Speaking of wood, did you guys see the YoyoJam Deja Vu?
"LATE ARRIVAL!! YOYOJAM PRESENTS: DEJA VU
Like we mentioned earlier, we really wanted to improve the old Jamboo so this time we put together a full aluminum yoyo and added a special wooden coating to give it the feel of wood, yet still play like an all metal.
These just got finished at the factory and they are on their way up to Worlds! There aren’t many, so get to the YYJ booth early tomorrow! We’ll be open at 9:00am. Can’t wait to see everyone!"-YoyoJam Facebook Page
But all one piece, right? Just like all my wooden yoyos without replaceable axles, I will eventually cut mine in half with the string. Not to dissuade anyone, the Pocket Love is one of the best wooden yoyos I’ve ever played.
It takes less time than you would think. I have probably cut 3 or 4 lightnings in half in the last 10 months. Still, at $10 each, buy all you can find.
Purplepottamus, do you ever plan on releasing your wood throws with take apart design?
I have been very close to getting one of yours a few times now, but the lack of take apart keeps me from pulling the trigger. I’m not really worried about burning through the axle so much as breaking it, and the crazy knots that I can’t undo without destroying a string or taking the yoyo apart (only in my wood yoyos).
Either way, they are such beautiful yoyos. I really dig your craftsmanship and artistic touch, and I hope you prosper!
I won’t say I’m not going to ever come out with a take apart in a distant future, but right now I am very happy with their performance as is. Take aparts can be finicky when repeatedly taken apart, leading to dissatisfying vibe. I use hardwood dowels for the axle and relatively light body designs to prolong the axle life. I have been throwing the same JFF daily for going on 2 months now with no sign of the axle wearing down. Plus, digging tangles out of a yoyo with a paper clip builds character
So, the axle is just a piece of wood, right? Really, the non take apart is fine with me. I never even take apart my 1A yoyos, I just use a bamboo skewer to pick the knots. It’s much quicker and easier than unscrewing your yoyo, taking the string off, screwing your yoyo back, and putting the string back on.
I get enough character building with the pain I feel with each throw, not to mention the fact that I’ve been married for 15+ years, and have 1 teenage daughter and another not far behind in age and 150lbs of crazed wild dogs fighting for dominance. Arthritic joints would rather use the free time playing with yoyos than picking out a silly knot.
Besides. Playing with vibe builds character for you young whipper snappers.
I’ve already sat on my Baldwin and the gap isn’t even anymore. Still plays great but with a little vibe. When I am accurate, I can still nail a cross arm brent stole with positive tension with the axle shaved way down. Sorry, but your yoyo would have broken if I had sat on it, while the Baldwin is still going.
These are a few reasons why I like take apart and hope that you will make some in the future.
I popped the small round “plugs” out of either side of my LoveJoy the other day. Without those plugs, it’s nigh impossible to get your yoyo back together again. After much fiddling, I pulled it off, but let me tell you it was a surprise!
I suspect the dados like on the Baldwin or 2013 Eh are stronger (wood-to-wood glue is usually stronger than the wood itself!) but I’m going to have to think twice about the ones with the little plugs. :-/
I got my turner today and am getting used to it. I also ended up ordering a Freemont so I am highly anticipating its arrival.
In the mean time, I took a picture of my Baldwin and Turner squaring off side by side for size comparison, but first we must get to the weigh-ins!
What I found surprising was the actual weight difference between the two. I’m actually going to post a picture because I would have double checked for myself if somebody had told me.
I don’t fully understand how it happened, to be honest. Here’s the best guess:
When I unscrewed the yoyo, it unscrewed from both halves, and I didn’t see that it had happened. When I went to screw back on the half that had come all the way off, the other side didn’t re-thread properly, so it got “blocked” from screwing back together. After the side that I was intentionally re-screwing (which was threaded correctly of course!) reached its maximum, I was unaware of it because the gap was still far too large, so I just kept screwing.
The axle passed through the threaded insert (only the cap blocks it at the end; there’s no metal end to it) it continued on and pushed out the cap.
I really don’t know how I accomplished popping the other one off. I know I tried to put it together again, and it didn’t work (same thing just happened), so I took the whole thing apart at that point. I MUST have unintentinally cross-threaded the OTHER side this time! Because “POP”, out comes the other cap.
Undid everything yet again, and by this time I recognized what was going on, so I made sure both sides were safely threaded before I closed’er up. Had to use finger pressure to keep the caps on as I got to final tightness… haven’t bothered regluing just yet.
What surprised me was how easily the caps came off. If there was significant resistance, I would have recognized that something was awry. However, it just felt like the usual little bit of tightness you get when at the end of tightening them up. Nothing too much. “POP!” is even giving it too much credit… they sort of just slid out of place.
I think I’m going to put some thread lock on one side of each TMBR yoyo to make sure this doesn’t happen. When I sat on mine, I think the dado got damaged, but not all the way. When I was screwing it back together is when I noticed it starting to poke through more kind of like how you are describing. I bet that if I had the round cap like you, it would have just popped out like yours did when I first sat on it. I needed to do that anyway because I shaved the axle down on my baldwin so much that I think I’m at the limit unless I actually shave down the metal some first.
I have been playing around with axles as I got an axle kit. First off, I measured each axle stock with a micrometer and they are all in the .519" to .529" range (including the 3 that came with my TMBRs).
On my Baldwin I shaved down the stock Walnut axle down to .455" and I think it is just about where I want it.
In my Turner, I shaved down an oak axle (didn’t want to mess with my purple heart axle just yet) to .5" even and I will probably shave some more off. I’m still trying to find the sweet spot for both the Freemont and Turner and both of them still need to break in a little more. I notice smoothing out from friction and my oils in the wood really seem to make the bigger difference in (less) response compared to axles as I don’t notice hardly any difference in response when changing those out so far. The oak so far gives me the most response but I really have to watch the cotton string because it tears through them fast. I’m sure the oak axle needs to break in some more before it becomes consistent.
Speaking of break-in and string. I was playing with only Kitty string fat because I couldn’t get my TMBR yoyos to respond how I liked. Eventually, the Baldwin surface became smooth from play and I simply could not get the Baldwin to respond, so I switched back to type 8 cotton. Then my Baldwin kept taking flight every 20 min of play because the string kept snapping at the axle. Now I have type 10 cotton and sure hope that ends. So far so good today.
I played for 5 days on one poly string before it looked like it was too melted to trust anymore. I guess my style is hard on cotton, but not on poly. I still plan on making my own cotton string, but just haven’t had the time to research.
