My visit to the hardware store - yes, it's yoyo related.

General Yo-Yo
1

OK, so today I received back a yoyo that was getting modified. For whatever reason, the axle was lost. I mean, we’re not talking major costs here. Stuff happens. Anyhow, the yoyo is a RecRev Sharp.

Upon receiving my yoyo back, I of course opened it up to discover that A: I have to silicone it(it was being modified to accept flowable silicone) AND the axle was missing. So, I’m excited to silicone a yoyo, but I can’t really do anything until I get a replacement axle.

Where do I go first? Why, YYE of course, to get information. Wow, within 20 minutes I had a response and within an hour I had an answer more or less. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house.

So, I ran into some issues. First, one of the dimentions weren’t right, but that was trivial. Testing the yoyo on the Home Depot screw/nut testing thing took care of the width, which was 4mm. The information of a 5mm depth was perfect. But I had some issues. Before you go to the hardware store, you should be prepared. Of course, chances are, anything you’d need would be at the hardware store anyways.

This is what I needed and used:
YYF Multi-Tool. I needed to pull the bearing and use the hex tool to adjust the bearing in and out. One time the bearing was stuck in the side where I tested a too-long axle, and the YYF multi-tool’s bearing puller handled it no problem.
Leatherman-type multi-tool with pliers. One time the bearing got stuck and I couldn’t use the hex tool in the multi-tool so I had to walk to the tools area of Home Depot to get an inexpensive set of pliers for my axle removal purposes.

What did I need?
Specifically, 4mmX5mm socket set screw, sold in a bag of 2 for 50-cents.

Works great.

Be prepared. Save time. Keep throwing and having fun! It’s great a lot of the stuff we can get can often be obtained via other means when we’re pressed for time or want to just get things done.

Oh, and don’t forget your cell phone, especially if it has the email on it from YYE that has the set screw dimensions in it! Luckly, I memorized what I needed to get, but more amazingly, I remembered it!

2

Pardon my ignorance but doesn’t the Sharp already have the ability to hold silicone, or is flowable much softer, thus requiring a deeper recess? Only reason why I ask is because of owning a RecRev (No. 9) that I’ve siliconed a couple times now since I purchased it back in May. Granted, I was using RTV and not flowable.

About hardware stores, I’ve nosed around a few times, tried looking for things that I could use to rig up some hubstacks on one of my Duncans. Now that I have an iPhone, I can just do a quick google but I would probably end up taking the yoyo with me to see how the parts fit. Sure, I would probably get some weird looks.

I’ve also seen the short axles at my local OSH randomly walking down an aisle, which was nice. I now know that if I ever strip or lose an axle (like I almost lost at BAC when I just purchased my Raptor), I can pick one up at the local store.

3

The recess in the Sharp access thin hat pads, it’s too shallow for flowable or rtv to really get a good hold and stick in there. The thin pads that were in there didn’t fit good and ripped out. Another set was sent and it also promptly ripped out for the same reason.

Oh, and I went to OSH first. My local one did not have a good selection in the hardware department. Almost entirely standard, nothing metric. Fortunately for me there’s a Home Depot nearby and a Lowes also nearby. No True Value or Ace nearby. I’m just pleased I didn’t need to modify anything.