When I first got this yoyo, the middle of the “Duncan” engraving and the middle of the “Haymaker OG” engraving aligned. After a couple years of unscrewing and screwing it, to undo kinks and maintain the bearing, I’ve noticed the logos slightly drifting out of alignment. I’ve never dinged it or impacted it hand, just some bumps against carpeted/hardwood floors. And it plays fine, it’s as smooth as would be expected from a bi-metal, it’s not like it’s unscrewing during play. It’s just the tightness sweet-spot seems to be increasing.
I had a Replay Pro a long time ago which had this pattern. YYF plastics have little alignment arrows, and over time I had to tighten it further past alignment to stay secure.
Am I overtightening my Haymaker? Or is it natural for alignment to increase over time?
I’m about to buy my first OneDrop, if you share any threads/vids about proper tightening, I’d really appreciate it. I also don’t know anything about “tuning” a metal yoyo for smoothness, so I’d love to read about that.
I would consider this as more wear and tear on the axle and threads. It’s normal and has happened to many of my yo-yos over the years too.
When a yo-yo is manufactured, the hub and axle threads may be a bit rough. During initial assembly, the threads and axle are joined and tightened for the first time and while tight, they might not be perfectly seated due to imperfections and machining grit. So while it will pass QC and play well, each time you open and tighten the yo-yo, it will slowly wear away on the threads. Eventually this will affect the fully torqued position to the point that alignment marks or etchings no longer line up.
Mine don’t line up either. It still gets plenty tight and doesn’t loosen during play so no problem. If yours is the same I would also say… no problem.
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
4
my advice for screwing your yoyos together to avoid stripping:
use good bearings, cheaper ones tend to have tolerances that are a bit looser and so you can sometimes end up with a VERY tight bearing that starts to chew up the post. you’ll also find that with cheaper/lower quality manufacturers they will oversize the bearing post by the smallest amount since it decreases b grade rate (this is also something that commonly happens by accident with anodizing, since that is going to add thin layer on top of everything)
worth noting that NSKs are one of the commonly-named premium bearings, but they have tight tolerances and tend to fit slightly tighter than most yoyo bearings, so if you have a yoyo with a bearing post that is already death gripping normal bearings an NSK might end up shaving down some part of the bearing post (though I am a huge fan of NSK bearings otherwise and use them in all the yoyos i really care about where possible, IMO a yoyo is incomplete without your favorite pads and a good bearing)
when you’re removing bearings try to avoid using too much back and forth wiggle, since if you aren’t careful (especially with posts without a chamfered edge like on older yoyos) you can shear off material over time. if you’re willing to make an investment, bearing removers like the azumi techno one can remove bearings without as much wiggling:
when screwing a yoyo back together, I like to get the axle finger tight in one half and then slowly rotate the other half of the yoyo backwards (like you would unscrew it) with very light pressure, you’ll eventually feel the threads ‘click’ (practice this with a yoyo you don’t care about) into place, at which point you should be able to screw the halves together
don’t palm grip both halves of the yoyo when reassembling, use your fingertips on the rims on each half to avoid cranking down the yoyo super hard, i know some yoyos with tight seats do require a bit of cranking down, but do your best to not go crazy
remember to clean the bearing posts/seats of your yoyos every once in a while (i just do this when i’m changing pads) since you can accumulate gunk there, and also inside the threads of the axle hole (i’ll take a qtip, usually peel some of the cotton off, dunk it in isopropyl alcohol and get in there, just be sure that if you’re using something with water content to dry things afterwards
This seems like the SS ring has just rotated slightly over time. Not a threading issue or over tightening. They have likely just rotated from screwing and unscrewed wiggling it along. On most bi-metals the SS ring is just press-to-fit on.
Any tips on maintaining SDs? I’ve just heard you need to crank them tighter than you’d intuitively think, also helps to lube them.
fradiger
(the world is a beautiful cat and i must meow meow meow)
9
straight from the source themselves!
anecdotally the only thing you can really do wrong with side effects is chew up the seat they sit in if you try to insert them at an angle or remove them in some insane way, if you have a pair of side effects that sit tight and get stuck in the yoyo just press it down against something that wont damage it (i use a piece of wood lol)
then just remember you can tune SE yoyos by rotating one of the halves relative to the side effect
yay! frad covered the tips spread perfectly. i wouldnt say you have to tighten them extra, unless you’re working on tuning it, but i crank mine down tight mainly just cuz i can but honestly I’ve found them to be very minimal maintenance if any. fun to swap colors and shapes. get a pair of brass ones. the diff weights can change the pacing of the yoyo, but it doesn’t make it like a different yoyo or anything so if you don’t find yourself wondering “what if this played slower”, then skip this but i like being able to slightly customize the appearance at least. have fun with it and def show off ur setup when you lock it in!
They don’t always align perfectly bro and that’s okay. If the axle worn down a little bit yeah it wouldn’t be lined up. Do not force it if it doesn’t seem to line up. Makes no difference at all. You should never be cranking on a yoyo to begin with. The method of “tuning a yoyo” is dangerous and not something you should be doing if it’s playing smooth. You will break it if you don’t have the experience. We don’t even need to crank yoyos like this in this day and age really.
I got the brown spike Side Effects to give it a forest-y color palette, and dude. This thing is a work of art. I haven’t had it for 24 hours and I’m already a OneDrop stan. And big thanks to everyone who posted advice about SE maintenence and tuning, it spins butter smooth.
For all you guys with cool OneDrop setups, please don’t hesitate to post pics.
