Ensuring my string has no tension and a clean bind before I put it away.
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Oh yes, I always like to use a lighter to singe the string after cutting it, so it doesn’t fray! I recommend a butane-based lighter for this 
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I used to do that but now I just let the string down and go perfectly neutral then hand wind it.
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Blowtorch works best but whatevs…
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When I first started yoyo, one of the first things I read in all of my yoyo guide books was a list of dos and don’ts, and one of the top don’ts was "DON’T OVERTIGHTEN YOUR YOYO. So, whenever I get a new yoyo, what do I find? It seems like Conan the Barbarian tightened my new yoyo!
This drives me bananas, so now the first thing I do with every yoyo I buy is I take it apart, not just to check the bearing or replace the string, but to change the tightness so that it’s secure, but not cranked down. Much of this came about because most of my yoyos came from YoyoJam, which had a reputation for making yoyos that formed pressure cracks in the plastic parts in their bodies. I had a compulsive need to check the body for cracks whether new or used.
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Yeah this is just as risky now with common full-metal aluminum yoyos as it was back in the day of plastic ones. Even if they used a metal nut inside the plastic yoyo so it’s not aluminum vs steel, overtightening a steel axle in a steel nut mounted in a plastic base would cause … similarly bad things to happen.
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Yes, sir! That’s why I compulsively take apart all yoyos that I receive (except for fixed axle ones that don’t separate). Just for your fun, amusement, and so you can all laugh at me, I can tell you a little story about how I know this sort of thing genuinely bugs me:
One day I bought a large group of used yoyos on eBay. Most of them were relatively low end throws from the 90s. Lots of Firestorms, an RBII, an old hyperwarp, some renegades and triple plays by Superyo, but they also had some Shinwoo responsive throws, some Henrys yoyos and even a few old and rather uncommon YoyoJams that I really liked.
I got down to a Saber Wing by Yomega and I kept twisting it but it wouldn’t unscrew. The halves just kept turning without separating. I probably wasted a half hour fixating on this annoyance when I could have been enjoying the other yoyos I had received before I finally gave up and threw it into a storage box to fight with another day. Even now, if I go into that storage box for something else, if I run across that silly Saber Wing I’ll give it one more twist to see if it will come apart for me this time. If you’re wondering, it’s still stuck.
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Just last night, one of my OD 10 balls went from a quiet whisper - to SCREAMING BANSHEE mid sesh. Idk what it is about OD 10 balls, but they do this often. When they are quiet, they are some of the best bearings you can get IMHO. I’d say 1 out of 4 has actually stayed quiet for me. I don’t know what it is that makes them scream the way they do. It is very unpleasant.
I have tried cleaning this thing over and over and over and over again, and using a reasonable amount of compressed air to try and blow out any sort of debris with no luck. (I’m always afraid that if I make the bearings spin too fast with compressed air, that it will ruin the tight calibration of the spacer that holds the ball bearings apart making them rattle, so I always go short softer spurts of air.)
I wish I knew what made them so moody. They’re my favorite bearings when they work quietly.
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Before I go to sleep I have to do a solid run-through / combo of every trick I can do to assure myself that my progress is not just a dream.
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Someone on reddit said that removing the bearing shields can help with this, maybe give that a shot?
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From my experience removing the shields makes it worse. You can try removing the shields but I would save them so you can put them back if you need to
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That’s odd since removing the shields removes a variable.
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Nope, every time I clean a noisy bearing, I remove the shields because I assume that there’s some sort of debris in there. In my mind that would make it easier for the debris to come out.
That did not help, and the bearing is still loud. I’m pretty sure it’s ruined, and I don’t know what causes it or why it happens. One minute, it’s quiet as a whisper and the next it’s a screaming banshee.
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Did you try putting the shields back on?
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It doesn’t matter, it’s like there’s something inside the ball bearing spacer or something. It feels grainy when I spin it by hand, and no matter how many times I’ve cleaned it it’s still there. I’ve tried blowing it out with compressed air too, I don’t know. Strange
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Did you try the paper poking cleaning method? About all I can think of. Also maybe soaking it for a while and shaking it up inside a closed container full of cleaning solution?
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Umm, not sure I know what that is. And I’ve been soaking it all day, I’ll try to shake it up this evening and then I don’t know what to do after that. It’s probably just a shot bearing, not a big deal.
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Search results for 'Paper cleaning' - YoYoExpert give it a shot, curious to hear how it works for you.
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That is a very interesting trick that I am officially adding to my repertoire of bearing maintenance methods. But unfortunately, it did not work. 
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Before you clean and lube them, play with them solidly for a while completely dry. Just grin and bear the screeching throughout this period.
After a few hours of solid play, clean and lube them. They should stay quiet from there on.
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