I bought a mosquito today from walmart ( it was 5 bux and I had some extra cash)
I beefcaked it with the bearing from my Velocity and all attempts to add some rim weight failed. It is still too responsive for any kind of moderate play.
How should I add even weight to help stabilize it?
What else can I do to it?
You could use clay or silicone for weight, clay might work better since you can mold it and place it better. You could also sili or pad recess it and take the logo off.
I’ve found silly putty good for adding weight
I think I got some potters clay in the basement which is heavy stuff for its size. I am gonna try and use that.
How do I take the pads out? Will I need to recess it more once that is done to accept sili?
Here are some pix of what I did w/ my mosquito. I used solder to add some rim weight but clay will add more. Fun with my Mosquito - Yo-Yo Mods and Maintenance - YoYoExpert
I tried solder and I got really bad wobbles. How did you put it in?
Super Glue
and just meticulously sculpted it into a perfect circle?
Yup! Its kind of a pain in the butt but it works.
Save yourself the trouble and go to a hardware store. You should be able to find some washer there to add weight. Or if you have some FH rubber weight ring those will fit in there with a little bit of screwing and patience. It’s what I did to mine as well as a reverse burst response mod. Plays like a very light 50g yo-yo should. Fun mod practice though.
since it is translucent, you can also paint the inside of it. It might add a gram.
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Silly putty is the best to use. I used a gram scale and evenly divided it. Works amazing.
Instead of solder I used 12 gauge solid copper electrical wire. Made two big circles for each side (installed outside the screw posts), which held themselves in place by the insulation around them. That brought weight to approx 60 grams, very stable and all added weight at the rim.
If it’s the 2nd gen with the weight wells then you can add thick rubber o-rings for weight. Or you might try silicone, or hot glue. I use hot glue and it really works great. Highly reccomened.
For what it’s worth, here’s my old Mosquito weight mod, pulled together by combining a few posts from some other forums…
Continuing our series of modding inexpensive Duncan yo-yos, today’s topic will be the diminutive, yet nicely shaped, lime green Mosquito, as pictured below. The Mosquito is a small butterfly shape with a wide gap, ideal for the younger set with little hands. Unfortunately, it possesses the typical shortcomings of most low-priced Duncans, light weight and friction stickers. While others have recessed Mosquitos for silicone, as I have here, super gluing BBs into a yo-yo for weight is irreversible, not pretty, and may result in the end caps permanently attached! Proposed here is a simple system, quick to make and install, and fully reversible…
Our next victim:
Here’s the inside of one of the halves. Note that the screw holes to attach the end caps are located right near the outer edge, precluding the addition of a solid washer or ring for weight.
The solution is simple and elegant. Simply go to your nearest hardware/home store (such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc) and purchase a length of 5/16" diameter (3/16" ID) vinyl tubing, as shown here. I get 20 feet of this for about $4 at Home Depot.
Next, cut four pieces of tubing, each to a length of 1 3/4".
Curve/bend the tubing to sit on the outside edge of the inside of the yo-yo, the ends should press against the raised screw hole recess to hold them in place, like this:
Screw the end caps back on and away you go! I haven’t weighed the yo-yo yet, but it feels like it now weighs on the order of 60-some grams, much better than the original, lightweight value of about 47 grams.
I’ve also added a fairly wide recess for silicone on one of the halves, it’s about 3 mm wide and a little more than 1mm deep. This is just a first attempt for a recess, I may do something on the other side once I remove the friction sticker. Here’s a picture of the recess.
Once the bearing was cleaned and lubed the Mosquito plays very nicely, now that it has a nice weighty feel to it. One thing I have noticed about the Duncan bearings is that they are kind of hit-or-miss. Sometimes you clean a brand new one and it spins silky smooth, others run with a little vibration, don’t sleep as long, and ultimately get binned for the looping yo-yos.
Hot off the scales: The original Mosquito weighed in at 47 grams. The Mod version comes in at 57 grams. The scale is accurate to +/- 1 gram.
The mod version is still a little light…hmm, we’ll have to come up with a simple weight addition program…BBs?
For the BB weight lovers here, 50 Crosman Copperhead BBs weigh in at about 17 grams, so 32 BBs weigh about 10.9 grams.
…As I sit here I’m adding the next mod. The variable weight system! Why did I pick this size of vinyl tubing, you ask? Simple…it fit in the yo-yo, and, guess what fits snugly inside the tube, especially when the tube is bent around the edge of the yo-yo? You got it…BBs! So, I’m adding 32 BBs right now, eight in each tube, which should add about 10-11 grams of weight. I’ll see if they stay in place once I get done and throw it a little…Sorry, I’ve taken no pics of the BBs in the tubes, use your imagination!
Final weight: 67-68 grams. None of the BBs appear to be moving after a good number of throws…Success!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Duncan Mods. Come back next time and we’ll take on the Dragonfly with the same weight technique, only this time we’ll make a complete tubing circle with the same, cheap tubing!!!
Enjoy!
db
