What is a fair/average rate?

It varies greatly from shop to shop. It also depends on how much work they'll need to do to get your parts ready to make. Going in being able to tell the shop what the critical dimensions and tolerances are is pretty important. Generally "office hours" cost more than "shop hours". So if the programmer or engineer needs to spend a lot of time cleaning up your drawing, that could get expensive. It also matters a great deal which type of machine they have and will be using to make your parts. A simple lathe part could cost as little as $40/hr. machine time. A more complex part that uses a sub-spindled lathe with live tooling could cost as high as $140/hr. Every shop is different, ask around and don't be shy about getting quotes from several shops. Also, if you're really serious and ready to go, check out mfgquote.com. You can submit your drawings and any of the thousands of shops that are interested will email you a quote.

Simple question, complex answer. As Shawn has said, it varies greatly. Basically the more engineering time you can put in "up front" the less machine time it will cost you "down back." That's something of an oversimplification We will try and steer you in the right direction, but we are professionals at this, it's called supply chain management. You need to know your vendor, and their capabilities, you have to match those capabilities to your job. See?

Thanks so much for the patient answers.
I'm wondering what types of things you are looking for in a machining optimized drawing, or what should I be avoiding?

Also, I'm not entirely sure how narrow the tolerances are
on things like a standard size c bearing seat, or the axle
threading. I*m TEH NOVICE.

I guess what I'm saying is, I don't really know what variables
will translate into extra machine time/machine functionality.

Say...what is an example of a piece that would require a sub-spindle?


Also, on another note.
I have been drafting in Autocad, but have heard that for the types
of drawings I am doing Solidworks would be ideal.
Any opinions on that?

auto cad is an amazingly powerful piece of equipment, I myself have used it to design somethings, and I have to say, doing a yo in it is easier then pie, if you know what you're doing. I use LT and it does it fine, but I use all sorts of the features most people never learn. And solidwork I have had no practice in, but it seams that for doing simple things, it works fine.

Average bearing seat tolerance is held to within .002 from what I can find and from what I was told on the shop cam, same with axle threading.

Also the more complete your design is (measurements, angles, radius, forgot the name of it in engineering, but looks like a decay towards the axle and catch zone) the less they have to pay office time and the cheaper you'll get it.

and I know nothing of sub spindling, so I can't help there.

Ok,

For a good drawing, don't waltz into the place with a 3D rendering and nothing else. Most shops will want a 2D cross section of the yoyo. Nothing more fancy than that is needed. A rendered and shaded drawing isn't of much use to the guy doing the programming.

The tolerances are really tricky. Basically, every single feature on your drawing/design needs to have a tolerance. That means that you'll allow each feature to be off buy a certain amount. Some features will need a much tighter tolerance than others. For instance a bearing seat will have a tolerance of something like .2494/.2497 Those numbers tell the machinist the smallest and largest that the feature can be. Tolerances are really the only thing you have that will guarantee you get what you ask for. Read this for a better understanding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_tolerance

An example of a sub-spindle machine would be a situation where you cut one half of the yoyo to completion, the sub-spindle would grab the yoyo by one of the finished features, the machine would then finish the "back-side" of the yoyo to completion. In this scenario, you would have a 100% complete yoyo coming out of the machine. This would very likely make a well balanced and vibe free yoyo, as the parts weren't taken out of the machine and set aside to be completed later. The set-ups take much longer though, and the machines are MUCH more expensive. Here's a cool example of sub spindle work:



Autocad used to be the standard drawing tool. Of late however it's Solidworks. Either one is much more powerful than needed to make a yoyo. Google Sketchup is free and would probably do just fine. It can also export in a format that machines shops will be able to us. The one thing that the more advanced software packages will do however is estimate weight. That is very important. You have no way of looking at a yoyo and guessing how much it'll weigh. Given that just a few grams can make a huge difference in playability, it's better to get as close as you can right off the bat.

Really? From my experience with solidworks I couldn't stand it, granted to each his own. Definitely go with a 2D cross section, help so much. Never really did 3-D stuff with autocad, just simple designs, sinks, floor plans, houses, windows, chairs, impossible objects that could be made in CAD and drawn up, but would never work.... etc. I have wanted to try and design a yo though, but until I get a little better at my math, it'll be awhile. Hey, you guys should have a design contest someday. TBH I love the M1 and Project series, but something didn't feel perfect for my style of play. I do have the ideas of a design, but until I can flesh it out, it's not gonna be much help yet. I wonder what type of designs you guys would get from your community?

What's the consensus on "Pro Engineer Wildfire"?

I think they're up to 5.0 now... but a friend has 4.0.

is it a good program, or is it outdated?

Back in the day when I had my company running we used something called Cimatron IT. This was a math based surfaces program that did both CAD and CAM. Of course it was $30,000 software. Now it is ten years later, I think solid works is the industry standard. But there are a lot of good products on the market. It pretty much depends on what you have invested your time into learning. Any of these systems can be used to design a yoyo, no problem. Matching your vendors software with their hardware with your software is really the key. You want to find someone who is using the same system as you are. Then you can talk the same language. That's when things get easier. Hope that it is of some help?