Red Dirt Derby Tungsten Spinning Top

There are lots of this style of top inspired by Nolen’s Inception on Amazon, and one high quality brand in particular has set a sort of standard of quality. That brand sells this exact product for $200. But this particular listing is far more affordable. Presumably they are equivalent quality. I received an extremely precisely machined tungsten top that spins with incredible stability if you spin it right.See, what you look for in a top is a dense metal with more weight to the outside than the inside, and these Inception totems are not the perfect design for a top, as aesthetically pleasing as they are. Better designs exist, with more of the weight distribution to the outside. However, denser metals will give you better results with any top, so as long as you buy a tungsten top you should get good results. I find that these Inception totem tops are just fine if made from tungsten, but I imagine lighter metals would be less stable and not capable of spinning as long.So if you like this style of top, you should go for the heaviest (densest) type of metal in which they are made, and that just happens to be tungsten. Now tungsten is a very hard metal to work with. It has the highest melting point of any metal known to man and it’s incredibly hard to machine. That is why that other company can charge $200 for these tungsten tops. Well I bought this one for $32 and it’s probably just as good, although I have never tried the $200 one. One thing I don’t know is how their alloys compare. You see for various science-y reason you want to use a ~90% tungsten alloy as opposed to pure tungsten. There may be a difference in the alloy chosen, but I’ve not looked into it yet. Regardless, this one is well made and extremely high quality. Very precisely machined, which makes all the difference.You do have to give it quite a hard spin, partly because tungsten is so dense. It’s going to take more force to get it going than, say, an aluminum top. There is a technique to it. You are unlikely to get a successful spin going if you do not use a smooth surface. Glass or metal is best, but wood will work if flat enough and polished enough. The more friction the surface has with tungsten, the harder it’ll be to get a good spin going. Friction is dependent on which two materials are touching, and some materials have much higher friction when paired with one another than they would with other materials. Like aluminum surfaces will not give you a good spin because it’s too soft and the tungsten will dig into it, creating tiny scratches wherever it goes. That is partly why the tip of the top is blunt and not sharp. A sharp tip would dig into surfaces too much and cause instability due to its tendency to stay in the divot created by its sharpness. You want a slightly blunt tip on the top so it will wobble cleanly and without digging in or increasing friction. On some level a top is constantly sliding around and slowing itself down, unless you can get a perfect spin with no wobble. See the wobble causes the top to “walk” which increases the rate at which its spin will slow down. If you do it perfectly, there will be no wobble, or the wobble will quickly fade away if you spin it fast enough reative to the angle of any initial wobble. I have gotten a perfect spin exactly one time with this top after dozens or maybe even hundreds of tries. And this is not to the detriment of the top. Keep it mind the difficulty of spinning it is partly due the less than ideal shape. This makes it kind of like a game. You can easily learn how to get a good spin, but the perfect spin takes practice and will keep you busy, trying again and again!The perfect spin was done by hand on my faux marble countertop. I rolled the spindle between my fingers back and forth a couple times to get it spinning perfectly vertical. Once this orientation has been established, the back and forth motion stabilizes that vertical axis of rotation such that when you release it, if you do it perfectly, the top will spin with no wobble and remain perfectly stationary. Well my perfect spin actually started with a slight wobble, but I spun it so fast and so close to perfectly vertical, that within a couple of seconds that initial wobble had completely disappeared.I was amazed, no —mind blown, that it was so stable and so stationary. Standing at arms length away, the top appeared to be hovering there, just standing upright on its tip. Perfectly vertical. Like magic. Like a real dream within a dream within a dream. Like it could have stayed that way forever.We sat like that for several moments in stationary silence, me and the top. My eyes, transfixed on the motionless metal, could not reconcile the physical reality of this thing stuck in time like some deity had just pressed our Universe’s cosmic pause button.And just when I started to think it would never stop, just when I began to wonder if a deep slumber had imprisoned me, it gradually slowed down enough to begin to wobble. And occasionally it would right itslef and the wobble would stop, but you can’t beat physics. Air resistance and friction won out eventually and the wobble widened until it could no longer remain upright. The rim touched and that was it. The perfect spin came to a stop. I didn’t time it because that moment was an eternity. I picked the top up and tried again.

The one foreverspin one that's 200$ is balanced and spins around 2-3 minutes. This one is not balanced, an average spin is about 1-2 min it might be worth it... you decide.. even with a "perfect spin" using a dremnel it has a bit of a wobble

My husband really wanted a Forever Spin for Christmas. This product was more in my daughters budget as a gift. It has a nice weight and spins great but stops after about 30 seconds.

I am comparing this to a $7 rienar accurate top. This tungsten top appears nice and comes in at 47.0g, while the similar top is only 16.8g. You would expect a much longer spin time with this heavy, dense top, but it never really stabilizes. At high speed, there's a visible wobble in the stem, and at low speed the whole thing is unstable. In addition, it wanders around the surface (perhaps something to do with tip geometry). The similar, lighter top wanders much less and spins longer, despite it's smaller mass. Although it looks and feels nice, I would not recommend this top.

This is a great item for tactile appreciation, and feels great in the hand. It would make a great totem. The spinning leaves a bit to be desired, but that also may be up to my skill level.

This is a very handsome, heavy top but it wobbles quite a bit thus losing energy, causing the spins last around 1 minute. It is perhaps not well balanced?

Finish is a little rough. Tip is too blunt. At one third the price of other options I think it’s well worth it though. Fascinating way to experience how heavy Tungsten is.

How can I get one 10cm in diameter?