I can't bear(ing) it

Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance
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Hello. I’m Ned - brand new to this forum and new to yoyo’ing after a hiatus for a couple of decades. This is my first post.

What’s the story with bearings?

I’ve built up a small yoyo collection in a brief period of time, mostly from recommendations on this forum. Most of the yoyo’s I’ve picked up have been great out the box and even better with a bearing clean and just a drop of lube (I’ve found Magicyoyo bearings need more of a clean, but a good soak gets rid of the gunk).

However, out of all the yoyo’s I’ve acquired, the bearings in the Yoyofactory IQ and the CLYW Sasquatch have been problematic. The IQ is a 10 ball and the Sasquatch is an 8 ball. Both were sluggish out the box with the IQ running rough as well. I’ve removed the shields and left them soaking in pure alcohol, with the IQ bearing needing an overnight soak. The CLYW one hasn’t improved much, but the IQ is much better. IQ is more playable now, I’m still struggling with the Sasquatch.

So, I have a bevvy of questions:

1 - Does anyone know how much QC goes into testing bearings before fitting, or they thrown in? 2 - Are there common issues with bearings from certain companies?
3 - And is there anywhere in the UK recommended to buy them from?

I don’t think I’ll need to change them often, but it’s piqued my interest.

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qc is gonna vary company to company. boutique companies throw them once or twice to test but not extended play, from what i understand. bearings are mass produced and sometimes they’re just bad. mostly if you buy a throw and have an immediate problem, you can get a new one if you reach out to the company. had this once for me and I’ve seen others say they’ve had success asking for a replacement. I’m not in uk so i dont know what’s available at what shipping cost to you but hollywood modern and fast eddy both sell bulk bearings if that makes shipping worth it

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What they said lol

Bearings are a crap shoot. Some are great, some are good enough, and some will seize up on you within 10 seconds of throwing it.

Sometimes it just needs a little lube to get it moving again but sometimes it’s a dud. In my experience, total duds are a pretty rare occurrence. People swear by cleaning their bearings but I almost never clean mine and just add a bit of lube if they get loud and haven’t had any issues. There’s also the paper cleaning method where you cut a small long triangle of paper, fold it in half, then gently (!) stick it through the bearing and rotate it to clean the gunk out. That alone works for me most of the time.

Not sure what’s available in the UK but NSK makes good quality bearings. I also really like Original Throw concaves and love One Drop flat bearings.

Edit: Video with the paper cleaning method for reference

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Soaking in odorless mineral spirits, and occasionally using something like a toothpick to shake out bubbles or gunk that’s loosened up, might be better for cleaning than alcohol. After cleaning, you might tap the bearings on a paper towel (or, more messily but thoroughly, blow them out with compressed air) and do a few test throws.

If the bearing needs to be “broken in” with a few throws, you might clean it again to remove any material that got worn away in the process. Once it’s good, you can optionally add a small amount of thin lube to control noise and prevent oxidation.

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Just want to add that sometimes bearings will be kind of rough and crunchy sounding but you can play through that a bit and they might get super quiet after. Not always and if a bearing is making the yoyo respond then it’s either bad or needs to be cleaned or it is freshly lubed. Idk just wanted to add that bc that has definitely happened to me with a few bearings. Notably the one drop 10 ball bearing I have was super loud and crunchy and someone said to play through it so I did and now it’s very very very quiet and smooth.

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If you have a hobby shop that sells RC helicopters or cars you can sometimes find bearings there, at least in the U.S. don’t know about the UK.

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I have a solution for you. Play fixed axle. Nuff said. :wink:

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Hi mate,

Do you live in London? I do, if you need help just drop me a DM, we can meet and give you some bearings or I can advice you what and where to buy.

Here we are on Yoyoexpert so we not allowed to speak about other shops, anyway if you dont go over 135£ and you willing to wait a bit Yoyoexpert in my opinion is the best shop all over the world for everything yoyo related

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I’ve had really good luck with atmos projects bearings.

Welcome to the forum!!

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Hello all and thank you for both the welcome and the amazing advice.

So, what I’m getting is that it’s mostly chance, but a bad bearing is few and far between. Regardless, play through and see where it gets you. I like the sound of that!

Will give the paper cleaning method a try on both the bearings and hopefully that will free them up more. I’ll also have a look at some of the names mentioned too. I’ve just picked up an Atmos Butterball and it’s incredibly smooth, so the nod to those bearings is right on the nail.

@Xanadu, not sure if I’ve got the skills to do it properly yet, but I do have a couple of wooden yoyo’s that are loads of fun to play with. Also, @Albertino, thank you very much for the offer, but I’m not near London. I will have a good trawl through Yoyoexpert on your recommendation though.

Looks like I’ve got plenty of Googling to do as well…

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one last thing, and i don’t think this can be understated, don’t obsess over the bearings. it can be a deep dark hole if you let it. best to make them an afterthought only when they affect play or get to a noise level you aren’t comfortable with. good luck!

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Some bearing makers produce batches that don’t run dead true to Spec.

Here is an image of ‘types of fit’ classifications for Machinists.

IMG_1661
IMG_16612732×2048 368 KB

Now, technically, if the spec for a C bearing Inner Diameter hole is .250, than that is what it should be.

If…… the Shop is good enough to keep that .250 spec., than the only other concern, is to keep the tolerance constant for the outer diameter of the seat post.

Since C size bearings have and have had a Multitude of applications having nothing whatsoever to do with yo-yos, some applications might require a tighter fit, so the spec for an ‘Interference fit’ would be used, because maybe they don’t want the bearing to come off easy. They would prefer it kinda snug.

When the application involves a yo-yo, once the Spec of .250 is ‘constant’, the Spec for the Outer Diameter of the seat post is Critical, to satisfy the required fit. (Removable without the Aid of power tools or the Fire Department.

If the yo-yo halves are to be: blasted, chromed, powder coated, anodized, raw or just dipped in fudge, adjustments have to be made.

If the choice of finishing will cause a .002 add, you must subtract the appropriated amount as it will build back up to spec by the process.

If the finish method, for some reason would reduce the bearing seat post by .002, then the cut would have to be ‘2 over’, to be the final measurement back to spec.

Clear as Mud?

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Jake’s been releasing yo-yos weekly almost all year. The guys a beast hand testing batches on live and just pumping out yo-yos.

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The “quality” of the bearing is determined by the tolerances utilized by the manufacturer of the bearings. Variation in quality is usually determined by who the yo-yo manufacturer acquires their bearings from and when.

I have bought some cheap yo-yo’s with bearings that have lasted years of use being whisper-quiet. I have some expensive yo-yo’s where the bearing has got crunchy after a few weeks. This is determined by what quality of bearings were available for the cheapest price at the time of manufacture. It is a bit of a crap-shoot.

That is why I keep a small supply of high-quality NSK Platinum bearings to use as replacements in yo-yo’s that turn out to have crummy bearings.

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My problem with NSK is that they ruin bearing seats on a lot of yoyos.

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I have never heard of that. I thought size C was a very specific set of dimensions

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It’s happened to me on my Otter and IQ, too many companies these days just make their seats as tight as possible. Some wear is to be expected of course but some bearing/yoyo combinations lead to the seat getting straight up ground down.

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So, is that an issue with NSK? Or YYF? …

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I buy bearings for my yoyos, I don’t buy yoyos for my bearings. I try to avoid brands with poor machine tolerance these days, but still it isn’t worth the risk to me. Atmos bearings perform well enough, have a nice sound when I play them dry, and fit more loosely than average which keeps my yoyos safe and is more convenient for maintenance.

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Sadly I think are the bearings, I have some NSK and some DS and is a sort of “lucky pick”, in some yoyos they work just fine in some other you have to press fit hardly and sometimes is literally impossible to let them in, swapping between them you find the one that fit the yoyo, I have around 6 of each and I am able to find the right combination with a bit of time and then I never change it.
I never had a yoyo where all of them fit properly and easily, I stopped to buy them, so much money for a great performance but messed up tolerance, as @Tempura said I found the Atmos being absolutely fantastic!

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