Toy Top ala Steve Ramsey, but with More Success

[Legebla ankaŭ en Esperanto]

I wanted to make some sort of toy for my nephew, (he’s the son of my wife’s nephew to be exact). I remembered a somewhat humorous video by Steve Ramsey where he has a hard time turning a simple top. You should check it out. I still get a laugh from it. [link]

So I glued together some oak I had, squared it up and set up my home made (sort of) lathe. It’s drill powered and runs at only one speed, but I did contrive a sort of live center.

I used my very cheap turning tools and got the wood rounded to a cylinder, then down to a spindle with a pointed head. I used an open end wrench to gauge the spindle to 3/8 in. A few times the drive spur jumped, but I reset it and kept going. I was lucky to get only a few small chip outs.

I sanded most of the top while on the lathe leaving only part of the head once I cut it from the lathe.

I made the handle from another piece of oak, sort of shaping freehand with the band saw and belt sander. I used a piece of 3/8 in dowel as the pull handle on a piece of string which is about 14 inches long. I used a piece of black string, but I think orange would also work. It’s finished with spray lacquer.

I’ve gotten the top to spin about 45 seconds while ‘testing’ it for our nephew. It wobbles a little bit, but still works well. My daughter tried it and the top actually bounced down the steps to our basement and kept spinning the whole time.

More pictures here: [link]

[Fun Fact] The Esperanto word for this kind of top is turbo.

-- Ni faru ion el ligno!