Stripping a Show Girl (Stripping and Polishing a Yoyo)

Anodizing of any kind on Aluminum serves as a protective layer on the bare metal

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I’m going to try polishing one if my raw yo-yos in the coming days, soanother question:

It doesn’t appear that there is much of a difference after you sanded with 600 grit vs the entire way down to 3000 grit. Is it really necessary to go beyond 600 grit? Has anyone sanded a yo-yo say to 1000 grit or less and still gotten a mirror finish after the polish?

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Oh you can get a pretty good shine with just up to 600 and the steel wool. It just looks better going up to 3000, the radial scratches are much less noticeable.

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Is the process any different for a side effect yoyo?

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A little bit, masking is a bit more difficult. I’d also recommend against stripping a SE yoyo if you can’t mask the hold for the side effects. They’re made with a tight tolerance and stripping the anodize can ruin that tolerance.

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Can’t you just use a side effect with axle and inner bearing as masking for the stripping step?

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I don’t think that’s a tight enough seal.

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Any good ways to mask for SE yo-yos?

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Not too bad for my first time, though still not perfect: there is room for improvement next time. I only applied the polish once and don’t have any wax. This detailed tutorial was excellent.

Dare I say my grail leveled up to a holy grail?

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Nice!!! Did it add any vibe? Looks great!

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No vibe at all. I masked the bearing post with an inner race of two bearings I took apart. Taking apart the bearings might actually have been the most difficult part of the entire process…

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I just polished it with a second coat and I can’t seem to take a picture without the glare

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@Damb

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This is a great guide and is a similar technique to how I mirror polish yoyos before anodizing. I second the recommendation to not bother polishing side effect yoyos. I’ve done it by hand and it’s a miserably tedious and difficult process.

@yoyospirit I can’t recall, but were you the one who would bulk strip and polish yoyos for me?

This was years ago, but I remember I used to have a little ā€˜mod chain’ set up where people would send their yoyos to someone to strip and polish who would send to me to anodize and then I’d send the final yoyo to the owner.

Those were fun modding times on the forums!

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I don’t think so haha, never really got any bulk commissions. A lot of the yoyos I polished definitely ended up being anodized by you though!

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Can u polish without stripping the yoyo? Ever polish an anodized yoyo?

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So cool

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Yoyo needs to be stripped completely with all of the ano removed before you can mirror polish it like the one in this thread.

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So u cant make a matte throw look glossy or shiny? Maybe apply gloss coat? Or laquer?

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