I hear this a bit, including from one Ti-Vayder customer who unscrewed the yo-yo and thought that the unscrewing and re-screwing caused vibe that was not there at the outset. So that’s the question:
Does unscrewing / taking apart a metal yo-yo many times reduce its lifespan or otherwise damage / harm the yo-yo?
I’m quite skeptical this is the case. As long as you screw it together carefully, don’t strip it, and only do it “palm tight” where you hold it with your palms for the final turns rather than your fingers – hat tip (@jhb8426) – I really can’t see how taking apart, unscrewing and re-screwing a metal yo-yo even hundreds of times would really harm it? Or even affect it in any way?
I remember asking about this on Reddit and once @G2_Jake replied that he’d taken yo-yos apart ~100+ times and it’s no problem at all.
I unscrewed my dead smooth Firrox 7075 once, and now it vibes more than a plastic yoyo. Go figure.
Edit: In response to your question though, here’s how I see it. If you screw and unscrew a yoyo perfectly every time you open it, you’re mostly likely not gonna damage the yoyo. With that being said, I feel like not everyone takes the time to open/close a yoyo perfectly, hence stripping. If you can completely ruin a yoyo by screwing it very incorrectly, I’d assume that a slightly improper technique could wear down the threads. And of course, the shorter the axle, the more the accuracy of your technique matters.
Well for the record I have unscrewed and re-screwed bazillions of yo-yos (probably 400+?) and not once, not one time have I ever felt that the yo-yo was any different in play than it was when I started?
Have I stripped a yo-yo? Yes I have! The Spin Dynamics Sensei, but apparently that was a known issue (really soft threads) in that particular yo-yo…
My main concern has always been stripping the threads, so I just avoid unscrewing my yoyos unless it’s totally necessary. I do think that unscrewing some throws, like some old YYFs and YYRs, can introduce vibe. However, this is the sort of vibe that you should be able to tune out when screwing it back together. It might take some time and some fooling around with, but I don’t think that this is from any damage caused by the unscrewing, it’s just from inherent flaws in the yoyo that prevent it from being smooth if it’s not screwed together juuussstt right.
I actually still have the first Northstar I bought. If it’s not tuned properly, the damn thing violently pulse vibes like nobody’s business. When tuned, it’s just your normal run of the mill center trac in a plastic vibe.
I guess this is a slightly more coherent concern when referring to plastic yo-yos as they can be screwed together to a pressure fit because the material bends under pressure in a way that metal… uh… does not?
Nope. The only thing that happens when you unscrew and screw your yoyo is that it might mess up the factory tuning that was probably as smooth as it could be.
No. By tuning i mean the particular combination of tightness, bearing side and axle length in each yoyo that makes a yoyo play as smooth as possible. Yoyo tuning is a very inexact topic to define.
As far as i know they do. When putting together the halves, they try to put together the ones that result in the most smooth yoyos.
With some yoyos you get more or less vibe depending on how the axle is positioned when you screw it together. This is the case with a few yoyos I’ve had
Unscrewing a yoyo doesn’t introduce vibe if done carefully(doesn’t even have to be that careful tho as you can see) but I agree with eos on the tuning thing.
There seems to be a focus on vibe in these replies. What I really want to know: If you inaccurately screw a yoyo, can you damage the threads in any way, however minor the damage is?
If your yoyo vibes only after taking it apart and screwing it up again, then the factory tuning was a house of cards. An A grade yoyo shouldn’t have any more vibe after it has been taken apart and reassembled.
Answer: No. It does not mess it up. But it can induce minor vibe.
But yea, I have absolutely encountered this. Its not common, but I have seen it and felt it first hand.
Some times, its wasnt tightened back down tight enough after reassembly. A little torque can fix it.
Other times, I really think it was caused by minor differences in axle placement before and after. Was the ale loose goosy when you unscrewed it? if so, the fine tune could be affected. Again, its not common.
If you use locktite, and it dries in a position that does not vibe, you should never see this happen again. I had a YYR Valkrie that did this to me. I also had another one not long after that, that also have a vibe- there-not there-there again. I forget what throw it was, but it happened after i took the bearing out for a cleaning. Afterwards, its had vibe. Took the bearing out, fliped it over, and it was just fine, but this could have also had nothing to do with bearing, and possibly just the axle doing its own thing when i was fiddling with the bearing.
I am not disagreeing, I’m just echoing that if “it wasn’t screwed back together properly” is an actual problem there has to be some kind of variable in how it goes back together.
I don’t feel the axle really can be a variable, unless the axle threads were tapped incorrectly, at an angle rather than perfectly straight?
That kinda leaves the bearing seat as the only other possible variable in yo-yo assembly?
