So, I got my first ever unresponsive yoyo couple of days ago and I must say I’ve fallen in love with this thing. Out of the box it was playing great (little noisy but I actually like the noise it makes, feels good throwing it). But couple of days later it suddenly turned to a little responsive and it was unexpected so I’ve banged my hand several times pretty hard. I thought to myself that maybe I should lube it, so it will be more slippy on the bearing side and I can manage to turn it back to unresponsive. I’ve searched through the forums and google, because I knew not anyone would be patient to wait for delivery just for a thin lube. People from the forums wrote down that sewing machine oil would do just fine. I had some lying around because I keep it for my fishing reels. So I lubed the bearing with two whole drops of oil and -ONE DROP TO THE AXLE just to make sure-. Eventually, I’ve done a thing that I shouldn’t do if I wanted to solve my problem. Lubing made it much responsive and didn’t improve my spin time -actually reduced it-. I’ve googled for solutions, read forums and watched Youtube videos. All of the information I’ve had from the research told me to clean my bearings with mineral spirits, acetone or lighter fluid. Unfortunately, I didn’t have neither mineral spirits nor lighter fluid, and thought acetone would do just fine. It didn’t do just fine, actually bearing stayed the same. I’ve accepted my fate, went back to sleep, started to study on my finals. But I was so eager to fix it back to way it should have been. It shouldn’t return back when I tug it up in the air, because that would smash my hand and may actually break my fingers. I had to fix it. So I found some synthetic paint thinner laying around my home, pour some into a container, put the axle and the bearing and waited for 15 minutes for it to do it’s job. After 15 minutes, I took out the bearing and the axle, wiped the excess thinner with paper towel, assembled the yoyo, and tried it without lubing. It was working perfectly. Sure it was noisy, but that was the way it was supposed to work. I was happy, but concerned at the same time. I didn’t want to wear my bearing out because of having no lube in the bearing. I watched some more videos of people lubing their unresponsive yoyos, and found out that people wouldn’t actually put whole drops into the bearing, instead taking a needle and put a tiny amount of lube/oil . It made sense. Tried it, now I regret it again, because now my yoyo is a little responsive and I don’t want that. I wanted to get what I desire. I’ve really thought so much about opening this thread, but nothing I found in the forums described the situation I was having. So I thought I could open up to you guys here, and guide more people who is having the same issues as I do. I am yet here again to ask for your help guys. What can I do else to improve my yoyo experience? Do I wait for the oil to break down? Do I soak my bearing in paint thinner again? Do I really have to buy a trumpet valve oil? Do I need to buy a new bearing? Do I need to buy another yoyo? I am lost, and I would love to hear about your solutions, and I am 100% willing to provide any useful information for your thinking to solve this.
Thanks in advance.
Kindest Regards.
From what I’ve read, you have acetone, right? Just make sure it’s 100% acetone (most nail polish removers are, same for stuff at the hardware store).
Soak it in acetone for 15 minutes, give it a good shake in the solution for a minute or so (I use a small glass bottle with a lid, you can use whatever). Take it out, let it dry (or put it on a chopstick and spin it), then pop it into your yoyo. Don’t lube it, you don’t need it. It should be good to go.
You can run the bearing dry (w/o lube) if you want, lots of people do so. You can also just keep throwing the yo-yo and the bearing+lube will eventually break in and turn unresponsive.
Forgot to mention, it was a nail polish remover, and was smelling good. Like lilac and gooseberries 
What I don’t understand is, why companies impose thin and thick yoyo lubes to their customers even if they know it’s going to affect how my yoyo play in a bad way? It’s already a frustrating hobby with all the tricks that you learn and problems like I had makes it more frustrating than it should ever be. Yoyo is already a minor hobby by itself and the frustration that you get for what you pay (even a more expensive hobby if living outside of the popular region) is little annoying. Sorry I had to pour out because I thought I’ve broken the thing the second day I got it. And when you wait for it to arrive for +20 days it becomes even more precious than it should be. Thank you guys for the suggestions, I’ll try and let you know if it was fixed.
Thick lube is for thinner bearings for responsive yoyos. Thin lube is for wider bearings for unresponsive yoyos. This is knowledge we all had to learn as beginners. Bearings need very, very little lube. It sounded like you fixed your problem but then put too much lube in the bearing creating the problem again.
Using compressed air on the bearing to remove the excess lube helps(at least in my experience). Aside from that sometimes I put the parts to it back together wrong(c-clips or shields).
Finicky buggers.
Many people don’t bother to put the shields back on.
If I read correctly you put sewing oil into the bearing. So one of the reasons that may have not worked is because the oil was too thick, but to solve this clean the bearing, and once the thin lube comes then lube the bearing, applying 1/2 a drop to each side. If this doesn’t work at all then if there are any big dings on the yoyo then the yoyo will vibe reducing the spin time which you will need to buy a new yoyo, or get another bearing.
How to clean a bearing: Clean a yoyo bearing - paper cleaning method | YoYoTricks.com
Hi. Welcome to forums. In 5 years I have never lubed both sides of a bearing. A very tiny drop of lube will spread naturally after a few throws. Lubing both sides will result in 2 drops of lube which could cause the problem to occur again.
For most of my yoyos, 1/2 of a drop on each side works very well. But I mostly use center track bearing so it might depend on the bearing.
Bearings are bearings. The lube spreads the same. Maybe someone with more knowledge will tell me I am wrong. Center trac or flat bearing are exactly the same on the inside…
Well, it’s just different methods to lube a bearing, it’s not good to make a whole discussion about it. Like you said bearings are bearings, but for some people, different methods work better in their minds. Just use the method you like the best.
Lube is important for the lifespan of a bearing. Yes plenty of people run them dry and it works fine (I do sometimes as well) but lube when used correctly is very beneficial.
Well, since he is new to yoyoing I’m just trying to steer him away from any lubing method that could result in too much lube. These Forums are a great place to hash these things out. We do it all the time. I hope he gets the problem resolved and enjoys his yoyo again.
That is exactly what happened actually. Cleaned the bearing with thinner, no problem. Added tiny bit of lube to both sides with the tip of the needle. Problem somewhat occured. I guess I’ll use no lube after all. Gonna try trumpet valve oil aswell.
Don’t bother about lubing the yoyo so much. Those bearings are designed for heavy loads and much faster RPM spin speeds where lubing really matters. Those Bearings are rated for 50.000 RPM and about 1000 N Load you get nowhere near this with a 60g yoyo 
In our case it’s only very light use. So don’t worry about lubing too much and enjoy yoyoing!