TMBR Turner Eats string?

Fly away dismount. Among others things.

Stalls,the patina that develops on it when you play with one a lot

The real geezers know where it’s at with wood. :wink:

Also, let’s not conflate “here are a few techniques you could try for fixing your string eater” with “here are techniques that are all useful for people who play wooden yoyos.”

I’ve never had to take a hacksaw to any of mine. It was just a creative approach to solving a problem.

Not being a a “hater”, I just don’t get wood. I thought the reason that we came up with ball-bearing yo-yo’s, was the poor performance and painful experience that inevitably came with playing wooden yo-yo’s. I admit that it is not something I have delved into since my bruised and bloodied knuckles sent my wooden yo-yo’s to the back of my desk drawer in the '70’s.

But I suppose I can understand the nostalgic appeal to some. There are those that hunt with black-powder rifles for the same reason. A few lung-fulls of sulphur vapor usually cures that itch after a few trips though.

It’s a bit of that, sure, but there doesn’t need to be the extreme that you’re implying. There are woodworkers who enjoy completing SOME projects with only hand tools (even if they’re handy with and own a bunch of power tools). There are photographers who have and use film cameras sometimes, even if they own a nice DSLR. Most guitarists enjoy playing acoustic guitar sometimes even if they see themselves as mainly electric guitar players.

You can primarily enjoy ball-bearing high-performance yoyos and still get pleasure out of a basic wooden fixed-axle.

This stuff is all self-evident, I would think.

And if you’re doing stuff on a fixie along the lines of Ed Haponik, Drew Tetz, or Kyle Nations… you’re breaking new ground with an old “technology” and making a brand-new statement that would actually be HARDER to make with a ball-bearing yoyo unless it’s set up to be the same amount responsive as a fixed-axle, in which case the ball bearing isn’t really doing much to prevent knuckle-raps.

To add to what Greg noted, there is the whole some people think tradition is cool thing, but much of what you see here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r88rM6U1wA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYCDt_Jssjo

requires responsive yoyos with relatively narrow gaps. Wood yoyos don’t spin nearly as long as bearing yoyos, obviously, and they require maintenance and tinkering, which some folks like myself enjoy - but the hassle also obviously aint everyone’s cup of tea. Another way to think about the whole fixed axle thing is that it involves a recognition that limits can foster creativity and innovation, much like reducing limits can. Lunar Landing is a great example of this. I doubt I could land Lunar Landing with a wide gap metal yoyo regardless of how much I practiced.

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You guys are amazing. I could never do that…

you might surprise yourself.

i focus on wood for a couple of reasons.
i like the idea that it’s where this kind of yo-yoing began; that i could hand my yo-yo to pedro flores or barney akers and they would be able to show me something awesome on it. i’ve tried to push my tricks into places where playing a light, responsive yo-yo is a prerequisite as opposed to a liability. i’ve hit some long hard tricks on wood, but the ones that feel significant are the ones i COULDN’T possibly hit on metal. maybe most of all, i love that i cannot play half-heartedly or absent-mindedly and expect to hit anything. i’ve got to be there, which means forgetting about my evening plans and grocery list, but also forgetting about the individual movements of the trick itself, and what (if anything) it “means” if i either make it or fail. wood’s a harsh mistress, but some of us need her. and the more you hang out with her, the more crazy stuff she lets you get away with.
and there is no feeling like the thwack of a wood against your palm yo-yo after flying out of a tough trick.

to the op. tmbrs are pretty smooth generally, and the advice you got about that axle-burn is dead on. burning in an axle like that will generally cause breakages, especially on hard throws. i’m glad nathan hooked you up, but a little sandpaper can also knock that little line out and get you back to square one.

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Wow… THE Ed Haponik responding to my thread. You are AWESOME man! Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try sandpaper and see if that helps anything. I’ve got 1000 grit, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Another guy had suggested sandpaper too, but I just never got around to it.

By the way, your Instagram yoyoing videos are what I look forward to in my feed!

don’t be silly. my dad is THE ed haponik. my son may be it someday in the future. i’m just AN ed haponik.

thanks!

Haha

Oh and I sanded today, and I’m not sure if it helped at all yet. But the string i put on earlier is still good! But I haven’t used it that much today.

1000 grit may be a little too fine. 200 or 300 grit should work ok.

Ooh… Well I already used 1000 grit and it seemed to work fine.

The axle sleeve showed up today! Unfortunately it got squished and was in 4 pieces… I’m still very grateful to Nathan though! What a nice guy! It is the thought that counts!
[URL=http://s1317.photobucket.com/user/crococorey/media/68198EE7-C0BF-4642-9BCB-7EAD6D463687_zpsqrl7uxnu.jpg.html]http://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t634/crococorey/68198EE7-C0BF-4642-9BCB-7EAD6D463687_zpsqrl7uxnu.jpg
I don’t think that I need it anymore anyway- The sanding seems to have worked. I put on a string yesterday at about noon and it is still good!

Super glue is your friend.

What? That wouldn’t work at all! The cracks would eat up the string after 2 seconds.

Sandpaper is your friend.

But then it would fall apart because of the glue, and it would be all messed up and wouldn’t fit right.

I’m not saying you need to fix it if your current axle is now working… but jhb is exactly right.

Superglue is incredibly thin. Chances are good that the axle broke in such a way that it’d be easy to piece it together like a 4-part puzzle. :wink: Superglue the 4 pieces together. The tricky part is not accidentally gluing them to your fingertips! Hahaha!

If they fit together like a puzzle, there won’t be any visible cracks. [edit: meant to also say here, and you can sand off any excess that is squeezed out]

Even with thicker white/wood glue, woodworkers often join pieces of wood together, and the join itself (as long as it’s not end-grain) is typically stronger than the wood, while also being seamless.

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As to gluing the pieces back together, do them two at a time, then after each has set, put the two together rather than trying to align 4 pieces at once.