Yes, as the title says, I cleaned my bearing for the first time today. I used paint thinner and it looks as if it worked very well. The bearing is noticeably louder, which is perfectly normal from what I read. However, I’m running the bearing dry. Will this do any damage quickly to the bearing? It’ll be a couple weeks before I can get some thin lube but is there anything I can pick up at my local hardware that will do the same job as thin lube?
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t have posted this thread if that was all. I know there’s tons of bearing cleaning threads on the board. That said, I’ll continue on with the second portion of my thread.
It seems that my yoyo’s sleep time isn’t as long as it used to be. Is this because I’m not using any lube? Also, it seems quite a bit more responsive for some reason? This didn’t make any sense at all to me because I thought the thicker lube you had, the more responsive your yoyo would be. Since I’m not using lube it shouldn’t be as responsive should it? (Oh, I’m throwing a Hitman. That might help to know, I suppose)
How does the bearing spin when you flick it? Does it have a rough fluttering sound or does it sound smooth but loud? You may need to lube the bearing slightly to fix the problem. I would suggest picking up some gun oil from walmart or a similar store and using that.
If you’re foing to get the Gun oil, be careful about overlubing, If you overlube the bearing after a clean, its practically useless to clean it. Drop a drop an a pin and touch the pin to two ball in the bearing.
You are not forced to lube your bearing! Most of my bearings are completely dry for a few month now and they are still working perfect!
The only reason why I use thin lube is to get more response! If the response is still good enough after the cleaning, I leave the bearing dry all the time.
The reason for that is mostly the throw. Even with the slightest tilt, the stock O-Rings will brake the YoYo a lot. If you can bind and you like it unresponsive, replace your O-Rings with silicone O-Rings. As an alternative you can also recess the O-rings you already have so they are flush! This helps a lot to get a longer sleeper.
My bearing seems to be doing much better now, thanks guys. I’ll click thanks for those that’s really helped.
Also, can someone link me towards a good tutorial that can show me how to make a silicone response system? I really, really don’t want to try it blind and mess everything up. Shaving the O rings flush would probably play tricks with my mind as well. Plus, I hear nothing but good things about the silicone response.
Also, I tried playing with only one O ring but that just felt weird. However, after doing this I did notice a nice improvement with sleep times.
So yeah, I gave the silicone a try tonight. First thing I wanna say is it took me two tries to get it in there right. After I got it right it looks pretty good.
What I’ve noticed is it’s a bit more tug responsive than before. However it seems the more I play the less it gets. I’m assuming I just have to break it in. I do notice I get much better sleep times now. I can make my yoyo sleep over a minute now, which was good compared to the 30-45 seconds I could throw before. I’m able to do multiple string tricks on a single throw which feels AWESOME. Even doing a bunch of basic tricks.
And thanks for the tip Mr. Yo, I’ll be sure to give that a try the next time I silicone my yoyo up. A spoon seemed to do a good job but I can see where a guitar pick could have the edge.
Also, make sure there is no silicone in the bearing seat. The silicone itself does need to be broken in – but if it’s tug responsive you might have some residue in the seat.
It seems to be doing much better now. I’ve played with it for about 3 hours and it’s nice and unresponsive but grips the binds perfectly. I did have some residue in the bearing seat when I first did it but I was sure to remove it all. Thanks.
