What’s wrong with using it? It fixes rust. I know that it gets responsive but other that that, WD-40 is a great lube if you put only a little on.
It has residues in it. Residue is bad for the bearing. It can kill a platic yoyo, literally.
I don’t think it disolves plastic, but yeah. WD-40 leaves stuff behind because it doesn’t completely dissipate.
Mostly fish oil. Won’t dissolve anything, but I can see it gunking things up. A little turpentine’ll get rid of that in a jiff! 
I know you’re not supposed to use WD-40 on rubik’s cubes because it melts the plastic (you’re acually supposed to use Teflon-silicon spray), so the same probably goes for yoyos. As for the bearing, the residue probably isn’t good for it like they said up there.
Thin/Thick lube ftw!
it is bad for plastics yes. It will gunk up your bearing but it will take a year or two and a LOT of it to do it. I’ve been using it on one certain bearing for about three months now. Lubing it at least twice a week. Still dead unresponsive and not rust to speak of. It’s also quiet.
once the bearing is gunked up, i wonder if it can be cleaned with mineral spirits like normal and start over again? if it works like that it may be a pretty sweet deal for non-plastics.
Well, if it’s only gunked up, then most likely it will make it almost-like-new. If it’s finished, though, there’s not much you can really do.
so from what ive gathered, i can now clean my bearing by spraying it with teflon silicone and then lube it with trumpet valve oil? and this will work like thin lube?
WD-40 IS NOT A BEARING LUBRICANT
It isn’t, hasn’t been, and never was designed for this purpose.
The same company makes 3-in-1 oil which is great for bearings.
At high speed wd40 breaks down and turns to goo. It’s nice for protecting metal, and a million other things, but not for bearings. If you constantly use it i suppose you won’t notice as much since you’ll be forcing stuff out of it and adding new fresh fluid… but that seems ridiculous to me when there are so many better options that don’t require constant work.
Kyle
No, you can’t clean a bearing with lube. Get a solvent like mineral spirits or lighter fluid and clean the bearing in that.
nononono haha. I was just saying that the silicon spray is safe for lubing rubik’s cubes, and is all around plastic safe. It still leaves a residue behind (which is the teflon) and will gunk up the bearing just like WD-40.
Do NOT use Teflon Silicon spray for a yoyo bearing. I dont know for sure what it will play like, but probly not well.
I should note that I actually have no idea what wd40 would do to the plastic, as I’ve not tested that part of it… doesn’t really matter since it’s a bad idea to use it as a bearing lube anyway (see above)
I don’t believe it has any particularly harsh solvents in it, so it ‘probably’ won’t do any damage to high quality plastics like polycarb or even abs (both common in yo-yos)… but I probably wouldn’t put it on the plastic anyway.
Kyle
I’m doing the test just to see what happens. I don’t recommend it but we’ll see after a year or so. I’ll slow down the amount and frequency to see what really happens.
Maybe I’ll use it once a month. I know it wasn’t designed as a lube. But there are a lot of things that weren’t designed for a particular application but then are used in that application more than the one it was designed for. Never hurts to test and get actual results. BTW I’m using it on a cheaper bearing. 1 year old YYJ bearing.
it will harm plastics even the better ones but it takes time. If you clean it off then it won’t do anything.
I knew Kyle couldn’t stay away from this thread! lol
Wait, you think I responded to a thread like this without doing any testing? really? When I was working for the largest yoyo retailer for 3ish years we sat around and tested everything imaginable on bearings… mainly because we’d get questions about it every day. WD-40, as has been said, just plain sucks for bearings.
Bearing companies themselves have been telling people not to use wd-40… well, I imagine ever since it came out heh. Even the company that makes it doesn’t recommend it, which is why they make 3-in-1 oil. Don’t believe me? Give one a call and ask for yourself.
Why use something that requires you to keep using it constantly… I’ve had bearings that have worked perfectly for -over 11 years- that I’ve done essentially nothing to. I think I put in a drop of lube a few years back just because they had sat for a while in a case.
I don’t understand why yoyo kids are convinced that they know better than the company who’s only job is to manufacture bearings. They design bearings to run for a very long time… if you just leave them the hell alone they’ll do that perfectly.
Kyle
If that’s the problem, then why do people use it to fix rust? I know that it fixes rust but if people are going to complain, why don’t they use some other lube that fixes rust?
I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, please try again.
Kyle
I’ve never seen WD-40 used for fixing rust. It is just used to lubricate things such as bike chains.
One last thing, 3-in1 oil can be used to make the yoyo less responsive rite?
WD-40 can protect against rust and help prevent it, but I wouldn’t try to ‘fix’ rust with it.
whatisfear - Any oil is going to ‘add’ response. The trade off is that your bearing will last longer and spin more quietly. If you want ‘less response’ at the cost of a shorter bearing life and more noise, clean the bearing with solvents like mineral spirits and don’t add anything back to it. Most people find that a few drops of oil is well worth the tradeoff.
Kyle