I learnt of the raider mod a couple years ago and in doing so, I learnt that it can apply to the yomega fireball, spectrum and nebula. I bought a nebula and spectrum upon learning about this and decided to make the plunge to mod them.
The first step to doing the raider mod to a spectrum/nebula is replacing the axle. Easy enough right? WRRRRRRRONG. It’s difficult, very very very very VERY difficult. First ill talk about the spectrum and then the nebula, both happened a few years ago.
I only have an old pair of pliers as my only tool and i start to try to get the axle of the spectrum. i didnt think it would take too long, just squeeze hard and lefty loosy right? i struggled for about an hour just trying to get the axle off and then i finally got it off. i put the raider neo axel in along with the black spacers that are already a good height for raiders and the gap was so tight that the starburst were rubbing on each other. this gave me a headache because i would have to go through taking the axle off again. this time when i tried to take the axle off, it would not budge at all. it was another hour struggle but this time instead of getting it off, i couldnt get it off resulting in me giving up. tossed the 2 halves of the spectrum into storage and got them off my mind.
The nebula follows the same story as the spectrum but the axle refused to come out at all. it was so bad, it got the point where i cut off the threaded portion of the axle with the pliers. after that i gave up and tossed it in storage with the spectrum.
fastforward to today. i was looking through my yoyos in storage and thought why not try to take the axle of the spectrum and nebula again. i first tried to spectrum, struggled for a few minutes then thought to cut a piece off of the plastic amazon prime packaging since its plastic on one side and grippy bubble wrap on the other side. i wrapped this piece of plastic onto the spectrum axle, placed the pliers on the ground while gripping the axle and (i think this is what helped the most) used my foot to put as much body weight as i could on the pliers to get as much grip as i could. it took a couple tries and it eventually worked. i then turned to the nebula and it was much much harder. i did the same thing i did with the spectrum, but this time i put a sock on the pliers where i was pushing with my foot cause it was hurting a lot. it took so much more effort to get the nebula axle off, it felt like an intense leg workout. once i got the axle off, i was ecstatic.
there should be a picture of the 2 yoyo halves of both the spectrum and nebula along with the abused axle corresponding to each yoyo positioned below them.
is there a lesson here? just get a loop720 instead of going thru this headache 