What maintenance does a brand-new precision bearing need?
I would argue that precision bearings need no maintenance whatsoever. Trying to “maintain” them will only introduce foreign material into the precision races.
If the bearing goes crunchy - get a new one. Simple as that.
I always thought people said this because aluminium is relatively soft and there’s a small chance of damaging the treads if the user is careless. This is probably pretty unlikely.
this was the logic I was following about the whole unscrewing thing. also in my experience, unscrewing and re-screwing does change the axle preload somehow, because when it comes time for me to clean out scratchy bearings in yoyos with aligned engravings on each half, sometimes they dont realign exactly like before, which i guess in theory can misalign the “balanced” halves. never actually noticeable in practice though
Do I freak out if I have to unscrew a yoyo? Nope, but then again, I do try to avoid unscrewing it unnecessarily. By that, I mean that it’s extremely rare that I’ll unscrew a yoyo just to get an axle knot out. I usually use some precise tweezers or metal picks to loosen the knot, but there have been a couple of times when I cut the string. But honestly, the string cutting was more to blow off some steam and it seemed like I’d regret that much less compared to whipping the yoyo out the window.
A couple more thoughts, though:
On the Reddit throwers subreddit, I’ve read post after post about how someone stripped the threads on their yoyo. I was originally concerned about this when I got back into the hobby, but after unscrewing hundreds of yoyos without ever ruining a single one, I’m guessing that you’d only ruin the yoyo if you were careless.
I’ve once or twice listed a yoyo to sell and mentioned that it’s never been unscrewed. That’s something that doesn’t bother me, but I’m guessing that it might be a potential selling point to someone else. I’ve bought a few yoyos where the seller was very forthcoming about the damage that exists on the yoyos, and while I’d probably rather have a perfect yoyo it’s kind of freeing to get one that’s already gotten knocked around a bit. Some of those have been my favorites, and I don’t have to worry about trying to keep them pristine.
I treat all my One Drops with Side Effects as yoyos that absolutely encourage you to tinker around with them and swap out bearings, SEs, and strings as the mood suits you. Those aren’t fragile by any means, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of taking them apart and putting them back together with different parts.
As with cycling, I feel like I’ve really gotten into the hobby if I learn how to do routine care and maintenance of the equipment. With yoyos, there’s not a lot to learn (well, maybe that’s not quite true when it comes to learning how to remove C clips on bearings), but unscrewing them and cleaning/tuning them really helps me to appreciate the yoyos and the hobby a lot more.
That depends on the yoyo. Brand new off the factory line like the new cheat code. Yeah bearing is probably fine no need to touch it. I haven’t had a need to open my 000 yet. However old stock that’s been sitting in a cold warehouse for months or years with old lubricant possibly in it or that’s traveled over seas and been exposed to humidity and extreme temperatures. Like most magic yo-yos. Might be a tad in need of some TLC right out of the box. Traded yoyo that’s never been unscrewed. I can only imagine needs a fresh bearing or at minimum a good cleaning to get all the string fiber out of it.
The worst are the pre packaged with the string wrapped around them and is old inventory. Often the bearing is fine but give it a quick clean and how about that it’s less noisy and spins a bit longer.
It’s all circumstance and preference. There is no wrong way just what works for the user. Often if I’m doing a cleaning I’m cleaning all the recently used yo-yos and if I have someone brand new I’ll usually toss it in with the bunch for sanity sake cause I only clean my bearings once every other month or so in a batch.
So, if you never open your yoyo how do you know that the bearing post is pristine from the factory? Some yoyos have overly tight tolerances. If the seller tells you that a yoyo has never been unscrewed, do you believe them? Do you know which yoyos that you own have never been opened? …That’s what I thought! 
If my yoyo is smooth out of the box, I try not to unscrew it for as long as I can. But if I do have to unscrew them, I don’t mind since it gives me a chance to throw in a NSK. And NSK’s are goated.
I’ve been unscrewing all of them immediately. I gotta get in there with the flowable silicone! After trying it I am not going back to pads any time soon. I like to have them on hand in case I need an instant fix, but I can do the silicone at the end of the day and by the time I’m awake it’s dry. I’ve also been enjoying a super light lube on new bearings, it just makes them so much quieter.
I’m really glad you mentioned that in this thread. I remember sometime back seeing a yo-yo for sale ad. It was so amazing, to this day I still find it amazing.
The ad said, ‘ Brand new, never removed from box, never had a string on it, no visible flaws. Plays perfectly smooth’.
The first time I read the description it flew right over the top of my head like an airplane joke. When it came back around for the second time, somehow, I got smart all of a sudden.
The first thing I thought of was probably the second thing I should’ve thought of, but I didn’t.
The first thing I thought of was, how would the guy know there were no visible flaws without removing it from the box to check it completely for visible flaws?
The second thing I thought of was, if it’s never had a string on it how would I know that it plays perfectly smooth?
…… Here is another amazing gem. A guy posts an ad for his near mint yo-yo. The ad says, ‘as new in box, ‘A’ grade, no marks’. You buy the yo-yo and immediately notice it has a good amount of vibe to it.
You contact the seller and mention the obvious vibe. The seller says, ‘I was told it was an ‘A’ grade. It came that way.
And here is another winner> A guy posts up a yo-yo for sale. In his description, he says, ‘The yo-yo has a very small amount of vibe. I spent several hours ‘tuning the yo-yo’ to get it this smooth. Do not unscrew the yo-yo or you will have to ‘retune’ it again’.
Another miracle of lunacy> Yo-yo for sale. Yo-yo has fingernail vibe and vibe coming up the string. But still plays very smooth. Vibe can probably be tuned out.(uh…… if….if the vibe can probably be tuned out, why not tune it out first and put the yo-yo up for sale? And…… if you aren’t talented/knowledgeable enough to tune the vibe out yourself, then how can you be experienced enough to draw that conclusion?).
This is what I have come to realize over the past 20+ years> The less skilled the player, the more preoccupied they are in having only perfectly smoooooooth yo-yos. The more skilled the players and the more determined those players are to have fun while advancing their yo-yo skills, the less time they ‘waste’ on Miraculous levels of perfect yo-yo smoothness.
If you were talking yo-yos with somebody and that somebody challenged you to name off a list of advanced level yo-yo players that spend even 2 minutes a day on the subject of yo-yo vibe and he would give you a buck for every player you could name, you could probably talk for 24 hours straight without even making one dollar. Real players throw yo-yos, they don’t cry about them.
To live in fear of unscrewing a yo-yo is complete Lunacy. Wasting time predicting long term potentially negative effects of unscrewing a yo-yo is logic at a Simpleton level.
I don’t unscrew yo-yos for exercise. But I have zero fear of unscrewing yo-yos when I feel they need periodic maintenance.
If you can’t unscrew a yo-yo for fear of messing it up, you either have the wrong yo-yo or the wrong mindset.
PS…… the content of this reply is not directed at Mystik. He is well aware of everything I have stated. I was just keying off the quote.
Seems we chase this Squirrel around the tree every year or so but the end results are the same.
Don’t unscrew your yo-yo for exercise. But if you need to, just do it!
There are a number of things to waste time on fearing. Fear of hitting yourself in the face with a yo-yo… Fear of your string breaking and your yo-yo goes flying into whatever… Fear of slamming your yo-yo into a wall or the pavement… Fear of losing your yo-yo or having it stolen…. Fear of selling a yo-yo for only about half of what you paid for it. Any of those has a valid and acceptable potential reality to it.
But fear of unscrewing a yo-yo is pure nonsense and a total waste of energy.
I have only had 1 yyr and that was Sleipnir ten years ago. I was warned that it is not recommended to unscrew it, so I was just playing it till the first complicated tie on yoyo’s gap. Then was the scary unscrewing… After that action yoyo was just the same, no differences. So I think that “not unscrewing” is a total bs 
By the way, back in those days I couldn’t feel that yoyo has fingernail vibe or grind vibe, I was only cared about string vibe…
Yep. Fear of unscrewing a yo-yo is totally absurd and bordering on OCD.
I’ve had plenty of brand new yoyos turn responsive within five minutes of play. Not just cheap ones or old ones shooting around for years. Brand new straight from the seller.
Both cheap ones from companies like ketchup and Topyo all the way up to some boutique $120 bimetals.
It happens, bearings are sensitive and need cleaning from time to time.
Good luck doing that without unscrewing the yoyo.
I think people in this thread are being a bit dramatic. I only unscrew my yo-yos if I have to . There are plenty of yo-yos I have unscrewed that vibe , high end and low end. I have also had yo-yos that don’t screw together very well .I keep a pick to pull out axle knots because I find it much easier, and I also don’t have to worry about losing my axle or a bearing rolling away when I am out and about.
And yes before someone asks I unscrew it to replace bass and clean/swap bearings …
How is possible to never unscrew a yoyo? Sometimes the knots I do are impossible to take out with the tool and require to open it, I never had any issues on opening a yoyo but also I do not care much about vibes and similar.
I think that if someone doesn’t unscrew at all the yoyo than it just doesn’t play with it or doesn’t play with it enough as knots are a daily standard in a player life.
Other than that as the OP stated “super precision machining, 300$ piece of metal” and then I cannot even open it because it gets messed up, I think than in that case there is an issue in general but until now I never met a yoyo that started to vibe just after open it up, I think it’s quite a rare thing
Given two yoyos, one never been unscrewed and the other have, I’d pick the never unscrewed one, because I don’t always trust the previous person can screw it properly.
I had some experience buying second hand yoyos with ruined bearing seat, or the thread half stripped, so knowing the fact the yoyo have never been unscrewed tells me at least there is less chance of it happening. Also that alone means it hasn’t been played enough that the pads needs changing.
I guess it is the equivalent of watching the mileage of a car. Having low mileage won’t guarantee it hasn’t been abused, sure, but I like the odds better.
Stripped my first unresponsive Yoyo within like 3 weeks…didn’t realize the bearing wasn’t seated properly…now I look for longer axles and was stoked to learn about side effects…the mechanics of force on the axle does make it not hard to strip an axle especially shorter axles and this is still me every time I have to open up a Yoyo (which I do because how could you not?)
I have never had an axle knot that I couldn’t pick out with one of my plastic sewing needles or wooden picks . In fact I find it easier to use the pick than having to unscrew and rescrew back together. Guess I don’t play enough though .
It can simply be that we have a different style of playing and so the knot we do are different, it usually happens when I create some new combos and sometimes I mess up so much that is impossible to unknot it with the tools as the string is messed up on the bearing and I have to destroy the whole string to take it out.
Next time it happen I can take a pic but it happen quite a bit
I don’t unscrew my yoyos because I refuse to perform manual labor. If one of my yoyos needs to be unscrewed, I have my butler do it.
I don’t think I’ve ever unscrewed my one piece wood yoyo before does that count…
