It makes sense for yoyos to have replaceable axles in case one breaks or strips, but for anything besides 4a and 5a, the axle won’t break, and if an axles strips it will strip the aluminum in the yoyo and not the steel axle. So why don’t manufacturers just make the axle built-in?
one reason is if you need to unseat the bearing and its stuck in the half with the axle. removing the axle will make removing the bearing easier without damage.
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One Drop actually does use loctite to glue in the axle in some of their models. I imagine for many companies it is a time thing. It’s quite a bit of work to go through hundreds of models and loctite the axle in.
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I won’t argue whether it could break or not… but they sure can be bent.
I don’t see how making the axle “built-in” would be an improvement… (built-in how?) Regardless of how, you’d still have the possibility of bending the axle or stripping the other half of the yo-yo. And if it was built-in that would just make it harder to fix.
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@ryanmcg that was my thought… are manufacturers supposed to machine and thread an axle from the billet of one of the yoyo halves?
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It’s a silly idea. 
Seriously, it would complicate the manufacturing process. It’s much easier to just thread the axle into the two halves rather than fix it into either one. And in reality there’s no benefit to having it fixed into either half. Sometimes you need to replace them.
If the axle strips the body you can usually retap the body and put in the next size screw for a new axle.
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Well, first of all, since about 90 percent(of metal yo-yos) are made of aluminum, how would ending up with an aluminum axle improve the situation?
Secondly, let’s consider an example for more clarity on the subject.
You start with 6061(still most common alloy) and design calculates the finished halves will be 1 inch wide. The axle spec. Indicates a projection above the yo-half of 3/8”.
So now, you chuck up a billet bar of the appropriate diameter. From that point you have wasted a lot of material per half because you will be have to make a face in plunge cut about 1/8” outboard of centerline. And, then address the stock with a parting tool until the wasted ring falls off the billet.
So basically each puck has to be at least 1.375” (add about .0625 for cleanup).to end up with a 1.0” half with projecting built in axle. So in essence, for every 10 feet of billet, you are squandering .375” per 1” puck. That would certainly add up if you were making 200 halves.
Even worse is even if the alloy would produce a suitable axle, if you screwed up the axle somehow, then you would be in a real pickle.
I think One Drop came up the the solution to this entire subject when they invented Side Effects.
Their theory was in the realm of probability the chances of stripping out a yo-yo axle are very slim…. Very, very slim.
So, they decided to decrease the chances of stripping out a yo-yo half or jacking up an axle to ZERO………………………………….LIKE IN no Chance zero.
But my explanation isn’t an advertisement for One Drop. It just shows how they came up with a solution before there was ever a real pressing problem
There have been other solutions often overlooked. Carlo… Owner of Oxygen yo-yos had an outstanding idea. Threaded Titanium inserts in each yo-yo half. Pretty much bulletproof at that point. And how many years ago was that?
Seriously, who and how often are all these tragic axle failures happening. I mean I know there are people out there that are so dangerous, I wouldn’t trust em with a Sponge.
In 26 years I have stripped 2 yo-yos. And actually, even that number is incorrect. A guy sent me a yo-yo he had already cross-threaded and I had the honor of roach ink out the yo-yo by unscrewing it, lol
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Mass production. That’s why. You want consistency through out the line. Same cast for all molds, same process for every half reduces complexity in producing large quantities and therefor reduces cost.
I’m not familiar with the term roach ink. Is that a typo or is it that little tiny cross threaded strip that comes out as you extract the axle?
The short answer is, axles are widely available and costs almost nothing (due to economies of scale), but it is expensive to make one yourself.
Having pre-made axles thread into the body is the simplest design possible, from engineering standpoint.
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Because if worse comes to worse and you do end up breaking or bending the axle you only have to pay a couple bucks to replace just one tiny part instead of your entire 130 dollar bimetal
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It would make it harder to get smooth yoyos. And that just sounds like another step added in an already complicated manufacturing process.
in another multiverse, all yoyo companies standardized the SE system in all of their yoyos. 
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I mean well you will have problems like warp of the axle most of the the time or it snaps form you trying to use pliers to get it out
Doc probably mentioned it but I’ve had too many beers to read the whole thing but I’d imagine its partly due to the fact that significantly more material would be needed.
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Yes, he uses talk to text a lot so some stuff is a “typo” of some sort.
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Yeah, what he said! But yeah, I agree with most of these points. I have a Hubless Bite Size and I’m extra careful screwing the halves together because my hands either grasp things too loosely and I don’t feel it, or they suddenly have the power of Thor and destroy everything I touch. With an aluminum thread I just tend to err on the side of caution.
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i love the ability to take apart things so more small choking hazards is a great thing in my book.
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