TryCatchThrow's 3D Printed Tops

Spin Tops
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Greetings! I started this thread on ta0.com chronicling my 3D printed tops and my journey to make them, and I figured that the internet content strategy is to just post it everywhere, so here we are :rofl:

This is the first top I designed. This is the Rebel.

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This Rebel is 37.6g. It clocks in at 57.9mm wide and 74.3mm tall.

I designed this one when the only other top I owned was an Imperial. I happen to like the Imperial quite a bit still. I find it very portable and easy to play.

This one pictured here is at least my 5th print of this top, and comes after learning a lot designing my second and third top, but those are for another post.

This one here is printed in Bambu’s AMS friendly TPU. It’s rated a 68D on the Shore hardness scale, so it is not particularly soft to the touch anywhere; there may be a tiny bit of give in the taper to the tip. The material is very impact resistant.

This particular top has an integrated tip design. I have also since printed it for Short Circuit tip as well.

As this was the first top I designed, I printed it many times and tried a bunch of materials. I first naively attempted to print in PLA, which would print nicely but would usually break at the thinnest part of the tip.

I then tried to print it in 95A TPU, which it turns out is my preferred material for tops. 95A TPU is softer than 68D, and it is a bit more fussy to print. This design did not work well for the 95A TPU, and would make parts that were unacceptably messy (to me) on the overhangs, but they still played reasonably well.

I finally, after taking a journey printing my second and third top designs, came back to this one with new knowledge and new materials. I printed a few integrated tip tops in the 68D TPU with different designs on the interior of the tip to see if I could reinforce it without any other mechanics. All of those wound up breaking in the same spot, the thin part of the tip, but they lasted longer than the PLA. I then added a pilot hole to the tip and inserted a sheet metal screw (with washers as spacers). Since starting this method, all my integrated tip tops have held up just fine. I’ve only printed them in the 68D TPU, and I’m intending to circle around and try a 95A TPU integrated tip with screw as well, but the 95A prints are much slower.

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Greetings!

Today I’m presenting my second top, the Powerline. It’s named after the Short Circuit as one of it’s main design goals was to fit the Short Circuit tip. The second major design goal was to get a clean print in 95A TPU. I consider this my first “successful” top as it was the first one that yielded a truly enjoyable spinning experience, as prior versions were too brittle.

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Left: Powerline in 95A TPU. 55g.
Right: Powerline in 67D TPU. 58g.
Both: 56.2mm diameter, 74.3mm tip to crown.

A few months ago I was commissioned to make a small batch of TPU yoyo counterweights for a client. I had never worked with TPU before that. I purchased some Overland 95A TPU in the client’s preferred purple. At the same time, I was getting more into spin tops and throwing my Short Circuit. I was feeling like I could use a better top. I was doing some research and found that Chris Neff’s Sweetle, which was a top I had heard of, was apparently printed in TPU. I happened to have a bunch on hand from just having bought a spool for the counterweights, so I decided to give it a try.

My first top I printed in TPU was a very small version of the Rebel.

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It had printed beautifully, but was a bit too small. So I tried to upsize the design, and the prints came out messy.

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The overhang and the material did not play nicely together. So, I went back to the drawing board to redesign a top with less overhang that lent itself to the material. I failed a bunch of prints along the way and iterated on the design. Eventually I came up with the Powerline, the design you see at the top of the post. This is my EDC top. The purple one pictured here is the one I carry in my bag with me at all times, right next to a Duncan Butterfly or one of my 3D printed yo-yos.

This top uses Short Circuit tips and has a notch, just like the Short Circuit, to hold the tip in place. I’ve printed it in the 95A TPU, the 67D TPU, and I’ve printed a variant with an integrated tip (but cannot for the life of me find it at this moment). I have not tried this one with the metal Elektrik tip, but I do use that tip in this top’s bigger brother (more coming soon).

The top has a variable infill, where it is solid at the widest part of the top. The rest is a low, concentric infill. The purple one has a pleasant amount of give near the tip (where you can easily press into it with your thumb), but the white and green top has some give but you’ve got to press hard (as it is a harder material).

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I’m afraid to get into another skill toy, but I have to admit there’s a huge appeal in my brain for Spin Tops…

Then again, there’s a huge appeal for pretty much any skill toy in my brain. Too bad my hands/wrists don’t agree!

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They’re a lot of fun, just working on the throw and spin is a rewarding challenge, as is scooping it up off the ground with the string. Winding them up is also satisfying in its own way.

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This is my most recent top. I call this one the Tape Job. It’s a three piece top inspired by the Quicksilver Hybrid. That top is a $60 top that ships taped, so i felt very liberated in using tape as an essential part of the design for this one.

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The top is three pieces, a top, a bottom, and an aligner.

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The top and bottom have a groove that the aligner fits into.

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This is an image of what my “tip seat” looks like. The tip gets inserted against this surface and a screw goes through the hole. Note the notch for the plastic Short Circuit tip.

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I’ve only thrown it a few times so far but I like it. It clocks in at 92.5g, so a little lighter than the Quicksilver Hybrid that inspired it (those are around 110g per the specs on ■■■■■■■).

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I love it!!

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Love it! Do you plan on publishing the files at some point?

If you ever decide to eliminate the tape, I’ve had good success using a good contact cement for gluing TPU.

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The tape is more of an impact protection. The drop itself plus the energy from rotation is pretty significant, so most manufacturers switched to taping as an impact buffer. Allows a little slip and shock absorption between the parts.

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On this particular top the tape is actually an aesthetic choice :rofl:

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I have been slacking on publishing files. I intend to publish a top but was maybe going to do one of my integrated tip designs since they require easier to acquire hardware. I’m heading out on vacation tomorrow so I will probably get to this next week-ish.

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Off topic but that’s such a good shirt in the video :rofl:

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That one looks super solid!!

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