# Yoyo CAD & Prototyping Adventures

**URL:** <https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/yoyo-cad-prototyping-adventures/291547>\
**Category:** Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance\
**Created:** [August 7, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/yoyo-cad-prototyping-adventures/291547 "2018-08-07T15:40:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![MarkD](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/markd/32/40845_2.png) [@MarkD](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/MarkD)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/yoyo-cad-prototyping-adventures/291547/1 "2018-08-07T15:40:59Z")

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About a month ago I realized that designing your own yo-yo _and actually prototyping it_ is a lot more approachable than I thought. There’s a lot of great CAD software out there, a lot of it free to use for this purpose, and there are machine shops that specialize in yo-yos, even for one-off runs. The price for this is expensive, but I’ll end up with something real, and personal, and special.

I started learning CAD using [Fusion 360](https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview), which has a free startup license that you can activate from the free trial version. It has several features that are really useful for this sort of work - it can analyze mass and moment of inertia, apply different materials (6061, 7075, stainless steel, etc), and it even has a pretty nice rendering tool.

I made a bunch of practice designs, but most of them weren’t very appealing to me.

 ![round-v1-cup](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/d/5/3/d531fe42b7ec2367acc8ce7947aded4c3c653465.jpeg) ![v-shape-v2](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/6/f/d/6fdbba2e30ea461b111d7ac8323db3dc3bb5aa13.jpeg)

For practice, I also tried to mimic some existing designs. Can you guess which ones?

 ![Mark_Not_Classic_Cup](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/0/e/1/0e1e265e1ca66a3ecff1ed81af18cbc52426fb2d.jpeg) ![Mark_Not_Classic_Gap](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/1/8/d/18dbb4715d8d32ec70f8c68f19b566d4c71aa734.jpeg)

 ![frail-v4-cup](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/4/e/d/4ed1628515a2aae3259e92512c353fe3cf871af1.jpeg) ![frail-v4-gap](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/4/5/0/4509646acc3002f2efbd25f23db1850b9d1c3382.jpeg)

I also tried a couple bi-metals, but those seem a lot harder to design. There’s a lot of work to balance the weight of the steel & aluminum parts while also providing enough surface area for the press fit.

 ![bimetal-whatever-gap](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/4/2/2/422a95537b1f88189eda454fada8335e857c60da.jpeg)

I finally ended up with something I’m pretty happy with:

 ![circles](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/c/1/d/c1d53b1598458cf93b54925141bebf139682af9e.jpeg)

This is very likely something I’m going to get prototyped in a very small run, by the folks at FPM (YoyoFriends). Maybe it’ll be good? Who knows!

Are any of you practicing your CAD? Done any prototype runs for fun? I’d love to hear your stories & see your designs!

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