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Found another use for my pen lathe

Started by Daren, November 22, 2006, 08:29:25 AM

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Daren

I have a little JET pen lathe I like to play with (I have yet to make a pen though::)) I was playing around and made a curly maple and maple burl yoyo for my nephew for Christmas.



Keep in mind I have not even seen a yoyo for 25+ years (?), so I went from memory and made one like my old Duncan I used to love as a kid. I thought it turned out well. I was curious to see what "yoyo people" thought (and if they would buy one ???), turns out there is a real cult of them. There are many discussion boards about just yoyos, some bigger than FF. They thought it was pretty, but "old school" and gave me dimensions for something they would like.



So I made one from curly elm.



Then got fancy and made one from walnut and figured maple.



I sat down for a couple hours yesterday and spun a few out.

To answer my question about whether they would buy them or not, there were 6 PM's waiting for me this morning, guess so. (and for as much as I paid for my lathe each  :o) Most of the yoyers are young men, that would be a good way for a young man to get into the wood business. He could even do it in a spare room or a little corner of the garage/basement, I hope one of them catched on to this. I will sure help him get started if I can.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

thurlow

Way cool...........when I'se in grade school.........in the fifties..........the yo-yo "craze" would go thru the school about once or twice a year.  Within a week, every boy in school would have one or two in his pocket.  There were 2 brands, Cheerio and Duncan;  the advocates of each were as biased as the Chevy vs. Ford or Farmall vs. John Deere folks.
Here's to us and those like us; DanG few of us left!

TexasTimbers

Nice Daren, as usual.

thurlow, when I lived in Japan in 68-70, the yoyo craze was full tilt boogie. You know the Japanese, they will take something plain and bland and really pimp it out, oriental style. I wish I had some of those yoyo's still. they would knock your eyes out with the color and action figures tehy had on them.
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

MSU_Keith

Several people have made a living making yoyos:

Yoyo Store

I have several Tom Kuhn custom models - a 'No Jive 3 in 1' (hard maple I think) that I've had for 15 yrs.  A few years ago I picked up a used Silver Bullet machined from billet aluminum, perfectly balanced with ball bearings but I never use it cause I'm afraid it'll break my hand.

Daren - beautiful stuff.  If your planning to continue making them you should look at making a replaceable spindle design.  I wish I had a lathe.  When you get big maybe you can sponsor me  ;D

Daren

Quote from: MSU_Keith on November 22, 2006, 10:52:24 AM


If your planning to continue making them you should look at making a replaceable spindle design. 

I have some on order  ;). Your right the Tom Kuhns is hard maple, I checked out his stuff researching the first one I was making for my nephew. Then I got thinking hard maple is cool... curly hard maple and maple burl is cooler.

Some of those guys that PMed me offered to send me their old yo yo so I could take them apart and see how the bearings and stuff work. Some of those young guys had like 200 yo yos (or more). I guess is is better than running the streets and getting into trouble, but with 200 yoyos I don't know when they find time to chase girls.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Tom

If you are Rich or talented the girls chase you. :)


beenthere

I like da way experence speaks up on this Forum  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Daren

Quote from: Tom on November 22, 2006, 01:19:42 PM
If you are Rich or talented the girls chase you. :)



I wouldn't know  :'(, all my chasing though I did catch a good one, lucky I guess.
I don't know if the girls are chasing this kid or not, but he is talented. He sent me a link to a video of him playing with yoyos...2 at a time, quite impressive.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cPUI9_CShAo&search=Grant%20Johnson

The young mans name is Grant, there are more videos on the same page of him. I cannot believe how he wraps 2 yoyo strings together in motion and ever gets them apart. I am doing good to get a knot out of an extension cord in the shop without having a cursing fit.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Tom

That' s quite impressive.  I thought I was doing good when I learned to walk the dog.  :D

I wonder if the YO YO man, Tommy Smothers is still at it?  Wouldn't it be neat if you sold him a YO YOU? :)

SwampDonkey

Those are nice Daren. Reminds me of the Yo Yo years to and as thurlow said, when the craze was on everyone had one. Kinda like the slinky craze. I wasn't real big into it, but mainly because I was always in a tangle. :D

But, we used to make a mechanism from wood or a big clothes button with string passed through it to be held in both your hands. We had competitions to see who could cut the other person's strings first. For some reason we was always taking things to the extreme and end up with the teacher or principle banning the activity.  Nobody got mamed, but there was always the possibility. :D :D :D ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

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Snag

Looks good Daren.  If you havent already seen it on their site, Penn State Ind. has yo-yo mandrels and the bearing kits.  I ordered a mini lathe with pen starter set and the yo-yo stuff for my son for christmas.  He is interested in making them and wants to bring stuff to a craft show next year.  Maybe he'll let me try it out now and then.....  :)

scgargoyle

In a similar vein, I once made myself a set of hard maple roller skate wheels. It turns out that they are good for skate dancing, since they will slide sideways a bit, which makes for a much smoother movement. I found out the hard way that you have to put a little rosin on them, or they go just as fast sideways as they do forward! I made a few sets for some locals, but it turned out that only the old-timers actually liked them. Another partially-baked-idea gets laid to rest...
I hope my ship comes in before the dock rots!

Phorester

Obviously that kid's been doing something other than playing video games.

By the way, DAREN, pretty nice woodworking you do.

Daren

Quote from: Phorester on December 03, 2006, 08:36:49 AM
Obviously that kid's been doing something other than playing video games.



I was quite shocked by that too.








I have the wood part of this figured out for the yoyos they are wanting...the variety of working parts is staggering. These kids buy a $30 plastic yo and put another $50 in "hotrod" bearing and stuff. Sure is a far cry from the $2 Duncans of my youth. And for the record I cannot do anything more with the souped up new ones that I could the old one. One kid sent me 6-7 of his yoyos in the mail to play with and take apart to see how they work...I can make them go up and down, and like Tom mentioned walk the dog.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

asy

I loved Yo-Yo's when I was a kid, I had a FANTA one (the orange Coca-Cola variety) and it was the best...

That kid was just amazing. I was expecting to see, like, a 30yo boffin, certainly not like a 10yo!!!

Oh, that in life, one of my kids were THAT good at ANYTHING!!!  I'd be very excited...

Daren, your Yo-Yo's are magic. The burl one especially, just superb. I bet yo-yoists will be climbing over each other to own such a work of art.

asy :D
Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake.
There cannot be a crisis next week. ~My schedule is already full..

Daren

Quote from: asy on December 04, 2006, 06:43:58 AM
I bet yo-yoists will be climbing over each other to own such a work of art.

asy :D

I have a waiting list... I have the wood part figured out, still working on the mechanicals. They expect them to perform like the new high tech plastic ones. I am working on it.







I can make the old style like the one above work well, I may have to stick to them for awhile. That one is made from a 250 yr old curly oak tree.

They like funky colors too. I am experimenting with dyes and figured wood.






Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Daren

I found out kids don't really care about wood, they want color (I guess that's why they buy plastic). If they want color they got it ! , seems a shame to dye 250 yr old 1/4 sawn oak  or curly maple but it was scrap and I have plenty.





Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Tom

Least the dye still shows the grain, unlike paint...... or yechhh....  plastic. :)

Daren

The grain,curl,rays...actually show better with dye. I have not done much of it, but it is an interesting experiment. I have a really cheap digital camera, but I think Santa is going to bring me a good one for Christmas  8). I am a novice woodworker, I am beginning to see some new things. I know about "fuming" 1/4 sawn oak, but have never done it. The dye thing makes me want to, the ray fleck really stands out, I assume fuming does the same thing. I have some 20" wide 1/4 sawn curly oak boards that would really look cool in the right hands (by that I mean mine, just in the future)
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

metalspinner

Nice job on the Yo-yo's, Daren.

You seem to have a nack of finding a product the public wants and delivering it!

I would think the hardest part of making the yo-yo is balancing the two halves perfectly.  Are you weighing them to get them just right?
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

Daren

Quote from: metalspinner on December 04, 2006, 11:06:21 PM
I would think the hardest part of making the yo-yo is balancing the two halves perfectly.  Are you weighing them to get them just right?

I found a digital scale on fleabay for less than $10. They have to be within fractions of a gram or they lean or high speed wobble. After fighting it for awhile I found this thing.




Even with it there are some problems, it tears out the grain on curly wood a little like a planer does, even sanding them back smooth can goof up the balance. Wood like cherry, oak, sugar maple...the cutter works pretty good. Oak actually works the best. I figured a tight grained wood like hard maple would, but as strange as it sounds 2 blanks cut from the same board within inches of each other can wobble too much to work well as a yoyo. If the thing won't go to the end of the string and spin perfectly it won't "sleep", the friction of the string on the inside of the 2 halves makes it return to your hand.

As far as finding what the public wants and delivering it. That is something I lose sleep over, I am constantly thinking of ways to make the most out of the wood I saw. I used to make big things...too much wood and too much work. The local market is weak for a hack woodworker like myself, I am surrounded by Amish in every direction I leave my house. And Amish sawmills for that matter, so wood is even hard to sell. I started thinking hard about small things (fishing lures, dollhouse furniture, yoyo's...) that would ship easy and I could sell on the internet. I quit a good job to do this wood thing full time. It's alot of extra work making and marketing new ideas, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love wood 8)
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

TexasTimbers

I have read an article or two on dying wood over the years when they would pop up in a wood mag I was subscribed to at the time, but never paid much attention. I should have because those colors are really nice. Great job Daren you are going to stumble across something one of these days that will cause UPS so assign a truck just for you.  :)
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Snag

Hey Daren,  when I ordered the mini lathe for my son for christmas, I ordered one of those yo-yo blank cutters for the drill press that you have pictured.  I plan on using it to cut blanks for my younger son to assemble and decorate so he isnt left out.  I will let you know how it works, but ya gotta wait until the 25th.....

Daren

I broke down after owning a pen lathe for 2 years and made my first pens today.




Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

WH_Conley

Cool pens, I have thought about getting into the pen turning game for the winterbut I don't know anything about it. Any advice on an idiot proof setup?
Bill

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