We once discussed the possibility of putting the wick on a bearing to stop it from rotating as fast as the body. I finally tried it using basically the same mod than for my fixed tip fire tops.
I drilled the back of a QS bearing tip:
Then gave it a #40 thread with a hand tap to match the one on the shafts I had made (out of knitting needles) for the previous fire top prototypes. Here is the assembled bearing fire tip:
I wrapped wick cord around the shaft and tied it using kevlar thread:
I used the body of the QS I sawed out of frustration when the cap froze; here is the assembled bearing fire top:
I have done some "dry" tests and I am not too hopeful about how it is going to work. Balance is a major problem as even if the shaft starts centered it bends quite easily. In the fixed tip tops the wick could press against the walls, so this was not a problem. With difficulty I could do a corkscrew. I think I will also make a fixed-tip fire top to take to jugglefest Friday . . .
