I started playing unresponsive and I’m looking for anything I can use or make thin lube
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You may not have this, but I used triflow for my yyt atlas and it worked really well!
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You don’t need lube to play unresponsive. A clean, dry bearing works just fine, adding even a small amount of thin lube can make it responsive.
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I used to use Al Cass Fast valve oil, because I have a trombone with an F attachment. Seemed to work fine, as it’s very thin.
Now when I use lube (I run dry mostly), my very favorite is the Dark Matter (or a dry lube), followed after a bit of play, with a tiny drop of OD V4M.
The results are quite amazing!
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Ive used trumpet valve oil before, but i just suggest a bottle of one drop v4m or dark matter if its in stock.
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Since you mention you run dry, I was wondering what’s the point in thin lube?
It makes yoyos spin quietly, but I’m not sure it’s better for spin time?
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ppl claim that it helps bearings last longer. It definetly doesnt help spin time, but it does make bearings quieter
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Ok, like I thought.
So, if I don’t care for the noise, acetone bath and air compressor blow is all my bearings need to keep in shape.
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I don’t know if it helps spin time, but it seems to, especially dry alone. If done right, even with the thin after the dry, I think you can get increased spin time and a quiet bearing. I just don’t do it all the time, as it’s a bit of a project that I don’t always feel like undertaking when dry bearings play well ,and last plenty long.
I say “seems to”, because I’ve only tested with flick spins, and that may not translate into actual play with a yoyo. I’ve gotten bearings treated with dry lube only, and dry followed by thin both to flick spin for 25+ seconds.
I’ve gotten bearings that haven’t been playing great, and say will only flick spin for less that 8 secs and are not full unresponsive, to spin 15+ after cleaning and treatment.
Yeah, I think so. As I said above, you might be able to rehabilitate a bearing with dry lube. I’ve saved some, and others didn’t really improve.
I’ve concluded that lubing bearings for unresponsive bearings is a completely unnecessary chore. I followed “proper” procedure (per videos by Brandon Vu, Dylan Kowalski, etc.) multiple times and found that it just wasn’t worth adding some responsiveness (even if temporarily) for the sake of reducing noise. I found that doing so didn’t seem to improve performance during play. Lube might extend the longevity of bearings, but they’re cheap enough to replace as needed. I’ve had exactly one bearing die on me since I came back to the hobby at the start of the year, and it was a more expensive bearing (came stock) that seemed to actually have a little lube in it out of the package.
That’s my 2 cents anyway.
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fortunately my two kids and my wife have now seemingly built up their tolerances for bearing noise in the middle of the night and sleep through all my practice sessions.
So I stopped lubing too, before I loved silent bearings, now without some noise I find it jarring, noise also kind of acts as a good indicator on remaining spin time as well.
I don’t lube my bearings anymore and my almsot new bottle of V4M is kind of just sitting there, I guess it’s always nice to have for when you may need it 
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I think your assessment is generally true. However, the noise part is a personal preference and a situational consideration. The noise is a real put off to some and those around them.
For instance, my wife is the opposite of this. It’s like nails on a chalk board to her and has gotten worse, not better. So at home, especially at night, I play responsive or my less noisy throws- probably the ones treated as above or just lightly lubed.
I think dry lubes, Dark Matter is included, might be able to actually improve performance. I agree it’s debatable if it’s worth the effort. I think it’s worth a try, especially if you enjoy tinkering.
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