Moon Rock Bearing Post Issue?

[FullSpectrumDad (Eric)]

Hey guys, so I’ve searched and searched, and there is so little information I’ve been able to find about “Moonrock” anodizing.

I bought a Few & Far Between Taijitsu in Moonrock white when they dropped. I had it for a few weeks, and it was cutting my string. I took it apart to see if I could figure out what was up, and the bearing post looked ragged. After trying to figure it out, I eventually reached out to Few & Far Between, sent them the pics, and told them what was going on. They replaced the throw, no problem.

The new one didn’t feel dusty or chalky, and it hasn’t been cutting my strings. I thought I was in the clear. Then the bearing got real loud out of nowhere. I took it apart to clean it, and sure enough, the bearing post had been totally stripped of ano, and looked just as ragged as my first one.

While soaking the original bearing in lighter fluid, I tried one of my 50/50 bearings, which went on no problem. It was much more quiet, but it had a lot of vibration. After the Taijitsu bearing was clean, I tried popping it on my 50/50, and it was a super tight fit. It looked like it took some of the ano off with it.

Since this is the second Taijitsu this has happened with, I’m wondering if I’m breaking these by simply not knowing something about Moon Rock yoyo maintenance. Are you just…not supposed to take them apart for maintenance? Is this kind of thing expected because of the thicker anodizing, and what I assume is a stricter tolerance?

I’m worried I’m doing something wrong, so I figured I’d ask you guys before reaching out to Few & Far Between again. I’ll post some pics below. Before I took the bearing off to clean, it was dead smooth. Now, it’s got a decent amount of vibe.

I will say, in both cases the bearing wouldn’t budge with a regular tool. I had to resort to pliers. And, in both cases, when I’d try to put the Taijitsu bearing on one of my other D-Bearing throws, it was an incredibly tight fit, or felt so tight that I didn’t risk putting it on all the way.

Thanks in advance for the help, guys!

[Marioyo (CNC dude)]

This finish, what i believe to be “MAO” (Micro Arc Oxidation), is not an anodize. Its a new finish coming out of China on many different consumer products.
This finish has actually been gathering flack in the flashlight community for being incredibly easy to scratch up and difficult to clean back to its original white state. Great for collectors but not so much for users. I’m not well versed in the pros and cons of this finishing technique, and I’m not 100% if this throw uses the exact finish in question. Thus, I am also curious if; 1: this is MAO, and 2: if anyone knows more about it.

Looks like its been worn down to bare aluminum again.

[Chriscatastrophe (Chris)]

So funny I came to this thread to tag you aha

[MarkD (Mk1 Yoyos)]

I had some Diffraction3’s done in this coating as a test.

C bearing - no vibe - a little bit tight - shows some wear on the bearing posts.

[TheSliverKing (Mr.Bapezilla)]

Can confrim both my moonrocks are the same as well. Bearings are very tight on the other halfs of both of them and this side is down to raw aluminum

Throws: YYF Magpie and TRT Bouy

[Upmanyu]

No such problem on my shortcut. Just a generally tight bearing seat is gonna do this to any yoyo you take apart tho. Ive had this happen to G2s as well since they go for a tighter bearing seat.

Does anyone know if this finish is just weaker? Because Ive got a scratch or two on mine that would never happen on a regular anno throw.

[FullSpectrumDad (Eric)]

Wow, that MAO thing isn’t at all what DID come up in my searches. The bearing post on mine just fell apart. Literally. Pics below. It started to shake, and I realized it had come loose after a few throws, so I went to tighten it, and…RIP.

What I could find on white anodizing was basically the patent information from around 1950, and a few academic mentions of it being possible, and that it creates an off white finish, with a velvet feel that is actually tougher than normal anodizing. This is definitely not tougher than regular anodizing.

Now that I know the finish on these makes them so fragile, I either won’t get a Moon Rock again, or I just won’t touch it. Ever lol. With all the kids running around in here, probably should just go with the first option.

I thought, “Yeah, get the Moon Rock! It’s supposed to feel super cool, and it’ll be different from all my other throws!.”

I have no idea what to do here. I don’t know if I’m just the unlucky sod who got the two bad ones that slipped by (I’m sure that it was triple checked before it was shipped, I’m also not sure how you check for…structural issues? I guess?), or if something went wrong with the ano, or what. I’ve never had yoyos…fall apart within two weeks of opening the box. Does community decorum dictate I not do anything at this point, since it’s already been replaced once, and just eat the $70?

I wish there was more information available about this type of ano…finish…thing…stuff…yeah.

[Upmanyu]

The bearing post falling apart should be a more yoyo issue than a finish issue.
Ive never seen that and no way is the finish messing with the post this bad.

[hsb]

I’m the least demanding customer ever, but I would definitely refer that back to the seller and ask for a refund or credit (not a replacement).

Seems like the overly tight tolerance may have required so much force to seat/unseat the bearing that it weakened the post and the axle threads.

[Ed-C]

Damn! …and it checked out when you first got this second one? That’s crazy! How does that even happen? I would definitely be asking for a refund.

[FullSpectrumDad (Eric)]

Yeah, I mean, it must have. Few & Far Between puts out awesome stuff, and so far as I know, no one else has had issues like I have. This one, being the replacement, I’m sure was double checked.

Ultimately, this one’s issues are worse than the first in that it’s fallen apart after a couple weeks. Those weeks have mostly been spent on the shelf. It’s only been thrown a handful of times because I wanted to keep it nice—that white finish, and all.

I checked it after I unboxed it, and when it didn’t leave my hands feeling like I had chalky, sticky dust all over them, and wasn’t cutting my string after a day or two, I figured I was in the clear. I did note that the bearing was still very tight on the post, but I had no reason to take apart again until yesterday when the bearing started rattling and making all kinds of awful bearing growls lol.

It’s super disappointing. I love this throw, I just can’t seem to keep one.

Side Bar Question: What if the batch of D bearings was messed up? Or part of them/Some of them?The bearing that came with it, both times, either bare fit on another D size post, or didn’t fit at all. I feel like the Q & C on mass produced bearings is likely to be lower than small run yo-yo’s.

[mable]

This doesn’t really help you much now but if you’re struggling to get a bearing to go onto the bearing post, and it’s making screwing the yoyo back together a challenge, just rub along the bearing post with some high grit sandpaper in an even way to loosen the fit. Alternatively you can seek out a bearing that just fits looser, different bearings can have very different fits. That’s why the bearing from your 50/50 went on no issue, but the bearing that came in the Taijitsu gave you a bit of a struggle. You just got unlucky with a death grip tight bearing + tight post, but sandpaper would’ve solved your issue.

A little bit of vibe from a loose bearing is better than stripping the yoyo or snapping a post off. I’ve actually never seen somebody snap the post off of a metal yoyo before, that’s almost impressive.

[hsb]

I wonder if final dimensions on the anodized black version is different enough to reduce the chance of this issue.

[Exmime]

This Moon Rock issue would be on FPM as they are the only shop offering it and it should be brought to their attention @Mazdarx7FD . Few and Far Between does offer that model in other colorways as well and they should also be notified @Theycallmecotton

Hummingbird

[Theycallmecotton (Team Few & Far Between)]

This is definitely interesting. I’ll try my best to help get this resolved. Haven’t seen this happen before

[yoyospirit]

Quick fix is put some lube on a q-tip and brush it on the bearing seat post. The finish probably doesn’t offer the same layer of protection between the bearing seat and the bearing as anodizing, allowing the bearing to “fuse” with the aluminum like when the bearing seat is raw. The bearing most likely started off with a perfect fit but overtime can “fuse” to the bearing seat. The thin layer of lube prevents this from happening.

[moefv (Few & Far Between Yoyos)]

Hey, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We are really sorry this is happening to you again.

Please send us a PM so we can arrange to send you a black or fade if that interests you. We would really like for you to have a good experience with this yoyo. It’s a lot of fun!

Before we sent the new one out, we checked it and even unscrewed it to make sure everything was okay. Everything looked fine and we haven’t had this problem with our personal one but we will look into it.

We contacted our manufacturer about the issue and hopefully we can give an update soon with their response.

Once again, we are sorry this happened to you and hope we can make things right and also figure out a solution. Thank you for your feedback.

[TheSliverKing (Mr.Bapezilla)]

Just wanted to say, first off amazing customer service being so proactive and second, i dont think its anything you are doing in particular as every single moon rock throw ive ever owned as done the same thing. It seems to be something with the coating like yoyospirit said previously

[FullSpectrumDad (Eric)]

First chance I’ve had to check this in a couple days— Thank you everyone for the awesome tips!

I reached back out to Few & Far Between the other day, to let them know the post entirely came off this time. I’m positive this is nothing they had any control over, and I don’t see any way someone could feasibly check for it.

@moefv has been absolutely awesome—both times! I sent the pics of what happened, along with some of the info that had been shared here regarding strength issues this finish has caused on other items, and said he didn’t have to replace it again. He essentially replied that he still had my address and I couldn’t stop him .

He also said they’re working on figuring out what the heck is happening, because as noted by a few others, bearing posts aren’t supposed to come off lol.

The first time I had issues, I did try sandpaper. 350 grit, I think. That time, I think the bearing definitely had something to do with it because there were…burrs, I guess, on the inner ring. They tore up the post so badly that noticeably deep slivers could be easily seen. I sanded those, and did two light passes around the posts, but so much of the AL had been gouged out that the vibe was unplayable. There was barely enough post left that the bearing was more loose than a OneDrop.

Have any of you guys encountered the kinda sticky, chalky, dusty feel with a Moon Rock throw that I described in my original post? I know the damage was kinda front and center. I’m just wondering if that’s common, or if it’s another anomaly that may help figure out what happened.

The first replacement did not have that chalky, need to wash my hands feel. Just a nice, velvety texture. It also did not cut strings. Not sure if the two are related.

[Albertino (Waltz.Romantic)]

Guys I up this thread to ask some help as well and to write some consideration about this finishing.

I was curious about the moonrock finishing and I do really like how smooth it feels and the look of it is great but I think I will never buy a moonrock yoyo again, I have a YYfriends Pheasant monometal.
At the beginning it was everything fine until I had to open it couple of times cause I get a knot not possible to take out with the tool, after open the yoyo couple of times it start to become “crunchy” screwing it back and the bearing (the original one) it seemed to have become to tight for the yoyo making the yoyo basically impossible to close (I did not forced it because I was sure to break it), also the yoyo started to vibe a bit while before it was glass smooth, I had to change bearing with another one that sit a bit less tight and still vibe a bit but at least I can close the yoyo properly without many issues.

The bearing post show the same black signs like all the pictures you have posted here and the bearing sit seemed quite dirty, I had to use a napkin to clean it and basically I can see how much dirty was there.

It get dirty on the halves in one second, my one (never ding) it already show some little “black signs” with just playing it some hours (I think I did play it around 7 hours)

Other than that I noticed it cut the string quite a bit, I had to change 2 strings and did the same thing in couple of hours of playing.

Sadly for now is sit on my case without be used and it’s a shame because I like the Pheasant a lot, I just wish I took a “normal” colourway, no moonrock ever again for me for sure, it can be nice as collection item but for someone that want to play it sadly is not ok.