I searched around a little but couldn’t find the exact issue I’m having. This bearing is basically brand new. I just switched my shooting star from responsive to unresponsive a few days ago. I been trying to learn DNA and I noticed my finger would hardly ever lock in and it started to bind back to my hand when I would finger spin. After some point I got curious and looked were the string ties to the bearing. The bearing wasnt moving freely and the loop around the bearing was dragging when slowly spun. I took off the bearing completely and spun it and noticed sometimes when spinning it that it would get caught in a certain position. I’m going to clean it tomorrow and see what happens. My question is if anyone knows if this bearing just needs cleaned or could it be defective? I have seen posts from awhile ago with people having issues with pixel bearings. Sorry if this a dumb question to ask before cleaning, I don’t know anything about bearings.
A small silver lining is I popped in another pixel bearing from my passion and soon as I did I was able to lock in and finger spin so much longer. Kinda frustrating at the same time as I spent so much time thinking it was just me making technical errors.
Thanks. I’m going to clean one today and see how it goes. It’s weird the pixel bearing description on here says they come lubed. It says let them break in and not clean them but this can’t be normal I feel like. I found out they use dark matter lube initially curious if it could be clumping or something I don’t know.
A lot of new bearings come lubed unless otherwise specified. Lube can collect dust and clump up in general it’s very hard to get the right amount in the bearing which is why a lot of people will just clean their bearings and run it dry. I would dunk it in acetone and let it sit for 20 -30 minutes and then dry it with canned air. It’s actually pretty common when you get a new yo-yo or bearing that they have build up from lube. It will go away on its on if you play it enough .
So today I cleaned one bearing at first to compare a cleaned one vs a “crunchy” one. I put it in a film container with acetone, shook it, let it sit 30 mins before I shook it again before taking it out. I then hit it with air compressor. It seemed better but it was still seeming slightly responsive and crunchy. The other one had got real bad when I compared it was fully responsive. So I decided to repeat the cleaning process with both. So far I only tested one of the two from that cleaning batch and it seems to be OK now. I’m curious if it’s spinning slightly slower now but I’m not positive. I’m gonna pop this one out and try the out the other one tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I wonder if it is the dark matter causing this still. I feel like iYoYo would realize by now it’s causing a lot of issues and use something else. I will say iYoYo has been very responsive and helpful on Instagram messenger with me which has been nice.
Well it eventually got so bad they both were basically responsive. I’m learning this stuff slowly. Yoyos are way more finicky then I would ever imagined.
When using the acetone don’t be afraid to let it sit for a little while . Also make sure it is completely dry before putting it back in .
Sometimes I desheild them but honestly most of the time I don’t even bother I just dunk it in the acetone and check on it like 30 minutes later and hit it with compressed air
I definitely feel like it could be the lube if the cleaned one started performing better I always clean my bearings and run them dry I only use thin lube and only half a drop if a bearing is too noisy also idk if they come with shields but for some reason the shields on my grasshopper was making the bearing crunchy so I took them off and it started performing better
I‘ve never heard anything good about the dark matter lube. AFAIK it’s not an oil but graphite particles in ethanol. Buff of mine got one and all the ethanol had evaporated so it wasn’t even usable anymore.
I highly suggest to use something else or just nothing and play them dry. (Have 10y+ old bearing that still perform well and never have seen oil, only soaked and cleaned in acetone.)
There may be a issue with Cleaning the Dark Matter Lube;
If you are only using a lite lube, acetone will help break it down, and is what is actually cleaning the inside.
Acetone will have no effect on the graphite that will remain in the bearing after the oil is removed.
Graphite can be a great “Dry Lube” in a lot of applications. If it is clumping up and causing friction, the only solution would be to break it back down (Try Playing with it).
*Mechanical abrasion is the only way to get graphite off of a surface of whatever kind.
Graphite is a very stable form of carbon and is soluble only in molten nickel.
Industrial processes for removing graphite from the surfaces of metals such as aluminum involve using a caustic liquid at high temperature to etch (remove a thin layer) the metal and thus take the graphite away with the removed metal.*
I had an experience last week where following @Chriscatastrophe’s advice regarding soaking it in acetone for a long time really made the difference. A fairly new yoyo started to squeal horrendously in the first hour of play, so I first tried to just blow it out with compressed air. That didn’t solve the issue, so I put the bearing in a contacts case made of the type of plastic that doesn’t dissolve with acetone. After pouring in the acetone, I screwed on the top of the contacts case and gave it a shake. As luck would have it, I forgot about it until about 45 minutes later so the bearing got a good long soak. I opened up the contacts case, and was amazed at all the crud that the acetone removed from the bearing:
Can you see all the tiny black specks at the bottom of the case? I’ve cleaned bearings before, but I think that this is the most crud that I’ve seen in a bearing before. After blotting it with a paper towel and then blowing it dry (I put the bearing on the tip of a sharpened pencil and hit it with compressed air), I put it back in the yoyo and it was like brand new! Whenever I’ve cleaned bearings with acetone in the past, I’ve only let them sit for about 5 minutes. But the longer soak time with this bearing really seemed to help the cleaning process.
Love pixel bearings. Installed them on all my fav yo-yos over the years never had any issue with them.
Definitely as good as any other high end NSKs etc
Just my experience since I run a lot of these. But it is always possible that you got a bad one by accident…
I followed the Gentry Stein video when I first cleaned a bearing and I’ve let them sit in acetone for hours or overnight. These days I rarely seem to have issues. If there’s any crunch or resistance in a bearing (it’s happened on a few new yoyos too), I’ve found that it’s usually not worth cleaning because there’s a defect or something, so I’ll just replace the bearing.
Air still gets through the small hole and around the sheilds it’s mostly to dry it though, to get the acetone out . I think the small bits still probably come out with the acetone also .
Maybe I’m wrong but I have been able to save a lot of bearings without having to desheild. It’s obviously better if they are desheilded but my fat hands struggle popping that ring off
I usually assume the bearing is dry (unresponsive only) when I get a new yo-yo. I usually play a few minutes to get the feel of it then take the shields off and throw them away, wash it in acetone and lube it and make sure it plays the same. Bearings that are clean and lubed properly don’t wear out in my experience. I don’t like noisey bearings
Well the first one I started using yesterday went back to crunching and being somewhat responsive again. The other one is working fine for now I feel like something gotta be in the bearing. My best guess is that dark matter but who knows. Gonna try cleaning again and if not it happens again might see if they can replace it as it’s not even been used a week.
