Greetings fellow forum members.
I’ve recently tried to use shims, and I’m experiencing a few problems:
I have a DM, and when I try to put the shims in (I have 2 red ones and 2 gray ones, 0.2 and 0.1) they never reach the floors of the yoyo, there’s a larger ring barricading them which is the plastic of the yoyo. They enter the gaps in the side, but not all the way, and when I tighten the yoyo, they bend in the form of the larger ring and there’s a shape of it “branded” into them. Is that ok? If not, what can I do?
Second problem - I tried to put them all in, and then (I’m not sure if it’s true, but it sounded like it) it seemed as if my bearing isn’t spinning anymore…It’s not broken in yet by the noise it makes, and it didn’t make any noise when I had all the shims in…Why is that? What should I do?
Are these homemade shims or did you buy them? If you bought them, are they specifically yoyo shims, and where did you get them?
If they’re store-bought then they should fit around that part of the plastic just fine, but they might be a little bit tight, depending on how big or small that plastic part is. What you described definitely shouldn’t happen.
I don’t know how well multiple shims works, but just put the shims up to the side of the bearing and make sure they don’t touch the outter diameter of the bearing.
It’s new to me that you shouldn’t use more than one shim…I saw some post around places stating people used more, never considered it’s a problem…Is one on each side okay?
They are bought, not home made. YoYoJam Shims, I believe. And perhaps I didn’t make myself clear, it’s hard to explain - there’s the plastic ring surrounding the axle\the place the axle should fit into. They shims get past that. But closer to the floors of the sides, there’s another larger plastic ring, which the shims don’t get past, so when I tighten the yoyo the shims get bent in the form of that ring, a thing I doubt is healthy, and probably makes the gap smaller…Does it not?
I would just recommend not tightening it that tight.
You might be able to use multiple shims on each side if you want, but do you really want a gap that big? Once you get to a certain gap size, binds start to slip. Go ahead and do it if you want though.
I don’t know, I’m playing with the sizes right now…I just thought I should use more since it’s still somewhat responsive. Hardly, but if it sleeps hard I can still jerk it and it comes back. And yeah, I guess I overtightened…I didn’t know how much should I tighten it since the shims don’t resist like the yoyo does…Is the damage fixable? And does that mean the lower plastic ring is ok? I should just leave it as it is?
If you don’t have that right there, the bearing wouldn’t be able to spin without shims, so I would just leave it.
You should be able to feel it get tighter. It won’t get quite as tight as it would with just the yoyo, but it will indeed get tighter. At that point, it’ll still be able to turn, but you should stop there.
Only one shim per side. There is no need for more than that. Also the area that you say the shim won’t go to is an area that the shim shouldn’t go to. There is a small raised area at the bottom of the bearing post. That is where the inner race of the bearing sits. The reason it’s raised is so that the outer race doesn’t hit the “floor (as you say)” and stop the bearing from spinning. Also you only need to snug the yoyo when tightening. When you say the shim is bending, that is a result of you crushing the shim. Just turn it till you can feel the yoyo get tight. then stop. It’s a YYJ so it’s not gonna unscrew on you.
Remember that the YYJ shims are fragile. You can crush them beyond use so snug is it.