I turned some yo-yos

Frank Pellow

Member
Messages
2,332
Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
(part 1 of 2)

Sunday Dec 4:

I started to make yo-yos for three children on my Christmas list but ran into a snag. With luck, they will be finished tomorrow. Lee Valley sells a kit (catalogue number 88K161) that can be used to make a very good yo-yo and one needs a lathe for the project.

Mack Cameron agreed to let me use his lathe today and Don McFarland his neighbour in Brooklin agreed to help to train me.

I have not used a lathe since high school and the lathe that I used then was a metal lathe.

In preparation, I cut blocks from four different types of hardwood –cherry, walnut, maple, and jatoba then drilled a hole (35mm by 10mm) into each.

Turning yo-yos 01 -Drilling 35 mm wide 10mm deep hole into with a brass hub is to be glued -smal.JPG

A brass hub from the kit was epoxied into each hole then eack block was cut roughly into a circle on my tabletop bandsaw:

Turning yo-yos 02 -Sort of rounding one side of yo-yo using bandsaw -small.JPG

Here is a photo of all the sides that I prepared before visiting Mack:

Turning yo-yos 03 _sides for four yo-yo using four different woods ready for turning -small.JPG

Mack started turning but soon let me take over:

Turning yo-yos 04 -Mack Cameron rounding a walnut side -small.JPG Turning yo-yos 05 -Frank rounding a walnut side with Mack looking on -small.JPG


I found the turning to be quite straightforward and made fewer mistakes than I expected to. After turning the side to the shape and size that I wanted, I sanded the wood starting at 150 grit and working right up to 600 grit right on the lathe (at a slower speed).

Turning yo-yos 06 -Frank sanding a walnut side -small.JPG

The walnut sides looked really good:


Turning yo-yos 07 _two walnut side turned, sanded, waxed, and polished -small.JPG

But, with the axel mechanism in place, they were too far apart:

Turning yo-yos 08 -The sides are too far apart -small.JPG


What was the problem? :huh:

Upon closer examination, Don and I figured out that I had glued all the hub mechanisms into the wood blocks upside-down: :eek:

Turning yo-yos 09 -The reason that the sides are too far apart is that I installed the brass hub.JPG

There was nothing I could do except to split all the blocks apart with a chisel to extract the hubs


Turning yo-yos 10 -The sides were split apart in order to extract the brass hubs -small.JPG


clean, the dried epoxy off the hubs as best I could, make new blocks, and glue the hubs into those blocks with the proper orientation. I did all that at home this evening and will be going back to Mack’s place tomorrow in order to try again.
 
(part 2 of 2)

Monday Dec 5th:

I finished three yo-yos at Mack’s place on Monday and it took me about four hours to do so. I sure wouldn’t make any money at that pace. I ended up one making the cherry, maple, and walnut versions. I turned the jatoba one a bit but ran out of time. Also I don’t really like to look of jatoba and, if I decide to finish it in the future, I might find that the yo-yo is too heavy.

The two hubs are joined with this axel assembly (which includes a ball bearing among other sub-parts):


Turning yo-yos 11 -About to insert an axel -small.JPG

I managed to brand part of my name onto an inside surfaces before assembling the yo-yos:

Turning yo-yos 12 -I managed to brand part of my name onto an inside surface -small.JPG

Finally, I got to test a yo-yo –and I am happy to be able to report that it performs better than any yo-yo that I used in the past.


Turning yo-yos 13 -Frank testing a yo-yo -small.JPG

Here is a photo of the three yo-yos that I finished:

Turning yo-yos 14 -Three completed yo-yos -small.JPG
 
A project and a meet up! That's great!

And I'm no pro at the yo yo, but I do love those ones with the 'intelligent' hubs... Very nice...
 
What a cool present Frank. Good of Mack to let you use his lathe. Must have been a real pleasure learning on a great machine line that. Wow just ocurred to me that was all Canadian...machine, yoyo parts and lessons. :)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
Top