So I recently decided to buy a Meal Drifter to screw around with but it’s super responsive. I cleaned out the bearing and taken one pad off and it’s helped a little but it’s still a little to responsive. Any other types of pads to help? Any other suggestions as to how I can make it even less responsive?
Total thread jack, but in a good way (I hope). As far as pads go, has anyone used thin .555 pads in the Metal Drifter with any luck? Better than the stock Duncan silicone ones?
Also, I’ve read that putting thicker shims in the MD to widen the gap helps. I dont have any, but I was gonna dig around in my toolbox for some thin washers to put behind the stock shims…
If they make .555 pads for an A-bearing yoyo, that might be a viable option. However, I am not aware if they do or not, so I cannot answer your idea with a qualified answer. Since the Metal Drifter uses an A-sized bearing that’s part of the issue.
There are two versions of the Metal Drifter that I am aware of, and I am aware of this because I have the older one with spacers, while my son has the 2012 version that does not use spacers. For his, I simply cleaned his bearing out and it went dead unresponsive. I did not touch the silicone response stickers. As far as mine, I need to re-clean the bearing, as my bearing cleaning technique has changed and that may be all I need to do to get satisfactory results. I’m going to be cleaning a batch of A bearings today from various Duncans.
I don’t know if they’re still available anywhere, but I used to use Gen-pads with success in my Freehands. They worked very well matched up with a dead friction sticker. See if you can get a hold of some.
Probably just cleaning the bearing is sufficient. 95% of a yoyo’s response is in the bearing condition. No need for a new bearing. Definitely don’t silicone it. get sili pads as Studio42 suggests.