metal on my yo-yo which is unnecessary that I can move around. If I were to make anything on it hollow, I would have to add unnecessary material and it would just make it even heavier than it already is. Like this:
It’s the same profile as before, but with more metal for no other reason than to make a hollow part. Hollowing is only beneficial if you’re removing/moving material which would have already been there. If I’m able to remove any material from my yo-yos hub and retain structural integrity, I’m not wasting it by making hollow bits. It’s either going to be removed completely so I can lower the overall weight, or moved directly to the rim.
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Making hollow parts allows for a thicker exterior body, while keeping the weight down. It’s still going to be heavier than if it didn’t have the second wall for the hollow interior, but this yoyo looks pretty wirey and doesn’t seem to have that rich “full” feeling in your hand.
You may want to try printing in something lighter than steel, if Shapeways comes out with that. Using steel is very limiting, because it forces you to keep thinking of how to take away weight instead of adding features or comfort.
Thinking about the whole hollow thing. It would be cool if at the rim, before the printer capped off the hollow part, you put in a brass/steel ring and then finishing the print. May be a good way to get as close to something like the rings on the Draupnir without infringing on Yyj’s patent. Just a thought.
I don’t see the practical benefit of having a “thicker exterior body” when you only really touch the outside surface anyway. It doesn’t solve any problem with the design. That it would still be heavier than if it didn’t have a second wall is the point that I’ve been trying to make. Yes, it’s “wirey” but it’s not uncomfortable to play with. Your “rich full feeling in your hand” is a subjective quality. Other people may not feel the same way if they played with it.
Steel is the basic metal you can have things 3D printed in at a consumer level. There’s no aluminum printing available to me. The next step down is plastic. This project was mainly intended to be a proof of concept to see if it was possible to use 3D printing to create a full sized stainless steel yo-yo, because previous stainless steel yo-yos were all micros like the CU, Saint Eel and Mighty Flea. This is the first time it’s ever been done and some things must be learned through trial & error. Design challenges can still be overcome through creative thinking and engineering (your signature even states you are an engineer). I’m sure you can appreciate the effort anyway.
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Didn’t realize the yoyo itself was made of Stainless. If someone could print out of aluminum my idea could work.