A few weeks ago I got a YoYoFactory One and started playing with it. This is the first noteworthy yoyo in my life, complete noob here. I was happily toying around with it, trying some tricks, and my daugther took a liking to it too. So I ordered another one exactly like it for her, just a different color.
It arrived today and the first thing we noticed was that it was COMPLETELY SILENT. Which is weird, because mine spins… well, not loudly, but certainly quite audible. It kinda rattles a bit.
After a moments confusion I had an idea - what if it’s related to how tight the yoyo is screwed together? This yoyo can be unscrewed and the bearing changed from a responsive to a non-responsive one. So I tried screwing the new yoyo a slightly tighter and turns out I was right - it started to emit a sound similar to mine, albeit still somewhat quieter.
Then I tried to loosen it back up and… it didn’t do a thing. I tried making it very loose, and very tight, and medium, etc. The sound seems to be there now, not going away.
Now, just to be clear - I didn’t break anything or use excessive force. Neither does the sound affect the working of the yoyo, as far as inexperienced me can tell. Plus unscrewing and rescrewing the yoyo is an intended feature.
But if it is at all possible to get the yoyo to be silent again - my wife would be grateful and hence me too. What have I done and how can I undo it?
You should make sure the yo-yo is screwed together firmly while playing, very rarely in my experience will a yo-yo stay silent for very long, this is due to the bearing. It is normal for them to make noise, if you want it to be as quiet as possible you could put some lube in the bearing, this could make it responsive depending on how much you use, I play mine dry most of the time but a lot of other people do use thin lube and still play unresponsive. If your bearing is super loud and unbearable you could try ordering another one. They have lots of great options in the yoyoexpert shop.
Edit: You could also try taking the loud bearing out and cleaning it, maybe it’s got some crud in there?
No, it’s not super loud and unbearable. It’s just that I was surprised that the new one was absolutely silent (like NO sound at all), and then it acquired sound just by me screwing the yoyo firmer by maybe 90 degrees or so. It’s definitely not crud or anything in there - it’s brand new, barely out of the box.
As for unresponsive - I’m not there yet. I’d like to stick with responsive for a while still.
EDIT: I’m wondering if it’s possible to return to that super-silent-no-sound-at-all-out-of-the-box volume.
Gotcha, yeah bearings are weird sometimes, I’ve had some start silent and then a few hours later they just start screaming, in that case I would still try cleaning the bearing and then put some sort of lube in it, I’ve used gun oil in the past with good results. As far as cleaning it might not be necessary I just clean mine a lot so just some lube in your case may be the ticket, silence can be achieved lol
I just thought of another thing, the one that was quiet could have been so quiet because it wasn’t firmly screwed together at first so the vibrations from the yo-yo spinning weren’t being transmitted through the rest of the yo-yo
In my experience a bearing being new or used has no impact on the loudness of said bearing. Sometimes the carboard boxes new yoyos come in can shed small fibers that make its way inside the bearing. I just opened a new 10-15 dollar center trac bearing the other night and it was very bad straight out of the package. Like others said, when I get a new yoyo/bearing first thing I do is deshield clean and lube with very thin oil or thick oil for responsive bearings. I try to get the smallest amount of oil I can in the bearing, too much lube can cause your unresponsive bearing to act a little responsive.
Edit, wanted to add I have received new bearing ranging from totally dry to totally gunked with thick oil. Kind of a crap shoot when it comes to bearings.
Bearings are a commodity and are not all the same. Unless QC is heavily done like with Hollywood modern YoYo your likely to get a bit of difference even if you get two of the same YoYo just cause the bearings might have been sourced from a few places
What have I done and how can I undo it?