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Spinning Tops

Bill Alston

Bill Alston

Joined
Jan 10, 2024
Messages
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Location
Bournemouth, UK
I’ve seen some nice looking spinning tops online made from three or four different woods, some with what look like a Ball Bearing at the bottom.
Do any of you know the best way to approach turning something like this? Concentricity is the key I think?
 
Pardon the pun but those were one of my top sellers at farmers markets... simple as chucking a 2" or so square block , round it, and the rest is just up to your imagination - key for tops I think is the mass better placed nearer to the apex of rotation (In other words, widest part closest to the bottom) they spin fine just making them entirely of wood they can be as simple or as complex as you please.. but yeah concentricity I'd say is key (Thouh if you turn like some partly spalted or punky wood, you can make a wobble top because heavier mass of solid wood on one side throws it out of a smooth rotation) the more balanced you can make the top the smoother it may spin , the more mass you can get into it, the LONGER it can spin - nothing wrong with experimenting to craft tops that spin certain ways or have certain characteristics.. and then there's those games (involving a box and mini rolling pins and tops configured to fit through slots in the inner walls of the box) - forget what they're called, known by several names..
 
Bill, do you have a link to what you saw? I don't have an answer, but you've made me curious.

Bought but not yet used, another spin top thread from a year or so ago lead me to obtain a small diameter brass rod. My intention was to drill a pilot hole into the "business end" of the top in the rough out stage and epoxy in a short length (1/4" or so) of the brass rod. After curing, I'd cut to expose just a very short contact point of brass, making sure it was rounded over and polished to prevent damaging the surface on which it spins.

What you saw, is it using a singular metal ball in the same manner? If so, a cheap source for a small handful of those balls is a bicycle shop. (Or online. But support the local bike shop, they live a lean life.) Go in and ask for steering headset bearings, the "old-fashioned" ones that look like this below. They are a bit over an inch in diameter so the balls are quite small. Each caged bearing should only be a few bucks and will provide enough balls for a mess of tops. Drill a small recess, glue in a ball. Brilliant. Use a needle nose pliers to carefully bend the cage prong away from the balls. Keep an eye on those loose balls, they're wiley little fellas once out of their cage! And caution with small children- if the ball breaks off the top owned by a small child, that ball could find its way into their mouth. Maybe these should be "Age 6 and older" toys when they have a ball bearing in them.

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Brian that box with the pins to be knocked down with the spinning top I first ran into at the Boys Club in Erie PA 70 years ago. I have the plans to build one some where and I think you can buy them. I have put ball bearings in my tops but the regular tops are just easier and just as much fun. You can get 600 ball bearings in various sizes for $8 or $9 dollars on AmaZ.
 
A few years back I made some that had a launcher but instead of a steel tip I made the shaft out of American hornbeam so there was not much chance of damaging the spinning surface. The basic idea came from a early 1950.s Delta gram magazine.
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I have more photos of the build process if you are interested and they were shown in an earlier post on this forum .
 
Here's a how-to video on turning a throw-top, made last year. The brass "Spin Top Tip" shown in the video can be purchased at YoYoSam.com. They may have a bearing axle version of the point in stock, but they're hard to find these days:
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Bill Alston said:
I’ve seen some nice looking spinning tops online made from three or four different woods, some with what look like a Ball Bearing at the bottom.
Do any of you know the best way to approach turning something like this? Concentricity is the key I think?
Click to expand...
Ed Davidson/YoYoSpin is the authority. I'd look at his and maybe buy a few for a closer look.

I've made many 100s of finger tops but I almost always use solid wood. I would send batches of 50 with a missionary friend to use at an orphanage in Romania to encourage participation by the kids.

I've heard various theories about the center of mass but found a wide variation in shape and mass distribution spin well. Unbalanced does not spin well, of course. The main part of the top does not have to be round - I've made them square. It's nice to make the tips of the "handle" so they spin nicely upside own - a good challenge for kids.

Even if you want to turn some from glued-up wood you might start by practicing with solid wood. I made this to show people the sequence of cuts. I turn, sand, and finish in sections since when thinning the handle the earlier parts can't be reliably touched. I know some people turn them the other way, with the handle first, bit for me this way allows better spinning.

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A few examples. You might notice I use friction burning a lot with a very thin wire. It's tricky to friction burn on a slope with a wire but I developed a way. On another forum someone said he could make just as clean burned line by holding a sliver of formica against the wood but after some back-and-forth I sent him a top to duplicate and he gave up.
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When I started making these over two decades ago nearly all I saw were turned quickly, textured with a chatter tool, then colored with markers. I saw none on the forum that looked like these. Now I see many.

I've also made them from other materials such as acrylic and aluminum.
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JKJ
 
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Bill Alston said:
Thanks Don, that would be good if it’s not too much trouble.
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The blanks for the disk were cut from an 8 stave glue up of 4 walnut and 4 birch and while there were 8 flats I clamped it in the vice on my milling machine to make the 1/2" grooves for the contrastingstrips. The whole assembly was mounted on the wood lathe and turned to the diameter that would fit the collet like adapters on my chuck then cut into rough disks. The disc was then mounted in the chuck, flattened on both sides and a pencil line was made to establish the tangential center line and the radial center was eyeballed. The round pieces were turned to a reasonably accurate 1/2", cut into short pieces and driven into the round holes. The top and bottom faces were turned as shown and the hole in the center was trued up & tapered.
The stem blank was mounted as shown and male part was turned to fit the female taper. The disk outer diameter can then be rounded off as shown and the stem can be finished.
101_1383.JPG The launcher is cut out from a hard wood board and the handle end is turned using an adapter as shown driven by a collet chuck.
 
Quite a few years ago I've used small ball bearings, also tried using short brass escutcheon pins for tips. Decided all the drilling, hammering/installing, gluing (CA) was just too much effort ... although they worked pretty well. Now I just dribble some thin CA into the end grain where the tip will be before turning to strengthen the tip ... and sometimes add a little more before the final cut.
 
Fred Hargis said:
I wonder if you could just use a BB for the ones that have that steel ball stuck in the bottom.
Click to expand...
The BBs I remember from several moons ago were not that round. They may still be that way for all I know. Awfully small to work with but probably manageable with care. I think a ball bearing larger than a BB would be much easier to manage though.
 
At Amazon, here is a package of 100 grade 304 1/4" stainless steel ball bearings for $6.20. No need for the somewhat more expensive and higher corrosion resistance 316 SS, you'd need your tops to be spinning in a pretty harsh environment to require 316.

They also sell 3/16" and 1/8" ss balls, some of which are 440c stainless steel, which is harder and more wear resistant than 304 and 316, but not as corrosion resistant.

Plain chrome plated steel bearings are even cheaper, but maybe that plating will wear off in time and start scratching surfaces. Stainless steel seems to me to be the best choice over plated steel.
 
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For those interested in spicing up the look of finger tops, an easy option might be Spectraply - available in lots of color combinations. I make a one piece tip and "handle" from a hard wood such as sugar maple or dogwood.

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I found a picture of some of my non-round finger tops. Spin extremely well.

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Try spinning them upside down. Almost any can be spun this way but some I've made that looked kind of like acorns with no point but a near flat, slightly rounded on the end of the "handle" would sometimes spin better upside down. It's fun to spin one upside down then watch kids try to do it, but failing completely until I show them the "secret": hold the top upside down just off the floor or table and spin as fast as possible between the forefinger and thumb, then quickly move the hand away and let the top drop to the surface. It usually only takes them a couple of tries then.

Here's turner Mark StLeger encouraging a boy at a symposium break to learn the upside down method.

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Another thing I do with finger tops - always carry a pocket-full of small tops when traveling. I give them to people I meet - make great conversation starters. We made some life-long friends in Italy starting with me pulling a few from my pocket and spinning them on the table at our seats on a train from Austria to Venice. Some have come to our place and, of course, are offered woodturning lessons!

One thing about throw tops: I started turning and gluing in nylon tips after noticing some dents in wood floors.
Another thing I've been asked about throwing tops is how to wind the string and throw the top! The attached PDF file might be useful.

JKJ
 

Attachments

Well, bigger is better! Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor "protosimian grunts"! This is a "gasing" top from SE Asia. They do play teams, and try to knock the other teams tops off of their spin. Tub Luj is another version from Laos, pronounced "Too Loo". They do play a kind of shuffle board game with it. I have made some of each. I do need to get a piece of 1/2 inch thick stainless so I can make a "real" gasing top. Also, look up "Tim's Tops". He has a lot of very different tops.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FWhgnRjQME

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsIhfmFwitw


robo hippy
 
My father grew up during the depression. My brothers and I used to joke about our parents being string savers. Because of that, Pop taught me how to make and play with wooden toys. Yo-yos, throwing tops, diabolos, sling shots, skittles, board games like checkers, magic tricks, juggling balls, pick up sticks, corn hole, catapult with a target, and a few more that will come to mind after posting this.

The point is a lathe came into use for almost all toys and I learned my lathe basics from him.

When I comes to tops, it’s amazing what games can be done with 2 kids, a throwing top, string and with a button on it.
 
I’ve used brass nails as tips - very easy to put a starter dent while on the lathe then hammer in the nail 1-2cm into the end then turn it to a not-too-sharp point.

This is a hard maple top with my first try at a string-launcher made from oak (it has some chip-out where I drilled the holes, which can be avoided by drilling prior to turning).

This will spin for 2-3 minutes when launched. How long will the ball bearing tops go? I may have to try that!

Tom

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