I don’t worry in the least about being called (or being) a hack. I have a pair of farriers pliers, which are similar to end nips with approximately eight inch grips that have worked fine for me for years. The long handles provide excellent leverage. So far I haven’t even ruined a bearing. I used to have a Leviathan that required this type removal every time.
I picked my pliers up at a yard sale and I’ve seen others since. Not too many people shoe horses any more so they don’t have much use for em’ 
Where there’s smoke there’s fire!
Ok, while those two bicker…lol Anyway, to the op, take the end of a 1/4in sized Drill bit, the end that goes into the drill, and use that to remove the bearing. This works much better than a YYF Bearing Remover tool, and you can wiggle harder without the fear of it breaking because, well, chances are the bits gonna be made out of a very tough and durable material like high speed steel or titanium.
Well, well, well look what just crept in!!
Welcome back.
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Only a moron suggests pliers to remove a bearing. Anytime anyone suggest as much, Kyo magically pops up out of the woodwork to defend the pliers honor and plead his case for pliers as the be all end all bearing removal tool.
Maybe where Kyle lives the Vice grip is the tool box, but Ive always been taught to use the BEST tool for the job, not whatever is handy, or easy to grab.
Pliers are most certainly not the best tool to use to remove a bearing you hope to use again, if you suggest they are, to mer, your simply a moron, and anything further from you would be the ravings of …well you get it.
Pliers are the absolute last resort, and if the bearing wont come out with a rod remover(1/4"drill bit,YYF tool etc as has been explained to you already). Only as an absolute last resort do you use the pliers, try to be really careful and your bearing just might survive, but it sounds like you’ve got her pretty well good and jammed, so do not be crushed(lol) if you happen to ruin the bearing, bearing are relatively cheap.
Best of luck mate.
Wow adding more fuel to the fire one of the biggest flame war trolls to ever grace the yoyo community.
Besides taking offense to you calling me a moron, I’d like to point out that I’ve used a small set of pliers every time without any issues. Mainly when I can’t get the axel out of the yoyo, which makes the rod method impossible.
I use pliers exclusively, I’ve only ruined a super stuck bearing once, i’ve also found kk bearings can be removed very easily with pliers because of the better grip.
everyone has their own methods, but that doesn’t mean anyone is a moron for their choice, I mean no one suggested superglueing it to your finger and ripping it our or anything lol
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Honor you with a single tear my friend…priceless words above.
You’re By the way, since when did you become so knowledgeable on bearings? Pliers do, and will work fine for removing bearings. I’ve only have a few instances where the pliers have broken the bearing, and all of those times, where on YYF Spec bearings, which are a softer stainless steel. Sure drill bits and bearing removers are better, but pliers work fine. Also, it seems it’s very hard for you to make a comment stating your opinion without insulting someone else. You should work on that.
Anyone who ruins a bearing with pliers is being too impatient trying to remove it.
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I’ve heard pliers can mess up the allignement of your bearing as the outer ring is being pulled away from the inner ring
yeah if you’re not careful with it, if you’re bearing is so stuck that you gotta pull hard enough that it could do that, the bearing was probably a loss anyways.
Exactly. I’ve used pliers on two YYF yoyos and “crunched” the bearings both times to get them off, but at least I got them off. Bearings are cheap and easily replaceable.
Here’s a schematic drawing of the typical pliers that are handy for bearing removal. Note the presence of the oval hole in the jaws. One grabs the bearing by placing that part around the bearing.
Looks like we gots a bunch a morons here… 
Maybe he has a small bearing Genesis.
small bearing genesis? is there such a thing? it’s c sized as far as im concerned along with everything in my toolbox
Thanks for the options everyone!, i will look for that drill bit, but will also try the pliers with freezing option together. Pliers are not hacks (if im using that statement right) even Severance endorsed it for cases like these.
quite a fan of your work yoyospirit! thanks for the suggestions wish I could get my yoyos polished by you!! that is if i didn’t live on the other side of the world from you lol maybe you can send me tips for taking out of the color of my genesis and making it raw or polished (shiny??) ? since I kindda hate it right now ill sacrifice it
…and yet…
this is fun 
Kyle
“Professional”
Loose terminology.
holy smokes… I finally got it out!!! It’s surreal Will a different bearing probably get stuck on the yoyo again though? like do i need to sand off the bearing seat or something?