Making Kururin: Rolling sticks! (traditional and weighted fidget toy)

This fun little thing makes a great game of skill. They can be played all sorts of different ways, and with just a little bit of practice, you'll improve in no time. I've been experimenting with a number of different variations, from this, which is just a solid maple one that's made on the lathe, which I will show you how to make in the first half of this video, to this, which is weighted on the ends, and it has a slightly different feel. This one can be made without using the lathe, and I will show you in the second half. This one has turned out to be our favorite. The first thing that I did was make a negative of the pattern, so that I could use it as a template. There will be a printable version of this template available to you in the description. You should scale it until the length dimension is 9 centimeters. I don't really recommend making this from such a long blank like I did here. As you turn them, long pieces chatter and vibrate more than short ones do, just because they bend more easily. You can still get away with it if your tools are sharp, but it's probably just easier to rough cut first. This process involves lots of checking, back and forth between the template and caliper. You have to constantly check to keep from removing too much material. Some of you might take issue with my use of the coping saw here, but as long as you have a firm grip on it, it's not as bad as it looks. Keep in mind that I'm only turning at about 875 RPMs here. I wouldn't advise doing this at higher speeds. Don't use a new blade either. They're too grabby at first. I like to keep a pull stroke coping saw at the lathe for this purpose, but for general coping, I still prefer to use a push stroke. The attachment that I'm using is commonly called a spur center and it's very convenient for thin diameter stock like this. It just fits in with a taper on the drive side and that's opposed to something like this, which is called a live center. The reason that it's live is because it has a bearing as opposed to a dead center, which would not spin. Sanding end grain like this can have a right and wrong way. You should always try rotating the piece until you find the sweet spot. Think of petting a small furry creature as a metaphor for this. Some directions are just easier to stroke in than others. This is adhesive backed craft foam. It's around two millimeter thickness. The hole cutter is just a piece of three-quarter ID black iron that I've sharpened. This time I'm just using scrap 2x4 material. Since this one's going to be weighted on the ends, there's not much benefit in making it out of maple. 2x4s also work well with color, as you will see shortly. The drill press makes a hole that's nice and square with the ends, but it doesn't reach the whole way through, so it has to be finished with a drill. At this point, you can cut your 2x4 block in half and get two out of one, and you have some things to track down. I have here two pieces of threaded rod, both of which are cut to about seven inches. This one we will use as a tap, and how I made this was with an angle grinder and a cutoff wheel. I just cut some grooves into the side so that as it goes through a drilled hole, it will carve threads into it. As for the second one, we're going to thread our block onto it, and that will give us the mechanism that we need to chuck it into a drill. It doesn't have to be chucked in too tightly. You don't want to damage the threads. Next, I'm going to use clear packing tape to put the three parts back together, and then I'll cut from this perspective. If this seems familiar, you may have seen this before. In the case of these reindeer, in the case of these reindeer, we make them by cutting out one dimension, putting them back together, and then cutting out the second dimension. Now, of course, it's not perfect, but that's the beauty of this system. Since we've approximated the shape from two different dimensions, as we turn it in the next step, it will average out, and any discrepancies will become not so important. Next step is to the disc sander. Again, it's useful to have one of these templates. Now, if I apply the template to the flat spot, it should already match up perfectly because that corresponds to the profile we cut out with the band saw. But where it's round, that's where the sander is touching it. So I can see that I need to focus more attention here as I approach my target. Ideally, these round spots will replace the flat spots altogether, at which time I'm done. Just a little bit more to go. The pencil will hopefully help visibility as I carve it down. Do you see the remaining dark spots? At this point, the flaws are so small, I'm not even sure that I should attempt to fix them. They might sand out by hand. Okay, so what color were you thinking? I'm thinking phthalo blue. But in your world, you can have it any color you want. It's all just happy little clouds. This is acrylic paint, but try to think of it more of a stain and less of a paint. We want to have one seamless application. Before we move on to the third act, I would like to remind you that there are no rules. You can make multiple applications if you want, or you can water down the paint if you want. And again, I'm using teak oil as a finish. I want my weights to be about 5 eighths of an inch and approximately 6 grams a piece. Now by binding them together with a piece of old electrical cord, I think it was an extension cord, I'll be able to hold them to much tighter tolerances. You may want to add a drop of glue to the threads just to ensure that the weight stays there permanently. Also, in case you're having trouble finding this craft foam with the adhesive stuff on it, there is an alternative. I'll have to skip the demonstration because this video is becoming lengthy. But a traction foot is a necessity with these. And if you want to make one rather easily, look close. And there's actually a thin layer of hot glue on this maple one. The key to getting a good bond between the wood and the hot glue is heat. So you may want to use a heat gun to warm up the wood before you even put the glue on. Once you've spread some hot glue onto the top, you want to press it flat against a piece of cold glass quickly. In order to ensure that the glass doesn't stick to the hot glue, you might want to use a release agent, like a drop of mineral oil that's been spread out. At that point, you'll have a thin even sheet of hot glue over the top of it. But to cut it round, I used a piece of PVC pipe. While it was still kind of warm, and I just moved around in a circle, and it cut it off perfectly. It's a very easy and durable foot. I want to go on the record saying that you can expect to see more of these in the near future. This has all of the makings of a cultural phenomenon, or at least a fad. Well, I hope that you found this interesting, as always. And I would encourage you, if this is your first time here, to go investigate my content. I've made hundreds of videos. And with that, I'm off.