I’ve been doing it for years but the lighter fluid I have doesn’t seem particularly effective. This becomes annoying when 75% of my bearings from 20 yoyos aren’t clean the first time around. It also takes forever to dry. What is the best brand of lighter fluid to use, or is something else more effective? Ideally no especially dangerous chemicals but I’ll do whatever at this point.
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I usually use alcohol. Shake vigorously then compressed air and a drop of oil.
If you don’t want to dry your bearing, just hit it with a lighter and the lighter fluid burns up.
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I use 99% isopropyl alcohol, spin the bearing out with compressed air, then add thin lube and hit it with compressed air again to blow out the excess lube. Done in 10 minutes, most of which is the bearing soaking/being shaken in a watertight container.
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I use whatever alcohol I can find(preferably 91 to 99).
I put the bearings in a good quality Ultrasonic jewelry cleaning rig.
When the timer goes off(about 10 minutes) I lay the bearings down on a few paper towels.
I use a hair dryer to dry the bearings(doesn’t take long.
Then, I lightly press each bearing onto the tip of a standard wooden pencil.
I put one drop of thin lube(synthetic/non petroleum) into the bearing.
Then I hold the pencil firmly in one hand and use the thumb on my other hand to flick the bearing several times to get most but not all of the lube out. Even a very light coating of lube will not drag down spin time and the bearing will last longer.
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Is it gonna leave a residue like that?
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Dangerous, wrong information.
Here’s a video demonstrating how it can ignite from a candle sitting nearby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMx-FMugEtA
Acetone forms a flammable vapor at temperatures above -20C, and this vapor can travel and find an ignition source elsewhere in your house.
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really shouldn’t be pouring it down the drain either, even if diluted. Leaving it out to evaporate in something shallow w/ a lot of surface area is the best way to deal w/ it. One of those cheap disposable foil pans/trays from the grocery store works great.
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after sooo much research (and subjective thoughts) on the forum for cleaning bearings i think i found the most effective and successful method for cleaning bearings so here’s my step to step process on my bearing cleaning procedure.
(1) it most certainly helps to remove the bearing shield before cleaning. i normally take off only 1 shield off the bearing because it seems to help protect one side of the bearing and prevent cleaning more often. but trust me i know it may take some effort but as you do it more and more the quicker you will remove the shields. my personal record is 15 seconds !!! no joke 
(2) grab 100% acetone. 100% helps because it contains no water which would rust the inner bearing and overall slow it down. and grab a small glass bowl or glass container. believe me you DO NOT want to use a plastic bowl with 100% acetone.
(3) drop your bearing into the glass bowl or container and shake (or stir with a pencil if using a glass bowl) for about 15 seconds.
(4) carefully take out the bearing and place it on a paper towel. then use a paper card or a piece of paper as long as they have edges. then put the edge of the paper card (or piece of paper) inside (the side of the bearing without the shield) the bearing while rotating the bearing and soaking up any remaining acetone inside of it.
(5) use a very very VERY small amount of thin lube into the bearing. if you use a paperclip you don’t even need to put a small drop of lube. i usually rub the side of the paperclip with the smallest amount of lube possible.
(6) put the bearing on a pencil and give it a nice hard flick. if it spins for 10 seconds or more then congratulations you got yourself a perfectly cleaned bearing !!!. if the bearing is still gritty or spinning not as long as it should be repeat steps 3-6.
and there you go !!! as long as you follow these steps you should have a perfectly spinning bearing !!! if there are any questions just let me know 
i hope this guide was useful and helped you all out !!!
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I’ve been doing what @Yoyogeek15 is doing but spinning with canned air. For lube I use gorrilicus lubricus available at yye. And then another dunk just to take off excess I always put too much.
I go back and forth with lighter fluid and acetone.
Yyf bearings get replaced
I stand corrected! Deleted
A contact lens case works fine with Acetone. Verify that the case is polypropylene by looking at the bottom, it should have a “PP” engraved somewhere there. I haven’t come across a case that isn’t polypropylene. Acetone does not attack polypropylene as it does with many other plastics.
Yes I like saying polypropylene. 
Anyway here’s how I clean my bearings, except now I use the tip of a pen to set the bearing on while I spin it dry.
Ivan
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Which one do you use/do you recommend it? I was thinking of getting one to try and fix some stubborn bearings but don’t really know what to look for. The brand Elma came up as a high quality brand but their small ones are $460 (seems more geared to laboratory work) which could buy a whole bunch of bearings.
These are the ones I’ve seen recommended, both are around $40:
@Sech1 suggested: “Magnasonic Professional Ultrasonic Eyeglasses Cleaner”
@yoyojoe suggested: “iSonic Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner”
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/isonic-ultrasonic-jewelry-nbsp-cleaner/3261444
Then just for laughs this is the one I found that’s way too expensive for my purposes: Elma Ultrasonic Cleaner EP10
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The post that you are responding to has been deleted, but was he really saying acetone is not flammable? LOL
Btw, that test was as dangerous as anything someone stupid could have done, with a full container of flammable liquid sitting RIGHT behind the petri dish.
As for cleaning yoyo bearings, I shield them and discard the shields (if there are shields. If you want to thick lube a bearing you might want to keep them, but in unresponsive yoyos it is kind of unnecessary in my experience.
Acetone is my preferred solvent, but 90+ Isopropyl does the trick just as well. Drop the bearing into a small mason jar, swirl for 30 seconds, let sit for 5-10 minutes, swirling a few more times.
Take bearing out, put on paper towel. I actually really like @yoyodoc’s rec of using a hair dryer at this point, so ill probably do that next time I clean. I prefer acetone because it evaporates faster than the isopropyl, but a hair dryer would eliminate that advantage. If I want to make sure the solvent has evaporated, I will spin the bearing on a Bic with some canned air.
Then I put a drop of thin lube while the bearing is still on the end of the pen (I use the yoyo branded stuff cause it’s cheap, lasts forever, and saves me the hassle of figuring out an alternative that isn’t necessary). Flick bearing a few times to get the lube dispersed, pretty much exactly what yoyodoc is doing.
Place back in yoyo. Screw non hex head of axle (if only one side has hex key) down until it is fully in, but not tight. Screw other half of yoyo on and try to get the bearing to seat evenly. Then ill throw like 5 or 6 hard breakaways, and pinwheel to slow it down, bind. After the “break in”, ill throw down at a normal speed and assess. Sometimes the result is perfect, sometimes not.
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