Is thin yoyo lube silicon-based or petroleum-based? I can’t find the answer anywhere.
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it’s Lewb
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Pretty sure mineral oil. Distillate of petroleum.
Not sure though.
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I think that silicone is probably the safer choice, as there would be just about zero chance of any material incompatibilities damaging the yoyo body or response pads, even on plastic yoyos. That said, I use a petroleum oil (rotary valve oil for musical instruments, to be exact) without any problems. We use so little oil that it shouldn’t be on anything except the bearing anyways.
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Don’t know about the others but yomega brain lube is teflon based.
Yomega brain lube is repackaged superlube.
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Pretty sure MFD Lube (Gorillius Lubricus?) is petroleum-based. You can smell it. But it’s thicker than your standard thin lube.
Not sure what OD V4M is made from but I don’t think it’s petroleum from the way it flows and smells. It’s slightly thinner than YYF lube (and far outclasses it IMO).
Dark Matter Lube seems to be dry lube suspended in alcohol.
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Fun fact. The fuel you put in your car (that isn’t diesel) is petroleum, not gas.
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I’m certain that most yoyo lubes are mineral oil based.
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Nah it’s gasoline
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And yes I understand what all y’all are thinking when I ask “that” question with no context, and I can assure you, my reason is pg
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Parental Guidance? Positively Grotesque? Philosophically Grounded?
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( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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LOL! I feel like such a dope! Here I’ve been thinking that the stuff I’ve been putting on my bearings is a petroleum product - turns out I have a selective literacy problem. This is the stuff I use, because I can get it from work for free. I just noticed the striking similarity to OD V4M packaging.
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I actually wouldn’t be surprised if V4M and a lot of these other lubricants are just tweaked industrial stuff. You see that a lot in the mini painting world; what you’re paying for is whatever tweaks they do plus the assurance that it’s gonna work the way you want it to work. Plus that famous OD customer service.
At the end of the day we’re just making metal run smoother on metal; only so many options no matter how you tweak/package them.
Edit: not implying that V4M or any other product is overpriced. Looking up Hetman bearing oil on Amazon, V4M is actually cheaper per volume on top of the peace of mind of it working well for yoyo bearings out of the box.
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Also agree that the OD lube isn’t overpriced. And I like supporting a cool company. I use the rotor oil because it’s available to me and the price is right. If I were shopping for it I would likely end up with something else.
-Dan
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Yeah I’d do the same if I had a supply of it handy at work too. I do also like the DIY aspect of finding various lubricants that work that aren’t necessarily marketed as yoyo lube.
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My guess would be that the only “tweak” is minor packaging or label changes, as seen with brain lube. If you read the fine print on brain lube it clearly says made by superlube.
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Physical Gratification 
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No no no lol, I wanted to lube my speed cube but they can only use silicone lube, I wanted to try my yoyo lube but wasn’t sure if it would be good for the plastic.
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Brain lube would work good, as all (*) yomega yoyos were plastic at the time it was introduced. My WAG is that most any yoyo thin lube is synthetic based.
- except for a couple of wood yoyos (the infamous panther for instance).