Yo Yo Turning

[William Young]

I have been eyeballing some of the yo yo ball bearing kits with interest that are available on some of the pen turning supplies sites.
I am curious as to how they are fastened onto the lathe for turning. Are they done on a mandrel , (pen mandrel or special mandrel ?) or a faceplate , or chuck or ... .. ..
I would be gratefull for a description of how they are actually turned .
W.Y.

 

[YoYoSpin]

Yes, you can turn them just like you do a pen, using a set of 10mm bushings on a standard mandrel, sold by PSI:

There are two tricks with making these yoyos so they spin true and don’t wobble: 1st, make the two halves exactly alike...its a good idea to get a scale that will measure down to at least 1/10 of an ounce, or one gram. And, choose a wood that has very consistent and fine grain, like maple and padauk. If you use a heavily grained wood, like Zebra or Bocote, the yoyo will probably wobble.

Why don't you try making a one-piece (no glue) yoyo...see issue # 1 of Woodturning Design magazine for a how-to.

 

[William Young]

Thanks a bunch for that info Ed;
That one piece one sounds interesting.
I know this is asking a lot but I wonder if anyone would be interested in scanning and emailing that article from the magazine.
I am so new to this type of turning WWing that I have never noticed any turning magazines on the magazine racks and I am not even aware of the names of them and which ones would be best for a beginner to subscribe to.
Or if that is not possible, perhaps an address to where I could hopefully purchase a back issue of the one with the one piece yoyo
W.Y.

 

[YoYoSpin]

I think Ryan at http://www.woodturningz.com had some spare copies of issue # 1. Also, here's the link to Woodturing Design's website: http://www.woodturningdesign.com/ , but it looks like its down for maintenance right now.