Resources

SAFETY TIPS AND RULES: “READ THIS!”

1. Check your surroundings and look for an open space to practice! If you hit it on something hard and unforgiving the yo-yo could be damaged! “Playing outside over grass, or indoors over carpet is my favorite! Playing over concrete, asphalt and wood is not recommended and will lead to unnecessary damage if banged around on hard surfaces!”

 2. Do not hit or throw your yo-yo on or at anything or anyone! “IT IS NOT A WEAPON!” People can be hurt, things can be broken and yo-yo’s can be damaged”

 3. Stay away from: PEOPLE, PETS, AND BREAKABLE OBJECTS! 

 “windows, television sets, laptops, computers, lighting fixtures, and grandmas china hutch for example”

 4. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN YOUR YO-YO! FINGER TIGHT ONLY! DO NOT CRANK IT OR YOU WILL STRIP THE AXL OR EVEN WORSE THE THREADS ON THE INSIDE OF THE YO-YO, RENDERING IT USELESS!!!

 5. Practice makes perfect, Don’t get discouraged if you fail! Don’t give up and KEEP TRYING! If you find yourself stuck on the same trick! Try learning something else & come back to what you were working on later!

 6. REMEMBER, THIS IS A TOY! HAVE FUN WITH IT!

 STRING TIPS:

Yo-Yo strings are one of the most important parts of the Yo-Yo. They do not last forever and will eventually break! They should be regularly inspected to see if it’s knotted, dirty, fraying or showing other signs of wear and tear. “Strings can be hand washed with soap and hung until dry to extend life”

STRINGS SHOULD BE CHANGED FREQUENTLY AS NEEDED! any knots should be removed immediately! ”If you see a knot don’t wind it up and throw it again until you clear out and untie the knot... you will only tighten the knot and make fixing it more difficult if not impossible, having knots ANYWHERE on the string will negatively affect performance! CHANGE YOUR STRINGS BEFORE THEY BREAK AND SEND YOUR YO-YO FLYING!

TO REMOVE OR INSTALL A NEW STRING:

1. unscrew your yo-yo and untwist the end of the new string that does not have the finger loop you tie around your finger. Untwist the loop the Yo-Yo bearing rests inside of, thread it around the bearing and screw it back together! it’s ready to go! “make sure the string is sitting on the bearing itself! You could end up cutting through a string and you will send the yo-yo flying if the string slips down the side of the bearing around the threaded axle”

2.You can leave the yo-yo screwed together, and simply untwist the end of the string bigger, fit it around a whole half of the yo-yo until it gets around the ball bearing in the center of the yo-yo”

3. “Be sure to adjust for any irregularities in the twist of the string when you do this method. you can manipulate the string back into it’s original form. Apply tension on both ends of the string. Twist it the appropriate direction with your fingers if it gets overly tight or too loose! You want the string to have a uniform twist from the bottom of the string all the way to the top!”

The yo-yo string should be kept at a neutral twist at all times. While performing tricks, you don’t want the string twisting or wrapping back up into itself. It creates a mess and makes mastering tricks much more difficult! 

STRING NEUTRALITY CAN BE EASILY ACHIEVED BY:

1. simply removing the yo-yo string from your middle finger, hold the yo-yo by one half in one hand. Grip it tightly and run your thumb nail and pointer finger of your free hand down the entire string to the finger loop. and it will relieve the excess string “twisting/twirling/tension/torsion.”
2. You can just leave the yo-yo dangling still attached to your finger by the finger loop. Let it untwist itself until it stops spinning sideways on its own. “this may take a few minutes”
3. The string should hang in an untwisted U formation when you bring the finger loop up even with the yo-yo itself when you achieve neutral tension/torsion/twist/twirl! There are a wide variety of tricks that an experienced player can perform that are faster for adjusting your string Tension/Torsion/Twist/Twirling On-the-go while still continuing to play!”

STRING WASHING/RECYCLING:

 Many people in the yo-yo community practice washing old dirty strings to “revive” and extend the life of used yo-yo strings. You can get many more hours of use out of a yo-yo string if you do this. 

Be sure to inspect the string before you install them them on a yo-yo again. You can either hand wash or send them through the washing machine in the pocket of a pair of pants! I recommend hanging them to dry. Stretch the string back out after drying. Make sure they are still intact and in good condition before restringing and playing with it! If you dry the string in the dryer you run the possibility of shrinkage! This process will help bring that springy “new string feel” back to life!

 RESPONSE SYSTEMS, PADS, FRICTION STICKERS AND THE USE OF SILICONE GASKET MAKERS:

After many months of play, you will wear out the installed response system. Your yo-yo will become more difficult or unpredictable in getting it to return to your hand. It may feel like your yo-yo is not returning to your hand with as much power and snap-back as you like. Or you might notice your yo-yo isn’t winding up as tightly as it did when it was new!

Most of the time with modern yo-yo’s this is an easy fix that can be as simple as:

1. Peel out the rubbery/silicone sticker found in the small groove right around the outer diameter of the steel ball-bearing. “I use a needle, safety pin or paper clip to accomplish this”

2. REMOVE THE BEARING! Use a bearing removal tool or a pair of pliers with a clean rag over the bearing to protect it from being scratched or damaged. Wiggle the bearing until it comes out, sometimes this can take a little bit of playing around”! 

3. Be sure to clean out any leftover adhesive or oily residue left in both the yo-yo half’s where you removed the previous response system pads, rings, bearings, stickers! you can use a q-tip dipped in a solvent “paint thinner, odorless mineral spirits, lighter fluid, 99% isopropyl” to get down in there and really scrub out the response groove and bearing seat, the more clean you get the response system groove the better surface you will have to adhere the adhesive back of the new pad/ friction sticker.” LET IT DRY!

4. Peel the paper backing off the new response system “sticker, ring or pad” stick one silicone/rubber pad into both response grooves on each half of the yo-yo and really press it down in there! Attach your string, reassemble and play!

HOW TO USE FLOWABLE SILICONE AS A RESPONSE SYSTEM: (RECCOMMENDED FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY)

If you don’t have any pre-made response pads or friction stickers you can use liquid flowable silicone. Squirt it into the cleaned and DRIED response system groove where the pads or silicone you removed once were. Level it off with a credit card or recess it slightly by using the corner of the credit card. Let it cure for 24 hours before playing, then proceed with the break In process!

“It will be responsive for the first few hours of play until broken in”

MAKE SURE you get the silicone in the response groove only, do not get it in the bearing seat or you will have problems with responsiveness. Small pieces could get lodged into the bearing generating another issue you will have to resolve!

 “I prefer sticker/pad style response because of this exact issue, pads are very cheap to replace and are readily available on my shop”

 All About Ball Bearings:

From time to time, you will notice your Yo-Yo is not performing the way it did in the past. It could be a wide variety of things causing issues such as: worn out response pads, old dirty damaged strings or even the ball-bearings can run into problems. The bearings could suddenly start making unusual or unpleasant noises, vibrating, becoming unusually responsive or unpredictable in performance. it could feel as if it is spinning slowly, or not as freely as it once did!

 The issue “most likely” lies in the Internal long spinning ball-bearing system inside of the Yo-Yo itself. A dirty bearing is most likely at the root of your issue! Fortunately, this is a simple fix most of the time. These are the most common practices for fixing the most common issues with yo-yo’s and ball-bearings that you will encounter on your journey of becoming a modern day YO-YO MASTER!

HOW TO CLEAN A YO-YO BEARING:

“Do this in a well ventilated area or outside to avoid inhaling harmful vapors. I suggest wearing protective gloves, a mask and eye protection! Complete this process under a parents supervision if you are not old enough or able to purchase and use these chemicals!”

ITEMS NEEDED:

1. Small glass jar with a leak proof lid

2. Solvent “you can use paint thinner, mineral spirits, 99% isopropyl alcohol, unscented and additive free acetone, lighter fluid”

3. Small plate or tray

4. Bearing removal tool or pliers

5. SHARP “needle, safety pin, tack”

6. Paper towel

7. Thin/Thick Yo-Yo Lube for “unresponsive or responsive play”

8. Protective gloves “latex/vitrile/nitrile/rubber/vinyl

9. Protective eyewear

10. A little time!

 CLEANING PROCEDURE:

1. unscrew your yo-yo and take out the steel ball-bearing in between the unscrewed yo-yo halves “the threaded axle should be screwed into one yo-yo half still, if it falls out, screw it back in!”

2. remove the C clip and Deshield the ball-bearing using the “needle, safety pin, or thumbtack” You will have to pry and scrape at the little gap in the outer race of the bearing. try to hook the C-clip holding the shield into the side of the ball-bearing just right to remove it. “You will see a small gap in the C-clip about the thickness of a wire” 

When you hook it just right, the C-clip will spring out, The shield in the side of the bearing will fall out exposing the inner workings of the ball-bearing itself. Making for a much more effective and thorough deep cleaning, “you can remove the other shield on the other side of the bearing the same way for the deepest cleaning possible”

3. Drop the de-shielded ball-bearing into your small glass jar. Fully submerge it in an inch or so of solvent and allow it to sit in the solvent bath for 5-30 minutes. “Feel free to let it set longer if it’s really gunked up to let the solvent break down any skin cells, oils, lubricants, dirt, grime, yo-yo string fibers, or even hair! shake and swirl it in the solvent gently and frequently throughout the solvent soak with the lid screwed tightly on” 

(I actually upgraded to an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner it provides a much deeper cleaning, I use a small glass jar with a lid and the shake/swirl method while on the road and can’t bring my ultrasonic cleaner.”

4. Remove the bearing from the solvent bath and set it on the plate/tray on top of a paper towel to allow the solvent to flow out with gravity and evaporate. either let it air dry, blow it out with canned compressed air duster, or spin it completely dry on the end of a Dremel or drill. You can also spin it dry simply with flicks of the finger with the bearing stuck on the end of a bearing removal tool/pen/pencil/chopstick,” 

5. (OPTIONAL) clean the removed bearing shield’s and C-Clips in the solvent and reinstall if desired. “It’s not necessary, but can be difficult. leaving them off makes future cleanings and maintenance easier, the shields and C-Clips will keep your bearing cleaner longer and you will need less frequent cleanings if reinstalled”

 6. (OPTIONAL) lubricate it if you desire or just run it dry with no lubricant for the best in long spinning Unresponsive play! “Use lube sparingly, a needle tip sized drop is all you need” (use THICK LUBE if you want it to be tug responsive or THIN LUBE  if you want it to be unresponsive you will have to know a common yo-yo trick called a (bind) to make it return”

If a good cleaning does not make your yo-yo perform any better, try adding a tiny drop of lube with the desired “responsive or unresponsive traits” break it in by playing with it for about an hour! If that doesn’t work try the cleaning, lube and break in procedure again, if repeating the cleaning and lube two or three times still doesn’t fix your issue, you need a replacement ball-bearing for your yo-yo! I have several kinds of bearings available in my SHOP!!