Toy Top

[reido737]

Does anyone have a good plan to make a childrens toy top, any size. This is a project for occupational therapy class in which a child with dexterity problems could put it together and then practice spinning it. any help would be appreciated, thanks

 

[holmqer]

I'll start off with a few questions since I do not know much about the therapy.

First, are you looking to make the kind of top that one spins by sort of snapping their fingers with a finial, or the kind of top that is in a holder and one tugs a string wrapped around a finial?

Second is the goal to have the body of the top able to be assembled and disassembled as a part of the therapy? If so do you have any notional number of pieces?

 

[reido737]

Thanks for the reply holmqer,
I am looking for tops that spin by finial snapping and be able to be assembled. My idea was a top that has four parts and a top that has three parts. The three part is probably the easiest, the three parts would be cut and held together with velcro for the youngest of kids. The four part top, I'm thinking would be screwed together, thus giving the older child a little more challange. I've come up with 8/32 female incerts that could be screwed into each piece of wood and use 8/32 male ends on the connecting piece these parts would be put on every finnished face, so one piece could be screwed together, in order ending with the finial being the last part to be screwed on.
Thoughts,ideas?
Thanks, Jim

 

[holmqer]

I am thinking a finial with a wider area near the bottom that has one insert, a point that has the other, and a couple concentric rings for the flywheel portion of the top. A very rough sketch is below.