Lubing a gold bearing is just as bad as lubing any dry running bearing.
I’ve been researching this a lot lately but am still unsure about the best method to use. Of the commonly available solvents and the others you mentioned, I would suggest reagent-grade acetone. I don’t know how heptane compares as a solvent but it is much more dangerous to work with. Working with heptane improperly can lead to organ damage. It’s also an environmental contaminant. If one were to use heptane you’d need a fume hood and a respirator mask. Without a fume hood I guess doing the cleaning outside is the next best thing. And there are special guidelines on disposing it (i.e., can’t just pour it down the sink or dump it in the ground). Unless you’re a trained chemist you probably shouldn’t mess with heptane.
Pure USP ethanol (i.e., unadulterated 200 proof) is an excellent solvent, but I don’t even know where you would get it. Online I could only find denatured ethanol, which would still work as a solvent but not as well. Pure USP ethanol is super expensive since it’s taxed as an intoxicant. And the purest ethanol you can normally find in a liquor store is 190 proof. I’m not sure where to get it, but I imagine it must be ordered from a chemical supply house after providing verification of age etc.
The best solvents for organic residues are probably chlorinated solvents like tetrachloroethylene, which is actually pretty inexpensive. It’s dangerous to work with, though. It can be absorbed through the skin and lungs, is a carcinogen, and is a CNS depressant like chloroform, so to use it safely you ideally need gloves, a respirator, and a fume hood (or else use it in a well-ventilated area like outside). It does have the advantage of not being flammable though so it could be used as the bath solvent in an ultrasonic cleaner (preferably a heated cleaner). If you took the right safety precautions and used it in a heated ultrasonic cleaner followed by spraying the bearing with N it would likely be clean as one could hope to get it.
Personally I don’t think it’s worth the risk to use these super strong solvents since they are universally dangerous.
I used to work in a physics lab and what we did for cleaning small metal parts and glassware was to use acetone in one of those wash bottles, let it soak while stirring the object around for a few minutes, then remove the object and rinse it with isopropyl alcohol (this last step is to wash out any of the acetone/debris solution stuck in the glassware or the object). This would probably work well for bearings too.
Doping silicon wafers (thin film deposition) is one of the things we did in the lab. I found this Q/A about cleaning gold-coated silicon wafers for this purpose. The safest and most applicable cleaning method I found mentioned was this one (this is pretty close to what I do btw):
“There are many methods for cleaning substrate materials. One method that many people use is to place the wafer in acetone and use ultrasonication for at least 15 minutes. Then, when the film is removed from the acetone, it should be IMMEDIATELY rinsed with ethanol and/or methanol and dried with a dry N2 gun, if possible. Compressed air can also be used for drying, but I think the N2 gun is better. When using this method, you must watch for residue left on the surface by the solvents - this can be an issue.”
What I’ve been doing is placing the bearing in a tiny glass jar filled with acetone, then placing the sealed jar in an ultrasonic cleaner and sonicating for about 10 minutes, then removing the bearing from the jar with tweezers and immediately spraying it dry with compressed air (since I don’t have an N gun).
It works pretty well but it would probably work even better rinsing with isopropyl alcohol or ethanol from a wash bottle before spraying dry. And that’s probably about as good a method as one can get without buying ridiculously expensive equipment like ultrasonic solvent vapor degreasers or using extremely hazardous chemicals.
I’m going to buy a bunch of isopropyl alcohol (99% or better) plus a wash bottle and try this out. Ethanol is just too expensive and for this purpose (rinsing) I doubt it makes much of a difference.
P.S.
Another thing to think about is whether a solvent is polar or nonpolar. Acetone is polar, as are alcohols, while heptane and tetrachloroethylene are nonpolar. It might be better to do a 2-step cleaning process, one with a polar solvent and the other with a nonpolar, because polar solvents dissolve polar substances and nonpolar solvents dissolve nonpolar substances. Unfortunately nonpolar solvents tend to be dangerous. I will research this further. I’ve forgotten most of my organic chemistry knowledge. 
Wow that’s a wall of text. :-\
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Surprisingly I’ve always had great results with almost no thought to the process at all. I think I’ll go with what has worked for me to this point. You wouldn’t even believe the things I’ve used to clean a bearing, you really wouldn’t. ;D
(There it is Jrod!)
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Cleaning a bearing isn’t rocket science. 
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Sure, if you’re okay with mediocre performance out of the bearing. If you want it to perform to its full potential then the cleaning process makes a big difference.
I’m pretty particular about bearing cleaning, too, but let’s be realistic: using less fiddly processes will get you most of the performance that cleaning can get you. It’s not leaving your bearing “mediocre” even if it’s not as pristine as our processes. When it would take some serious testing to tell the difference between two bearings (assuming you even COULD), that’s not comparing “mediocre” to “high performing”… it’s comparing “high performing” to “even higher performing”.
If we’re ever at a contest together, I’ll bring a bearing cleaned with mineral spirits and one cleaned with reagent-grade acetone. We will try them both out in the same yoyo and you will:
a) tell me which one was which
b) demonstrate how it makes a difference to an actual combo.
I don’t think you’re going to spot a “big” difference. At absolute BEST, you’re going to spot a minimal difference. And I know that sometimes the smallest things make all the difference, but I don’t think this is one of those times. Unless you’re just watching the yoyo spin, one slightly off-alignment string hit is going to have a greater impact on whether you make it through your long combo or not.
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You sure do post a lot! Happy 1000th!
Anywho, I’d believe it. The bearing in this yoyo was cleaned with lighter fluid because I’d run out of acetone.
When I unscrewed it to remove a knot after making this video it had a bunch of cat hair in it, which made it nicely tug responsive. It probably wasn’t performing to it’s full potential, but I guess some of us just aren’t all that particular. ;D
I understand your intention of prioritizing simplicity and accessibility, but it really isn’t very hard to get reagent-grade solvents. Double-blind tests are pretty inaccurate. In my opinion. I guess it’s more or less subjective though.
Once I run out of heptane, I’ll probably try tetrachloroethylene. I personally don’t know the difference though, but whatever. Nobody’s mentioned using a polar solvent before, so I assumed air particles were mostly nonpolar. I’m under the impression that isopropyl alcohol is a cruddy solvent for cleaning residue. I do have crud-loads of it since the pure stuff is super cheap in bulk and super expensive individually. Maybe I’ll do heptane/tetrachloroethylene - acetone - isopropyl alcohol. You can get pretty much anything online if you don’t mind getting put on a creepy-person list when the feds get the paperwork. Uncommon strong solvents are often so expensive that you basically have to buy in bulk though.
I don’t trust the common compressed air cans; they have a weird cold liquid in the bottom that sputters out sometimes.
What if it’s a bearing for use in a space shuttle?
It feels like rocket science when it comes to low tolerance bearings. One speck of dust and they flat-out suck.
I’m saying I’m also picky about cleaning bearings… I have a flippin ultrasonic cleaner for crying out loud. If that’s not overkill for yoyo bearings, I don’t know what is.
HOWEVER, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence including my own that show the very diminished returns on using acetone and a multi-part process vs. agitating in mineral spirits and properly drying.
The double-blind test would show exactly all the information you need to know… that there’s no distinguishable difference. It doesn’t matter if there’s allegedly more of a film left by the mineral spirits if the bearing performs at so close to the same level that a person couldn’t tell the difference. It doesn’t have to be a scientifically accurate test… we’re talking about the practical implications of playing a bearing in a yoyo.
Let’s not lose the forest for the trees, even those of us who like to fiddle. There’s nothing wrong with owning our fiddly natures while still acknowledging that it’s probably not strictly necessary to be as thorough and particular as we are.
You guys are obsessing over this. It’s a simple process with diminishing returns as you put more effort into it.
I spend way too much time cleaning bearings, but I can’t enjoy myself if things aren’t perfect.
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I had bad results with mineral spirits. Can you recommend a specific brand? Maybe mine had some weird additives but my results were acetone >> lighter fluid >> mineral spirits.
Acetone is a better solvent though. Nobody cleans their lab equipment with paint thinner. Acetone might require more effort due to the rapid evaporation properties. But still.
I acknowledge my fiddly nature. To me it’s part of the fun…trying to optimize my yo-yo. It’s like guys tinkering on their cars. I know that I can yo-yo without this much effort, but that would be boring.
Just some sort of Varsol. I think I had the option between “regular” and “premium” and of course picked the premium.
When using the mineral spirits, I blast it out with compressed air and continue spinning the bearing while drying. I don’t let it sit around and “air dry” first… it dries as it’s spinning.
It doesn’t seem to feel much different once it’s all dry. And it DEFINITELY doesn’t feel any different once I’ve put a small drop of thin lube on the bearing. Sometimes at the end of it, I think to myself, “Man, this worked BETTER than the acetone!” but it could just be my imagination. The fact that one could even imagine that shows that there’s not much distinguishing the two.
The main reason I don’t use Mineral Spirits is the odour. I don’t mind acetone odour (though I try not to inhale it directly) and it goes away quickly. Mineral Spirits stink up the whole house.
Just to prove that cleaning a bearing is a simple process I cleaned mine today at the car wash. I must admit it was more difficult than I thought. The bubble brush proved to be a greater challenge than expected, when I hit it with the power wand…It shot down the street like a jet. Man that bearing ran well, so well I still haven’t found it yet. (Kids this is not for those that have only one bearing or those that think this is actually factual.)
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oh my god, so many big words and pointless over-complications in this thread. its a yoyo bearing. clean it in acetone. first of all, its a yoyo bearing, it can be cleaned in acetone. second of all, a 2 second google search shows that gold plated things can be cleaned with acetone.
That’s not the point, good bearing aren’t good because they’re gold, it’s because they’re completely clean brand new. I enjoy cleaning bearings because it’s satisfying knowing my yoyos perform the best they can.
You guys are trying to apply regular logic to gold bearing logic. Regular bearings won’t see a difference because they’re so high tolerance. There’s more space in there for the balls to just roll over little particles. The gold ones are so tight that one invisible speck can nearly lock it up.
Regular bearings are usually lubed; lube does way more than just preserve the bearing and make it quiet. It counteracts the slowing effects of accumulated debris. This is why people recommend lubing dirty bearings to speed them up. Lube cannot be used in low tolerance bearings because the lower the bearing tolerance (tighter), the thinner the lube must be.
If we were talking about skateboard bearings or even regular yoyo bearings, the opinions would be valid. This is different.
Everyone who thinks you can just dip a bearing in some arbitrary solvent for a few minutes and get fantastic results, just go ahead and keep doing it if you want to. I don’t understand why people keep popping their heads in here objecting to more thorough cleaning processes.
If you don’t want to use a thorough cleaning process then don’t. And let those of us who do want our bearings at peak performance pursue this goal in peace. Seriously, it’s getting old. I see the same posts in every thread.