Luggage scales are a popular choice.
2 Likes
Sorry in advance for the super long post, but several of you made good points that I wanted to talk about. Feel free to skip my rambling, this is a topic I could go on about all day long haha
This can be a really aggravating problem with string making tbh. I make strings every day and have done for a couple years now, and Iāve gotten more and more consistent over time but I still can have issues once in a while. Usually nothing major, just a little bit of variation between batches but itās usually not noticeable, but a few months ago I was going through a kind of rough patch with a lot of bad days and I had a couple customers tell me my strings werenāt twisted as tightly as usual and it was causing some issues. I replaced them of course, but anyway all of that is to say that yeah tension while twisting is hard and you need to pay really close attention to get it as consistent as possible. String making is more of an art than a science in my opinion, which makes it difficult to perfectly define the steps to make a good string because a lot of it comes down to preference and feel. When I make strings, I kind of āpluckā the strings after I twist them at the same spot every time, kind of like plucking a guitar string, which helps me feel if itās tight enough and if all strings in a ten-pack are consistent. If I feel a string is too loose I can just twist it a little more.
I actually just added a note on my website about this, on all my solid color nylon colorways. All the colorways I make using multiple colors feel about the same as each other, mixing colors works great. But for some reason, solid colors can get weird. Some people love it, though I personally donāt. I think itās worse with darker colors, like dark purple or black tend to be the worst, middle colors like turquoise and orange still feel weird but not as bad, and then light colors like soft pink and mint hardly have it at all. Itās basically like the strings have static electricity in them or something, like same-color threads repel each other.
For what itās worth, I use a Dremel 3000. Actually I have two, I used the first one so much I burned out the switch and had to buy a replacement to hold me over until I could replace the switch in the first one. Haha itās nice having a backup now. Itās much faster than when I started out using a drill, and a lot quieter.
Iāve considered doing this, but havenāt felt it necessary yet. But it could be a good idea to make extra sure youā're getting it consistent. My first thought was to somehow have the tension gauge attached between the Dremel and the string while youāre twisting it, but now that I think about it, it would probably work just as well to take the string off the Dremel and test the tension before folding it over.
7 Likes
Out of curiosity, do you wind the crank clockwise or counterclockwise?
Guess I hadnāt really thought about it, but I crank clockwise, but mostly because Iām right handed and thatās whatās most comfortable.
Also piggybacking on @BadWolfeCo was saying about tensionā¦ During our testing phase Amelia (the other A) and I would both spin drills at the same time, for the same amount of time, but come out with very different strings. We also figured it had something to do with the amount of tension each of us were putting on the drill. So now she does the initial drilling and I do the rest of the stuff.
I donāt have anything but anecdotal evidence, but I swear high humidity also makes the strings tighter. Could have been odd coincidences and I canāt explain why that would be an issue but Iāve seen it!!
1 Like
Iāve been cranking counterclockwise because that is what the Spool Thread doc indicated, but I guess I need to do some clockwise experiments tooā¦
Almost all fabric and thread is sensitive to humidity so it makes sense that results may vary based on the temperature and humidity in the environment when making the string.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19447014708662912?journalCode=jtip20
1 Like
Experiments this week. The 4 on the right are cotton. I miscalculated the colored thread count so they are both too thin. Three threads twisted then one wrap and one and a half wraps. The white cotton is 5 threads with the same wrap count.
The others are the same Spool Thread blend as before (I made a bit more twisted than I needed for my initial experiments) with a variations on the reduction amount. The differences arenāt huge and may, as discussed, be related more to exact tension applied during reduction.
For reference, my rig is 140 inches and I did reductions of 12-17 inches in one inch increments.
Next up will be an app poly 5 thread and a Spool Thread with a couple of the maxi-lock nylon replaced with wooly nylon (colors).
4 Likes
My dream would be a setup with a tension measurement that would feed into a microcontroller that would control the twisting so it could target specific tension and reduction values consistently and automatically. But that starts to sound like workā¦
3 Likes
I just do a snap test. It works pretty good.
On a tangentially related note, Iām left handed and I wonāt make left-handed (reverse twisted) strings. Iāve had a few people ask, and I made a few when I first started out but honestly itās just not worth it. I can yoyo just fine as a lefty with regular twisted string, the only difference is as I yoyo the string gets a little looser with each throw rather than tighter like it does for right handed people. But it would have to untwist a TON before it became a problem with slipping binds, much less the loop opening and the yoyo flying off like some people think might happen. Youād get annoyed by the tension being off LONG before that. And as a string maker, the only way to make reverse twisted string is to either (A) use a reversible drill, which is super loud and slow, or (B) buy a second Dremel, take it apart and flip around the motor to make it spin the opposite direction, which is a money and time investment. If any lefties read this, try right handed string, I promise it really doesnāt make a difference.
I know you were talking about the yarn twister but it felt like a good opportunity to bring this up.
1 Like
Let me tell you about what happened when I started practicing 2A a lotā¦ (luckily, the yo yo exited the string as it was coming back toward me and I managed to catch it.) But yeah, for 1A it would be unusual to be a major concern except for, maybe, botched DNA type binds.
Dremel 7300s arenāt too expensive (if you can still find one) but itās worth noting that (I think [I havenāt bought any to test this]) that the newer models (7350, 7700, 8200) that replace the 7300 are not as easy to reverse. I believe they have more wiring connecting things together and it may not be as easy as āflipping the motor overā like it was in the 7300.
1 Like
Honestly I donāt think even that would be a problem, I canāt tell you how many times Iāve missed a fingerspin or messed up a bind and yeah it gets loose but itās never actually come off the yoyo. I can definitely see how it could be a problem with 2A though, I havenāt done 2A much so I canāt really speak to that.
Personally, I wouldnāt use a 7300 for making strings. Iām sure itās fine if youāre just doing it for a hobby making strings for yourself, but thereās a few reasons I wouldnāt go for that one. First, Iād definitely recommend wired over wireless. Battery life isnāt a huge deal if youāre making one string at a time, but it would definitely become a problem pretty quickly if you start scaling up and making more strings at a time. But thatās not a huge deal, you can get more batteries to switch out. The bigger problem is that the 7300 is designed for very light jobs, like filing nails or engraving. Thread isnāt super thick or heavy duty, but when youāre pulling and twisting thread into a yoyo string it actually can put a pretty hefty strain on the Dremel. Iāve burned out two Dremels, both heavier duty ones than the 7300 (one Dremel 100, one Dremel 3000). The stronger motor in the 3000 is much better for the strain you put on it while keeping tension on the string, and when I burned out the first one fortunately it was just the switch not the actual motor. The motor itself is what went out on my 100, after I started ramping up and selling strings rather than just making them for myself. Plus a Dremel with wired power and a stronger motor will be more consistent, but thereās always some variance so Iām not sure if thatās really a huge deal.
All of that is to say, a 7300 might work fine for making a few strings here and there, but if I was to offer left-handed strings to customers Iād want something bulkier like a 3000 which runs more like $75-100 depending on where you get it. (Fun fact: Loweās will price match Amazon as long as itās listed as āSold and Shipped by Amazonā which is how I got my second 3000 without having to wait for it to ship to me)
Thatās still not a huge investment, but like I said I donāt think lefties need to have left handed string anyway so itās still not worth it to me. And itās not worth it to me to have to figure out how to flip the motor and have yet another tool to keep track of.
That said, some people use a reversed Dremel to twist the string after folding it over. In that case, it wouldnāt hurt anything to add a left-handed option since youād already have two Dremels anyway, one for twisting the thread and the other for twisting the string onto itself. Personally, I just use swivels to let it twist naturally and that works well enough, but I can definitely see the appeal of reverse twisting them.
2 Likes
I totally agree with you here in terms of duty, although I imagine most people who dabble in string making string arenāt looking to run a business around it.
Spool Thread warned against trying to invert the polarity of an AC motor in a dremel, but I donāt know how accurate that is for modern dremel models.
Iām only trying it because overtightening the string after folding it was part of the process described by Spool Thread. I probably need to do some experiments around that, too.
2 Likes
Oh yeah sorry I didnāt mean to imply they are, just that I personally consider those aspects when thinking about these things. My bad.
Itās definitely not a bad idea. When I make string, I let it untwist naturally with a swivel, or more accurately, a series of swivels that I chained together so that if one stops turning smoothly the others will pick up the slack. But once itās untwisted as far as itās going to by itself, I usually kind of twist it a few times by hand to make sure itās not under-twisted. Not as much as using a Dremel but it helps. Also when a customer gets a pack of strings, theyāre going to pull them out and unwrap the strings which will let out a bit of tension too. Thatās not the case when youāre immediately putting it on your own yoyo.
1 Like
The left three are different reductions of 5 thread poly wound with the yarn twister.
The next two are Spool Thread formula but with two wooly nylon subbed in.
The next four are clockwise wound on the yarn winder. Two Spool Thread and two 5 cotton. It seemed to wind tighter and I donāt like it for cotton but I need to try them some.
The last two are 5 cotton wound on the winder then prespun before adding a wrap of colored cotton. I need to try a 4 wind pretwist with two threads for the wrap. I also eased off the reduction a bit for these.
I am curious to know if anyone looks for S thread instead of Z thread.
4 Likes
Mmm. I like that left color combo. Looks like some good vibrant thread colors to, but that left looks nice, and different to me.
1 Like
Todayās experiments. The three on the right were done without the yarn twister as I only have one spool of each (white is cotton, aqua is poly wrapped poly core)
The others were experiments with different strand counts and thread types with some 1.5 wraps in there, too.
5 Likes
Did somebody say cores? Love that teal or blue green. Its nice. Yet again some real popping color combos.
In this case itās poly thread that is a single strand core wrapped with two or three spun poly yarn. The poly core is more like mono filament and is supposed to be stronger than traditional spun fibers.