This has me interested, I was wondering how long I could leave them in a solvent without causing damage. I usually use Acetone or Mineral Spirits to clean them but on these latest ones I tried the generic light fluid from Walmart, not the Zippo brand as I’ve read bad things about that. I don’t have a set up like yours but I’m wondering if I could store them in Isopropyl in a Ball Jar or something similar.
Right now all of my bearings are stored in individual ziplock baggies, then I put them into another container like what Motion Yo’s are shipped in, I Teflon tape the threads of the lid to add an extra layer of protection.
(Sorry for all the single posts, it’s not letting me copy and reply to quotes, I only got that to work one time today).
I will say, I buy bulk konkave, 10ball, NSK, and 10ball Chinese concave,
of all of these, after 5 year 9/10 OD 10ball are perfect, the rest are 50/50 lol
My NSK, were bought many many years ago. maybe 5-6 year ago too. I believe the new NSK is different than mine old batch. I do not use them because every time I add lube they get this “wet” sound when spinning and it is really gross. Instead of lube make it quiet, it just gets gross wet sounding. so bad. but all my new yyr that come with NSK go dead silent with lube and unresponsive!
I agree with you, I am not going to try to return to these, the way I see it, is it’s on me for not testing them when I first received them. I’ve learned my lesson though.
FYI, I can only get one quote to work per post, or I would have tried responding to several posts.
@Nic_from_Adelaide I like the WD40 suggestion, I am going to give that a try.
I’ve never returned a bearing. Usually, if I get one that’s super loud or seizes up, I just lube it up and play through it until it quiets down and smooths itself out.
If you are gonna experiment I would say just do it with something you aren’t afraid to damage if you are worried. Like if you spent $12 a bearing and throw 100 in then ouch lol. I bought these 10 ball flats from a factory direct and they cost me maybe $60 for 100 of them so if my experiment failed it’s not the end of the world.
This ratio is terrible for non taobao bearings and it makes me think there is something wrong with your process. I know that using pressurized air can cause condensation and I think it would be worth trying your cleaning process without that step. Just solvent to clean, flick it on something to spin out some excess solvent, let them dry well. Maybe you get the same results, maybe it helps and that would be dope.
I semi-recently cleaned all the bearings I own and tested them all. (A ton of different brands and manufacturers) I found 5ish out of 50 that were truly blessed and spin quiet and smooth with no lube. Like 5 were trash bin garbage. 40ish were the good enough realm where they are a bit louder, spin fine, feel more smooth and quiet post lubing them. Really does seem like rng in terms of the insanely smooth and blessed bearings. If they are responding right after cleaning, that is bad and unusual ime
Yeah, at this point I will try anything. Though, I will say, this method has worked great for me up until I started dipping into this more recent stash of bearings. I had a bunch of Pixel’s before and maybe 1 out of 12 gave me issues, I replace all stock bearings with Pixel’s. Pixel’s come lubed so I always clean them before use, it’s a personal preference, I just don’t have the patience to wait for them to break in, and the more I play them and break them in, the more responsive they seem to get, so I always end up cleaning them anyways.
I’m re-cleaning a bearing now and I will stay away from the pressurized air. How long would you say I need to leave it out to dry? The time leaving it out worries me too, the dust in the air could get into them and what not. I’m using Acetone this time and I know it evaporates really quick. So would you say 30 min or so?
I actually have only thrown away one or two bearings that were totally locked up, the rest I just put in a medicine bottle labeled “bad”. I store them with the intent on trying to salvage as many as I can.
Yeah 30 mins should be fine. Just smell it and if it smells fine then youre probably good. Imo you don’t need to worry about dust like that like i usually just leave mine dry over night and it’s fine. Getting a spec of dust from the air in a bearing is w/e and shouldn’t matter ime, especially if youre running them dry. Usually it is like fibers from string or hairs or smt that cause issues.
I think the pressurized air may be the culprit in this scenario. This is a different brand than I’ve used in the past, maybe that has something to do with it, extra moisture? I dunno, but I let this bearing sit in the Acetone for about an hour, I let it air dry for 5 min, gave it the flick test and I’m getting great spin on it, about 15 seconds of spin time, so that’s a huge improvement. I’ll let it dry for about 30 min and give it a shot on the yoyo. I’m so congested today, the smell test won’t cut it, lol.
Okay, so it worked fine for a few minutes but as I played with it, it started to get a bit responsive (this is with no lube). I’m thinking that maybe it has to do with the yoyo itself. It’s honestly not that bad though, I figure that if I have to yank on it hard for it to be responsive, I can live with that. I can’t live with it when it’s responsive from doing a plastic whip or other similar tricks. Before I couldn’t do a Beefhook without it catching and coming back up on me.
Not sure how the yoyo would cause this though, I cleaned the bearing seats with surgical q-tips, I don’t tighten the halves a ridiculous amount, I just make sure it’s a snug fit. This is still annoying because when Pixel’s work, they are amazing in my opinion but they are very sensitive it seems.
Honestly, a lot of the time, I don’t even know a yoyo is acting responsive until I do the pull/yank test, then I get fixated on it being responsive and just waste too much time on trying to fix it. I’m going to try not to worry about it unless it’s affecting the performance and/or the yo keeps cracking my knuckles. As long as the spin time is good and I can practice my tricks, I shouldn’t even worry about it… but who am I kidding, it does still bother me.
Yoyo in question is C3 - 7075 Krown. I love this yoyo, it’s one of the throws I reach for the most, especially for practice sessions.
Kitty String First Class (KSFC) - FAT. KSFC is my go to string, I love their string. I also sometimes use C3 (great), Sochi (also great) and Throwback (meh - I use it, because I bought over a thousand strings before I tried better string).
I ask about string because I tend to agree with @GTDropKnot:
I believe most (all?) that you mention are spun poly, which has a lot of fiber ends to shed.
I have low humidity, high dust conditions and never really have bearing issues that are not attributable to factory lubrication. But I also use continuous filament strings which have fewer loose ends to break off and turn into lint.
Then again, it could easily be that the humidity is the most significant factor.
One other question: are you de-shielding these bearings?
I’m curious what material container you use when you store them in acetone? I would think glass would be best. I remember watching a YT video by Dylan K, he made a solution out of a mineral spirits and that 3-In-One lube - that may be a great solution to store bearings in.
That’s kind of what I’m starting to think but still not sure.
Pixel bearings come without the shield. I’ve attempted de-shielding other concave bearings that I have, I’ve done it successfully a few times but I’ve ruined too many bearings trying to get those things off, so I no longer do that.
I used to like that the Pixel’s came without them but now I’m not so sure, maybe they do help keep the particles out but what I worry about is that once particles get in, they are much harder to clean but that’s just a theory.
The funny thing is, I’ve never had a Magic Yoyo bearing do this to me and they are dirt cheap and they also come without the shields
Just a heads up, BLO is a hardening oil for treating timber. Once it sets, acetone is the minimum for cleaning.
Probably me being overcautious, BLO is a fire hazard for spontaneous combustion during the drying phase, but also some of the better bearing lubes have lithium compounds added. The combination could be a whole new type of fire hazard
