Screwed up Dark Magic II/Overclean a yoyo? (Merged)

That’s not a bad sleep time for the ordinary, average guy. Sleep time does not equate to long trick time in any event. The dynamics of a yoyo going through the trick affect the spin immensly, as well as the straightness of your throw. (Yeah, I know, everyone has a straight throw. :wink: )

My yoyo was acting up so i cleaned it with mineral spirits then a needle sized drip of thin lube. It gained some spin time but i wanted more so i cleaned it with acetone then a needle sized drop of thin lube. I played it for a day and the spin time had gone down. Then I cleaned it with mineral spirits and a needle sized drop of thin lube. Ive been playing it for a while now and it is extremely responsive. I fan do a forward pass with it now. Why did this happen and how can i fix it?

I’m guessing some grit got into the bearing during one of the cleanings. If that’s the case, just use the paper slip method to clean the balls individually, give it another soak in mineral spirits and you’ll be good to go.

Yuki

What is the paper slit method?

I like how you started from zero each time. Wise to start fresh for each experiment.

I’d say do the following, which is what I do:

First, clean the bearing with mineral spirits. Use compressed air to blow it dry while spinning. The objective is to dislodge as much as you can now.

Second, clean the bearing again with mineral spirits. Don’t let it drain, immediately go into the paper slip method of cleaning bearings. Read this:

Once done, I prefer to clean again using acetone, but you may feel you don’t need to, and the odds are you probably won’t so you could just use the teeny needle tip of lube and you’re good to go. Consider at this point acetone just another option AFTER the above method.

I feel you got something in the bearing.

Also, do you put your shields back on? Have you recently siliconed your yoyo? Are you double looped by accident?

Thank you sooo much!!! :slight_smile: and also i stopped putting my shields back on. I have never siliconed my dm2. And i also checked carefully for double looping.

OK. I recommend putting the shields back on, but many people here don’t do that. Putting the shields back on should keep more stuff out, but honestly, once the bearing is in the yoyo, the odds of stuff getting in there from the outside are small anyways. It’s a matter of preferences. For you, for now, based on how you’re experimenting, I’d just go ahead and leave them out for now.

Second, I prefer acetone for my cleaning, even though I told you to use mineral spirits. Mineral spirits take longer to evaporate and dry out, so for now, mineral spirits are your “friend”, especially when it comes to cleaning using the paper slip method. I’ve just discovered that for me, acetone seems to work better for cleanings.

WIth the rest of your troubleshooting, you have one of two things going on:
You have a dirty bearing in need of more cleaning(very likely and nothing unusual)
A bad bearing.

Lastly, you are using the wide bearing in your DM2, correct?

What is a wide bearing? and where can i get the acetone appropriate to use on yoyos?

You can get acetone at the hardware store, paint store or building supply store (Home Depot, Lowes etc).

A “wide” bearing-- just meaning the normal full-sized “C” bearing.

As opposed to the “slim” bearing that the DM2 can also accomodate. The slim bearing is intentionally used for responsive play option.

He was just confirming that you’re not using the slim “responsive” bearing to begin with. Because responsiveness would therefore be the intended and expected result…

You can get pure acetone at Home Depot or Walmart or Lowes(among other places). Don’t worry about it right now. The differences for you right now are meaningless. Don’t spend money, you have mineral spirits, just use that for now.

Also, the Dark Magic II comes with two bearings. There is a narrow bearing that was pre-installed and has no shields. Then there is the YoYoJam SPEED bearing that is wider(full C-sized width) and has the beaings on it. Just confirm which bearing you are using.

Ok i understand what u are asking now. I am using the speed bearing. Also is there a difference of the result with acetone vs mineral spirits though? Now this is more of my curiosity for the future.

No, they will both do the job. It’s all preference.

Ok. Now i cleaned the bearing using the paper slit method and mineral spirits and my spin time went down a lot. Then my dad pointed out that the mineral spirits were starting to look pasty. So i cleaned to again in nail polish remover- this is all I have right now. Then i ended up putting two needle sized drops of thin lube and now with a good throw it will last up to 2 minutes!!! :smiley: THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL UR INPUT AND ADVICE!!!MY YOYO WOULD NEVER BE IN THIS SHAPE WITHOUT U!!! :smiley: AND WHILE DOING THIS I THINK MY THROW IS GETTING BETTER!!! :smiley: