The Ti-Vayder Experience

I mean, Onedrop might have a different system, but probably.

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This is true. Anodizing titanium is way way easier than aluminum and is achievable with much less material and capital investment. It’s not easy to get super bright colors anodizing titanium though… Niobium is different. It’ll be much brighter and more colorful than standard Ti. I remember when I was first messing around with titanium it took several tries to get certain colors and to get them to pop.

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My jaw dropped seeing you iridescent ti Walker. Is that effect achievable at home. If so, any directions/ online resource to do it would be greatly appreciated.

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Thanks! That TiWalker is PVD coated which is a commercial/industrial process. It requires expensive, specialized machinery and isn’t possible at home. I had to work with a batch commercial PVD coater to do ~50 yoyos at once and that TiWalker was one of the ones that was done.

I would never advise PVD coating an aluminum yoyo though. About 30% of the aluminum ones that came back came back with vibe, probably because they had to plate the yoyos before the PVD which made them wobble. Some were so bad they’re basically useless. :frowning:

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Is there a pic of this @jasonwongzero?

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Here is the pic I saw, but the 1st post here have one as well. Not sure if it’s same YoYo.

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Thanks for the input @jasonwongzero! I’d like to add that I don’t want to take away from what you do or your business. But I’m a medical researcher, teacher, creator and inventor - so I am always trying to encourage people to learn new things and be creative. The world could always use more creators and less destroyers. :slight_smile:
EDIT - PS: You’re anodizing work is UNREAL!

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Oh! I didn’t interpret it that way at all! I’d encourage anyone interested to give anodizing Titanium a shot. It’s certainly doable at home, just wanted to be sure people had the right expectations is all! In fact, if you’re thinking about anodizing any metals, I’d suggest you start with Ti and work your way up to Al.

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Great! I just wanted to make sure you knew that I respect what you do.
– If this doesn’t derail the thread too much, would you mind if I ask from your expertise: When anodizing titanium, is there a risk of altering the balance - i.e. creating vibe? What about etching? My impression would be no, since the oxide layer is very thin but I would love to hear from your experience.

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Will we get a video of Jesse Christe doing 90 suicides with the Ti-Vayder?

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Funny I thought about that same thing. When he set the record it didn’t count because the yoyo has to be a minimum run number (100 I think).

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I may be old but I’m pretty sure Jesse set it on a Sky Walker at WYYC for that very reason.

I could be wrong though. I’d be game for that, but Jesse is sponsored by another maker and I don’t think it’ll pan out.

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This wasn’t standard for me. A typical run for me was:

  • get CAD cleared for production (my machine shop was super old school and did good work, but often needed guidance which took a bit because I’m not very tech savvy myself).

  • go to the shop to test the first full yoyo that comes off the machines to approve the run. Yep. Super old school and a rather unreliable way to truly test the procedure, but I did it (I still have all of those firsts in a display in my room).

  • go pickup the run and ship it to the anodizer. Sometimes I’d keep a few raw ones for friends and team.

Then, when they’re back from the anodizer:

  • silicone the entirety of the run.

  • assemble the yo-yos and start testing and half swapping when necessary to get as many A Grades as possible.

  • ship A Grades off to retailers and sell B Grades through BST.

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That’s weird because my memory was it being on the Ti so it wouldn’t count. Maybe he did it on the regular walker after?

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Wait that’s a rule? What’s the reasoning behind that?

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I think it’s so someone can’t make a one off yoyo that, for example, would have massive rim weight and other attributes that could make it sleep forever. And then use it to set the longest sleep record. @Nathan could tell us for sure though.

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The World Records are all but defunct at this point but there was a 100 run minimum for the yo-yos used for them when they were a thing. That was a proxy for “full production run” since when the records were really a thing was before the rise of the boutique company.

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Jesse just verified with me that it was in fact a Sky Walker.

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Broke into the Grey section today and ended on #151. (30.2% done)

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Those greys look a lot darker than previous photos. Gonna need a side by side of all three in the elegant lighting of the Vizier Estate.

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