I’ve been wondering how you strip axles or the threading of the yoyo. Im kinda edgy about yoyos with no hub or dome coming out of the center because my No. 9 stripped and im scared my MVP will also…
When you screw the halves together, gently snug them up. You don’t need to torque them hard. On method is to place the yoyo in the palm of your hand, don’t grasp it with your fingers. Place your other hand on the yoyo, again without grasping it with you fingers. Turn the two halves to screw them together. When it is tight enough it should start slipping in your hand.
The easiest way to not strip an axle or yoyo threads is to not unscrew a yoyo.
Use a toothpick to undo knots, and don’t unscrew every time you change string.
If you do unscrew a yoyo, just be careful and make sure to do it carefully. If something feels awkward or you have to push the one half, chances are you are crossing the threads.
As far as overtightening is concerned, follow the advice in the post above - use your palms to tighten the yoyo, when it starts to slip, you’ve gone far enough.
I see so many more people these days with stripped axles, and I see so many more people these days who unscrew their yoyos every time they change string, I wonder if there’s some connection.
Even if you are careful, it only takes a brief lapse in concentration to get it wrong. My advice? Just don’t unscrew unless you really have to.
The best way is for companies to switch to longer axles. 3 threads engaged just isn’t right…
I’ve never understood taking the yoyo apart to change the string. It just makes it way more complicated.
Look at this for how to put the string on:
Ball Bearing Yo-Yo Stringing and Lube info:
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Good ol’ Ooch
Edit: uuuhh I wasn’t paying attention… :’(
Basically if you put it together nicely and don’t overtighten it, you may never strip a yoyo again. If you cross thread it trying to put it together you probably will strip many yoyos. I never have and I never plan to. I just don’t see how you even could do it unless it had a short axle and you had cross threaded it a bunch.
With one half perfectly horizontal (on a table or even in your hand if you’re careful), let the other half just sit on it. You might need to turn a little bit to get a thread to barely engage, but it should look like it’s completely parallel with the bottom half. Twist the top half gently and it should continue to stay parallel. Once it’s made a few revolutions without any resistance at all, give it a non-torquey twist like you would a tabletop spin-top and it should easily and effortlessly screw together the rest of the way. Once it stops spinning, tighten it the rest of the way with reasonable torque (the palms technique sounds good, but I just don’t go crazy and hold the halves normally).
Havent yet stripped a yoyo doing it this way. Just don’t be in a rush, make sure the halves are totally parallel during screw-together, and you shouldn’t need to apply torque until it’s right near the end (sometimes a bit of torque is required to get the bearing seat to engage, but it should also be pretty light torque).
I agree with what everyone said above. Screwing the halves together using your palms is definitely the best way to insure not to strip the axle.
Okayyy I opened a can of worms…
Lesson learned, look at the dates…
Now let this thread die again
aluminum isn’t really “meant” for infinite life on the threads. At work (pharmaceutical packaging mfger) any part that has a tapped hole in aluminum that will be loosened & tightened repeatedly thru it’s life, gets a helicoil vs just threads cut into the aluminum. This is typically on parts that are adjusted daily, or something to that nature.
Being that so many yoyos are aluminum, and the threads cut right into them, this aids in stripping. I always re-tap to a helicoil insert whenever possible, so that the repair will last the lifetime of the part.
Just be careful with the yoyo. Assemble it with care not to cross thread it. Know when to stop tightening. And avoid hard ground strikes, as that leads to thread damage too. (axle gets bent, which damages threads during insertion/removal)
BTW, it’s $25 shipped for this service incase you’re looking at this and are in need. PM me if so.
Spin Dynamics’ helicoil insert had the right idea!
Too bad it’s a pain in the butt for production since steel can’t be put in the ano bath. I’ve talked with Nick Gumlaw about it from time to time and it has always been both a blessing (the engineering is solid and it’s out there in production models for the yoyo community to enjoy) and a curse (the ano thing).
If you ever wondered why SD yoyos haven’t come in a splash yet… 
I like One Drops approach the most. Side effects are easy to replace and will never strip.
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They mask the axle area anyways though right? To keep the threads the right size and stuff? Or maybe for a different reason, but I don’t recall ever seeing an anodized screw hole.
Alas, it’s not that easy. Usually what anodizers will do is screw into the screw hold to hold the yoyo half during anodization. Gruntbull has a racking system with M4 screws, for example. So it’s not “masked off” per se, but just that the surface isn’t exposed.
Try to do that with a helicoil and there will still be steel exposed. Put it in the ano bath and it’ll… melt…? (get ruined in any event).
I’m sure there’s some sort of way to make it work along with the helicoil in principle and/or in theory; but there are also the anodization service providers to consider-- do their methods accomodate the helicoil? Seems like no, in SD’s case.
I see, I was going off based on the assumption that they actually masked it off.