Home >> Toys >> Wooden Toys

How to Make a Wooden Yo-Yo

The most elementary toys often offer the most amusement value. Balls and skipping ropes are two examples, and one notch up the scale of complexity are yo-yos. A wooden yo-yo is as uncomplicated to make as it is to use and is a good project for a novice woodworker. Just as using a yo-yo develops hand-eye coordination, making one develops an appreciation for symmetry and proportion. You need two semi-circular wooden pieces that are balanced and identical, or the yo-yo won't work properly. You can cut and shape them with common hand-held power tools.

Things You'll Need

1-foot length of 3/4-inch thick lumber
2 sawhorses
Protractor
Drill
1/2-inch drill bit
Jigsaw
Belt sander
C-clamp
120-grit sanding belt
Masking tape
1/2-inch dowel
Handsaw
Carpenter's glue
Small hammer
String

Instructions

- 1
  Spread a protractor so the pencil tip is 2 inches from the metal tip and draw a circle on a piece of 3/4-inch lumber. Use any kind of wood you like, but softwoods will be easier to shape than hardwoods.
- 2
  Drill a 1/2-inch hole on the outside of the circle so that the hole is just touching the line. Lay the board across a pair of sawhorses and cut out the circle carefully with a jigsaw. When you are done, draw and cut a second circle from the same piece of wood.
- 3
  Put a 120-grit sanding belt on a belt sander, turn the machine upside down and lay it on your workbench. Fit a C-clamp around the handle and the underside of the bench and tighten it to hold the sander steady. Plug in the sander, push in the trigger and depress the lock button so the machine keeps running when you take your finger off the trigger.
- 4
  Hold the two circular pieces of wood together and round the outside edges on the sander. Work carefully so you don't take more wood off one side of the circles than the other. You are forming the outside surfaces of the yo-yo, so you can make the corners as rounded as you like, as long as they are symmetrical.
- 5
  Turn both pieces over, hold them together and round the other corners. These are the inside corners, so they should only be slightly rounded -- just enough to knock down the sharpness of the edges.
- 6
  Use the protractor to mark the centers of both wooden circles on the faces that will be joined together. Drill a 1/2-inch hole on each mark exactly 3/8 inches deep. To make sure you drill to the right depth, measure 3/8 inches from the tip of the drill bit and wrap masking tape around the bit at that distance. Stop drilling when the tape just touches the surface of the wood.
- 7
  Cut a piece of 1/2-inch dowel that is 7/8 inches long. Rub the ends of the dowel on the sanding belt to deburr the edges and spread carpenter's glue on one end with your finger. Tap that end into the hole in one of the halves of the yo-yo with a small hammer as far as it will go. Wait an hour for the glue to dry.
- 8
  Loop a string around the dowel and tie it loosely with a knot that doesn't slip. If you want to do tricks with the yo-yo, the dowel should be able to rotate freely in the loop.
- 9
  Insert the other end of the dowel into the hole in the other half of the yo-yo and squeeze the halves together. When the dowel is fully seated, there should be a 1/8-inch gap between the halves.
- 10
  Loop the other end of the string around your finger and test the yo-yo.

Wooden Toys