Which do you prefer?
This was a great post in the “Flat Bearings” thread. What is everyone’s thoughts on this topic? I’d love to have @The_Machinist thoughts as well, eventually as the topic gets going, or right off the bat if he’d like.
Tool removal tight.
Snap fit.
Loose enough to fall off if you flip it over.
I think everyone prefers the snap fit but if you have to lean one way because of anodizing inconsistency (and bearing size), I’m curious which side ppl prefer.
There is a bit of opinion around this - and its going to stir the pot be forewarned as its been argued here before!
To me the answer is:
We can all agree - no one wants a ‘too tight’ bearing seat where the bearing doesn’t come off - or the bearing seat gets marred over time… But you saying ‘correctly machined bearing seats’ I think indicates everyone else is wrong if the bearing doesn’t just come off?
Something else to note - bearings have way more variance typically than bearing seats. We generally find its bearing variance that causes more of the problem here then the manufacturers themselves.
Very true.
Poll renamed. I liked @G2_Jake suggestion.
I’ll dupe this post here, since it’s on topic here, information from @tyler_severance of Recess
Tight bearing seats put a lot of Yoyo Manufacturers “between a rock and a hard place” so to speak.
We can either take the risk of machining a looser bearing seat…which means we will lose concentricity in the bearing seat, potentially making your Yoyo vibrate or wobble. Adds to the difficultly of maintaining your yoyos smoothness once it leaves the factory (the bearing will never sit the same way twice).
Or go with a slightly tighter bearing seat. Which might make it slightly harder to disassemble/reassemble, but will keep your yoyo maintaining it’s smoothness (so long as it’s not hit hard enough on the ground to bend the wall/axle).
Most go tighter, than looser.
Like Tom mentioned, colors will change the bearing fit also. Darker colors build more pigment onto the metal.
Personally, I’m with @G2_Jake on this, snap fit, not ridiculously tight but it does not fall off if you flip it over, and you need a tool to take it off, but it’s not an onerous task.
OD Bearing Posts allday, perfect IMO.
Not a fan of having to use a tool to remove bearings, tighter posts can get messed up down the road if you remove the bearing a lot.
Overtight bearing posts are a pain to deal with and overly loose bearing seats mean you can easily loose the bearing. The happy medium is usually the optimal choice.
Going to re-quote Tyler here again with a question. Why can’t we demand that machine shops get consistent? Work with anodizers that are consistent(ish).
Is it people have just come to expect things to be cheap, so tighter is the new norm, not having to be consistent? Are the machines being used the problem? Is it the skills of the machine shops being used?
Or:
Should we be looking at bearing manufactures to standardize, or be more consistent with their bearings?
If people really know the answers to the above please share. I would genuinely like to know. As this topic has been popping up in other threads lately I think others would as well.
The guys at OD are absolute magicians. They machine some of the smoothest, most consistently performing yoyos available, and yet the bearings pop off with only a little finger pressure, no tool required. How do they do it!? 
I like it when the bearings so tight, that I destroy the yoyo, the bearing and the tool I’m trying to use to remove it in the process.
I’m looking at you C3 P-Wave
This is not a great thing if you’re disassembling your yo-yo to remove a knot, though. I’ve had my son lose a bearing on his MMC this way while we were out and about.
So too loose is in fact a negative, because it makes every single disassembly a risk of losing the bearing, or being extra super careful each time.
Other than that I don’t have a strong preference here. Clearly ODs are smooth regardless, so that aspect of the argument doesn’t hold water!
Since I can’t always predict how easily a bearing will come off (and accidentally dropping an axle is an issue in every case), I’ve taken the approach of always being super duper careful whenever taking a yoyo apart. Better safe than sorry!
A little lock tight stops losing an axle. Or a tiny piece of tape works too.
how about a compromise and have snug fit.
But quite often, vibe tuning requires flipping/swapping the axle, and lock-tite makes that way too challenging.
On the flip side you can tune with the lock tight and then never fear opening the yoyo losing the position of the axle. I have never been big on tuning though.
I’ve never given any thought to bearing variance - I assume you’re referring to slight variance in bearing size? Thanks for that perspective! 
I don’t think SE posts are the same as regular OD posts.
Could be wrong, but do believe SEs are looser than the non SE yoyos.
Yes - the inner diameter of the bearing that goes over the post - the ‘tolerance’ for bearings in the size yo-yos use (.250 x .500 x .187) are generally no where near the tolerances that a yo-yo is machined to - so therefore there is variation often between bearings within a single run even. But again - between suppliers even more variation where one bearing fits really tight and one bearing falls off, etc.
So when One Drop also says they try to produce a bearing seat that allows you to remove that I’m sure they have this variation in mind too. It is a tricky balance to maintain!
Side Effects will be naturally looser once you take it apart - it’s how they work. Assembling them pulls the posts into place. That’s why they fall out.
Easy to avoid though - just hold the yoyo with the cup up.
