Any one knows what’s all about the “ABEC” industrial rating of a Ball Bearing ?
Seems that it’s rated from 1 to 10 ?
(10 being the best for high rpm)
This is an ABEC-5 Bearing (C Half-Spec R188-3,175mm) I just rcvd .
(I can see a sort of cage(yellow metal) )
I’ve seen vids where pro players say to remove all sort of cages because it adds friction…??)
If any one knows about Ceramic Bearings , I also received a few, and just realized in the Macro that there is like some “plastic” surrounding the ceramic ball ??
Is it to remove ?
Shields, you want to remove but neither of your pictures have shields. The gold cage is what is holding the balls where you want them. You don’t want to remove that bit as it will certainly ruin your bearing.
Shielded bearings can be mildly annoying to clean. Half spec bearings rarely come shielded what you see is your bearing cage. A bearing has a race, cage and balls as the main structure. Take those apart and you no longer have a bearing
ABEC is esentially a quality rating. More relating to tolerances and precision on the size of the bearing.
The Allowable variation on a ABEC 10 is very minimal. Where a ABEC 1 is “Close Enough”.
A ABEC 1 bearing on a Yoyo for Example, will fit on almost any bearing Post. But may be to large for the outer race. These loose tolerances can cause vibration in our yoyos.
ABEC 10 on the other hand may not fit on the post (Too tight).
This choice is usual made by cost and purpose during the manufacturing process.
I am not sure what the ABEC ratings Yoyo companies use. But I would imagine it is at least 5 and upto 7.
We want bearings tight enough to eliminate vibration, but loose enough that we dont damage the yoyo. And also get them out for cleaning and servicing.
Ah ok,
I understand why when putting these new ABEC-5 bearings , I had to really put force to install them, several pushes on several sides of the bearing , each time hearing a “toc”
But I’ll say that when you feel & hear the final “toc” , feels good.
For responsive play you don’t need the higher precision. The goal is to create friction/drag for a response. “Smoother” spinning yoyo is not going to do much especially if your just gonna fill it with lube or grease which fills the voids with a viscous fluid creating overall more drag anyway.
Cheap half spec are more than fine in most responsive yoyo cases. The only place that may not be as true would be 4a play. (Off string)
With that said there are folks that want extra spin time on there yoyo and create drag elsewhere usually in shrinking the gap. Those still don’t bear a great difference between an nsk hybrid 10 ball a abec 10 half spec bearing and a cheap bulk produced 8 ball half spec. Other than life span. The higher quality should last longer but if you shove lube in it then the bearing will last a long time regardless
To add to that point. It’s often preferred to use a bearing with a lower tolerance if lubricants are going to be used. This is because there is added space for the lubricants to work into. And once the lube fills the voids the bearing will operate nice and smooth.
Thanks for all these precious infos.
Think I’m done with that constant search of the “personal sweetest spot” (Max Respnsive & Max spinning time)
Guess I’m going to live an “oily life” with my lovely Arrows.
Regards
Lee
PS.: Feeling to write a poem about Arrow & Oil !
Like we’ve noted there are ways to optimize and mod yo-yos especially things like the deepstate with its swappable side effects. However if the arrow is what your comfortable with at the moment it makes sense to stick with it for a while then branch out.
BY the way , here in Switzerland we love innovation also , so if machines are automatically lubricated, a yo-yo manufacturer could build some kind of longer lasting responsive bearing by implementing a miniature sort of catheter that would inject a fraction of a drop of Lube,
plus an rpm counter that would analyse the spinning ….all remotely controlled by an app…
(this kind of tech is very old & simple, look at the plugs that diabète persons have glued on the arm, that analyses and injects fractions of insulin , all monitored via an App)
Just need to put it in a yo-yo , there is enough space.
As noted, the ABEC rating refers more to specs and tolerances. And the higher the rating the higher the cost. The reality is that you will probably not be able to discern a difference in play. A few years back a number of people got together at a west coast contest and did some blind testing of an ABEC 7 and the stock bearing in a number of different yoyos. There was no noticeable difference. Some of the people involved were name players at the time.
