Just use acetone, every else has no clue…
John
Are you saying all us have no clue what we are talking about?
Probably.
Apparently…
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We do. We were trying to figure out why the lighter fluid locked up his bearings. Not what to do to fix it.
And I already mentioned Acetone, so I do know what I am talking about.
Yep, we’ve been wandering aimlessly in the desert for 40 years…
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Where do you buy acetone? I checked my CVS (pharmacy) and they didn’t have any. Haven’t gotten to check anywhere else yet. Is there a special place to buy it?
I got some at Home Depot. Lowe’s probably has it too. Basically most big hardware stores should have it.
It’s a hardware store item, usually not found in a pharmacy, unless they also sell paint.
I’ve seen some at Wal*Mart for fingernails that CLAIMS to be “100% acetone” (which I take to mean no conditioners, aromas, etc) and I’ve seen it recommended for bearings on some thread here somewhere.
But for my $5, I would still go to the hardware store. I somehow don’t trust that “100% acetone” claim on the label.
The stuff for nails has additives to keep it from eating the skin off of yours, your wife’s, or your friends fingers. Regardless of what the label says.
Fixed…
…my wife…? (looks at own toenails)
My trepidation seems well-founded, then!
I just saw some, a huge container, in Wal☆Mart.
Any hardware, Lowes, paint stores may have it, Home Depot.
Dry Play requires Acetone to apply properly. Clean out the bearings with acetone and redo the Dry Play Treatment.
I’ve had success using no liquid solvent at all, which is the original recommended way to apply it (people discovered in short order that acetone sure helps, though).
unless its 100% acetone then it’s safe or if you have a stainless steel bearing the. Your fine.
Well, John states to use acetone for your final cleaning before applying the Dry Play, and then use acetone to help move around and dissolve the Dry Play to help it coat the balls.
This is what I do:
ASSUMING the bearing is spinning, I take a tiny bit of Dry Play on the supplied stick(which the teeny foam tip is gone from) and then while the bearing is spinning, barely touch the stick to the spinning bearing. The vibration knocks the material into the bearing an the bearing quickly STOPS spinning. I then tap out the excess. I then work it through through spinning by hand until the bearing wll spin a little bit on its own(2-3 seconds or better). Some bearings work through this better than others. I then add a small drop of acetone and work that through. I actually have a tool that looks like a dentist’s pick that I use to apply the acetone, kind of in the style we recommend people to dip a needle in lube when lubing a bearing, and do this to each ball in the bearing to ensure it gets some acetone over it.
It takes a bit of effort to Dry Play treat a bearing. Depending on the bearing, it can go fast. It’s when you have a more questionable bearing that it takes longer. I estimate 15 minutes per bearing. I can usually do an OD 10-Ball or Trifecta in 5 minutes as they both take it very well. YYJ Speed bearings take a bit longer. Crappy bearings: not so good! But that’s why they are crappy bearings.
One has to take into consideration: Is the extra effort worth it? I can’t answer that objectively. For me, when it works, it’s the way to go. It’s how I like my bearings. I mean, if I can take a bearing from spinning less than 20 seconds DRY to spinning over 45 seconds after Dry Play treating, well, you tell me if it’s worth it. No, I’m not joking about that either. I took a guy’s new CenterTrack from his FH Ava the other day. Before cleaning: 20 seconds of spin on a flick. After cleaning, 28 seconds of spin on a flick with it being dry. After Dry Play: 56 seconds of spin on a flick. Granted, human error can be a factor, but I find that those results will be “bad spin/short spin” to “variances of 2-4 seconds”, not “double the spin times”.
I’ve also found in my experience, between mineral spirits and acetone, I seem to get better results acetone over using mineral spirits.
Also, there’s people who recommend running bearings dry. I’ve shown how I get better results with Dry Play over running the bearing dry. The argument is viscosity. However, even with liquid lube slowing down a bearing, even a tiny bit, that tiny bit from using a tiny bit of lube ca prolong the life of the bearing. Regardless of what we do, bearings are gong to wear out at some point in time. The good thing is bearings aren’t terribly expensive.(well, usually)
Regardless of HOW people clean their
That certainly seems to be what he currently recommends. His ads now show the method Sniffy came across and had good success with.
I don’t believe that was always the case (I recall a video by John himself when I got mine); but regardless… it doesn’t matter. I’ve had success using no liquid solvent! You sure have to be careful and patient, though.
In general (acetone or no), I’ve had tremendous success with DryPlay as well. The only reason I don’t use it on every bearing is it imparts a distinctive sound to a bearing that’s more pleasing than totally dry, but less pleasing to me than lightly lubed with thin oil. So I tend to sacrifice some performance for the sonic characteristics of oil. But if performance is goal number one, I don’t see how you can beat DryPlay!
These essays that could be a simple 1-5 sentence answer.
Ya da boss!