How to fix bimetal yoyos when the ring comes off?

I have a Yoyo Monster Agonist Prototype. I ordered the Prototype because I could find it in purple and could only find the official release in green, plus they look absolutely identical and have the same specs except the official release has Hideo Ishida’s signature on it. I assumed they were the same but perhaps not.

Anyway I bought it for 5A and the first couple days I was using it it was incredible. Lightweight, strong spin, excellent stability, no vibe, and so on. Perfect. Reminded me of a Draupnir in feeling but worked better for 5A for me. But I was doing 1-handed spirals and I messed up, with the Takeshi die striking the yoyo fairly hard. Note this wasn’t hard enough to mar the yoyo, but it did pop out one of the brass rings and send it flying across the room. I found this extremely alarming since I just spent $200 on it!

I contacted Yoyomonster about the issue weeks ago but they never replied. In their defense they may not have anyone on staff who speaks English, a not uncommon situation for small Japanese companies.

So I decided to reattach the ring myself. I scraped as much of the dried epoxy from the ring and ring seat as possible, then dipped the brass ring into acetone to get it completely free of the previous epoxy. I also ran a cotton swab with acetone around the ring seat to try to get rid of stubborn bits of epoxy. This worked but it did mar the paint on the ring seat a bit. Then after all the prep was done I used some quick set Gorilla Glue epoxy that is supposed to be great for bonding metals. I was very careful, mixed the epoxy, applied to the ring seat with a toothpick, smoothed it out, placed the ring back on, and wiped up any excess, then placed a weight onto the ring for a long time until it cured completely.

So when the ring was dried it seemed nice and attached, and I started using the yoyo again a day after reattaching it. It seemed there was a slight vibe to the throw now, but it wasn’t always there so I don’t know if I was imagining it. Then about a week later, another dice/yoyo collision caused a ring to pop out again! I have no way of telling if it’s the same ring. My only clue is there was more epoxy underneath this one than the first one that popped off. I think it is the one I reattached but can’t be sure. I tried to just reseat the ring and see if it would stay and it has, but now there is definitely noticeable vibe, and I can’t seem to pry the ring off to re-epoxy it properly. A kinetic impact with a small piece of plastic sends the ring flying but I can’t seem to deliberately pry it off even when it’s no longer glued! It’s driving me crazy.

Sorry to make this post so long. I’m hoping someone who has had similar issues can tell me the best way to proceed in fixing the yoyo, or identify where I went wrong. For instance is there a particular epoxy that is preferred? How thick a layer should be applied? Any tips on prying off the loose ring? And if I can, is there a better way to get the dried epoxy off of it?

I’ve also wondered if maybe I should just pry off BOTH rings, remove all epoxy, and then reattach them. That way I would be able to get similar amounts of epoxy on each ring. I figure if I’m off by even a fraction of a gram in the balance then that is causing the vibe. BUT, prying off the rings could damage the yoyo further. Just not sure what to do here. It’s very frustrating because it’s an incredible yoyo. Hideo Ishida just got 3rd at JN2014 with it. Of course he’s good enough he doesn’t have to worry about slamming the dice into the yoyo :stuck_out_tongue:

I wonder if the weak epoxy is an inherent flaw with the prototype, with the Agonist in general, or if I just got a bad model. Because one side has held strong (I think, unless the second collision knocked it off and not the one I reattached) and the other side came off super easily.

I would consider the Agonist my favorite yoyo by a good margin if it weren’t for the ring issues, and this is going against YYR Draupnir, YYR Laser, Auldey Ares Star, and a few others. I wish yoyos came with some kind of limited warranty…I realize people drop yoyos and smash them in the ground etc., but that didn’t happen here. The yoyo just fell apart during the course of normal practice. That’s just unacceptable in my book.

TLDR: Tell me how to properly reattach rings to bimetal yoyos plz :slight_smile:

Firstly, I would try contacting shop you bought from, maybe they will not help you, but probably can get you in contact with Yoyo monster.

It happend to one of my Yoyofficer Eagers, but here they are just press fit in, without glue. I didnt cared too much about it, so I just press it back and give it few slams with hammer. There are now few scuffs on ring, but is fitting well an surprisingly without vibe. But I understand you dont want to do that with 240$ yo-yo you bought :slight_smile:

Remove the glue first, I would recommend a solvent such as Klean Strip KS3 Paint Stripper, nasty stuff. The epoxy will be eaten away after some time with the solvent. Now, how are you going to keep the ring in? Don’t use epoxy, epoxy is too thick, and will keep the ring from being seated properly, and in the case you use enough force to sit the ring, the epoxy will be spread too thin. Use Gorilla Super Glue, that’s what I always use and it’s some strong stuff. Apply a small drop every 30 or so degrees going around the ring.

How do you handle the foaming/expansion with Gorilla Glue?

Oh, never mind - I see you use the super glue… :smiley:

I could see rings falling out as a main reason for being a prototype

Maybe…but the specs are absolutely identical and it looks identical except the engraving. I think they just did a shoddy job with one of the rings. Other one seemed fine.

yoyospirit, I do have some gorilla glue but it’s thicker than the epoxy I used, I think. Won’t the paint stripper, um, strip the paint on the yoyo? That was my concern using acetone which is why I just dabbed it on there with a q-tip, and it still stripped some paint I think (mostly under the ring though so not noticeable)

I went ahead and emailed the site I bought it from but I am skeptical about being able to return it or anything. And even if they had replacements they’re impossible to find in purple.

Ahh, I should have just bought the stupid green Agonist but the purple one looks way cooler so I got the last purple prototype I could find anywhere on the net. I don’t know why the purple ones are so hard to find… YYM must have made like 20 of them and given half of them to Hideo Ishida I’m guessing :-\

You made the same mistake I did. He used their super glue, not the thicker. foaming stuff.

Gorilla Super Glue

I checked, I have the Gorilla super glue actually. I used the Gorilla 5 minute epoxy because it’s supposed to bond metals better than glues. I assumed manufacturers were using epoxy to attach weight rings as you don’t need as much of it. Maybe they aren’t, IDK.

I’m still not sure which ring came off the second time though. Possible it could have been the ring I thought was okay but there was a lot more glue/epoxy on that ring.

It’s 100% the ring that fell out previously, manufacturers pretty much never use any glue or epoxy for their weight rings.

How were they attached then? The rings just fit into the seat on the side of the yoyo and it fits kind of snug but it’s not snug enough to hold them without some kind of adhesive. Plus, when the ring came off the first time, there were dried white flakes all over the base and on the seat. It was clearly some kind of adhesive… ???