I do not recommend manually siliconing all new yo-yos. That is really bad advice in my opinion.
I mean, you do you… but they design around silicone pads now and standard silicone pads work fantastic out of the box. I don’t know why you would want to replace all that with extra manual labor and unknown, unpredictable manual results…
But it is working for me personally. I guess it could be argued that it’s obviously not working because of the issue I had with it today…but hopefully that doesn’t happen again.
Other then that though, I’ve been nothing but pleased with silicone.
Idk, some people just like to experiment? 
They are his yoyos. It isn’t like he’s damaging them or anything.
Right but the experiment created new problems in this case. It adds a significant variable to the mix, plus extra work, extra cost, extra time (a day of curing) …
I mean yeah you could hand re-lathe every yo-yo you get just to make it work a bit more betterer… but should you? 
This is how some people learn, Jeff. Give him a break.
Taking 5 minutes to add some silicone…then letting it sit for a day…is much less work/effort then taking it to a lathe. 
Like I said, I’m willing to experiment and to take the time to go through a learning curve to get my yos to be funner for me personally. Absolutely okay with that. In fact I like that. It’s not like it’s something I dislike doing…
And the results have absolutely been positive for me other then today with my Terrarian. You gotta learn from your mistakes though right?
I’m kinda confused on why you’re so against this.
Well I recently bought a whole set of yo-yos from another person who somehow got the “advice” to manually silicone all his yo-yos… and let me tell you, that was not good advice. These yo-yos were now a disappointing grab bag of inconsistent, crumbly, manual response versus the reliable and consistent factory standard silicone stickers…
I mean if there is something wrong with the stickers, sure… for example I got an oh yes yo Hearse where the stickers always poked up from the sticker well, then I can see doing manual siliconing, and the recessed manual silicone indeed fixed the sticker problem. That is super rare though.
Or if it is an older yo-yo with non standard or weirdly sized response areas so you have to go manual. Nobody wants to source expensive, oddball silicone sticker pads, so manual is easier and cheaper.
But “just because reasons” when you have a factory new yo-yo with perfect silicone stickers… this is bad advice, you do you and all that… but it is not good advice.
I haven’t tried the silicone, but idk how y’all have the patience to wait for that stuff to dry lol. I like pulling the stickers and dropping a new one in and boom, perfect response. Just my thought lol
But I have a reason.
I’m not the best binder in the world, and a couple of my throws have been a bit slippy (not the yo’s fault. It’s my lack of skills).
Silicone has been fixing that for me.
Is that not a good enough reason for you?
It was $7 for a big tube of silicone that’ll likely last me forever…and for that $7, it’s added a whole ton of more enjoyment to my yos.
It’s not like I’m doing this for no other reason then to do it.
Though as I type this, I am realizing that yeah…I suppose I am…because I’ve been siliconing all my yos. But personally I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I’m thrilled with the results. I’m also saving all the response pads I’m pulling out if for some reason I ever want to switch back to them.
haha 
this is the hardest part about siliconing for me! xP
But that doesn’t make sense. Manual silicone would be recessed and bind less aggressively than standard flat stickers…
I’ve had the exact opposite.
Maybe it’s the silicone the guy put in his?
I hope you don’t mind but I broke this out into its own discussion.
Should you re-silicone all your new yo-yos?
If it makes you happy and makes your yos more enjoyable…why not?
I did have an issue today…so what? Things happen. You learn from them, and then you work to fix that problem so it doesn’t happen again.
Other then this issue, I"ve had nothing but positive experiences with silicone in all the yos I’ve done so far.
Just because you’ve had bad experiences…doesn’t mean everyone has. I’m sorry that the silicone wasn’t your thing and didn’t work out for you.
I’ve had a different experience with it then you though. Where you had a negative experience…I’ve over all had a positive.
I don’t know though…Maybe I’m just an idiot noob and just don’t know any better.
I am still not clear why manual silicone would be more bind-y than stickers.
Are you not recessing the silicone?
Every time I have done it, manual is less effective at binding because you have to recess the manual silicone. Compared to perfectly flat silicone stickers you always get a (significantly) less aggressive bind with manual silicone, in my experience?
I’d have to disagree here. Silicone doesn’t HAVE to be recessed. You can put it in however you want. If you wanted it to protrude on purpose you could go ahead and do that as well. I don’t know why you would, but it’s entirely up to the person laying the silicone.
Oh, absolutely not. I saw a tutorial where the guy was doing this…but no…I’m just leaving the silicone flat. My goal is for more grip…not less…so I skipped the option to recess it like he mentioned.
Was it really necessary to drag this into its own topic? Give the guy a break, he’s a noob. And from the sounds of it, it’s a labor of love that affects his life negatively in 0 way whatsoever.
I don’t really like where this is going.
So I am thinking it has to stick out, the way you are doing it? That would explain “more bind-y”.
Does the silicone rub the string?
