Fullbean Woodworking Site - My Thoughts on Tippy Tops

A tippy top is a toy that you spin by grasping the spindle of the device and then essentially snapping your fingers.
This causes it to rotate on its base in one direction. At some point in the rotation, the top flips over, spinning on the spindle, apparently in the opposite direction.
All this fascinated me and I wanted to make one myself on a wood lathe.
I found numerous videos on YouTube. I have listed two of them below.

Woodturning Art How to Make a Tippe Top - Tippy Top Or is it Tippie Top?
The creator of the video seemed to have a lot of fun making the video and demonstrating in great detail how he made the top. He also included a helpful diagram giving the dimensions of his finished creations.
I have extracted it from his video.

      

Another video that helped me grasp the properties of a functional tippy top was
Make a Tippe Top on the Lathe for Profit and Amusement - Art Market Projects

I made two tippy top videos and placed them on YouTube.
The first shows how I created the top. View it at https://youtu.be/T6tnngJQUD0
The second shows more of a tippy top in action
View it at https://youtu.be/j-rK0iECHj4
Over the past week, I have turned many tippy tops. Some worked well.
Others never flipped over at all, at least not until I modified them.
Here are some things that I learned in the process.

While the dimensions shown above give a useful starting point, I experimented, making subtle changes and learning more about what works and what doesn't.

Lessons Learned
Whatever the overall dimensions of the top, the spindle of my tops was always about 10mm/⅜"
I also hollow out the base at least about 10mm/⅜" (See cross section above)
I shape the base as if it were a sphere with the top chopped off and replaced by the spindle
The spindle extends above this imaginary sphere about 8mm. I prefer to turn the spindle a little bit long and then trim it as necessary.
I make the top of the spindle virtually flat, rounding the outer edge slightly.
The first YouTuber that I cite recommended making the top of the spindle somewhat concave. I found that flat also works.
Turning the spindle to a point does not work.
When some of my tippy tops didn't flip, I returned them to the lathe, putting the spindle in a Jacobs chuck in the headstock and then altering the original profile, making it more rounded.
I simply held 80 grit sandpaper against the spinning base and sanded away material until the base curved like a sphere.
I then finished with increasingly finer grit sandpaper.
With these modifications, all of my non-flipping tippy tops now live up to their name.

See more of my tops

Ralph Sutter