Hey everyone and welcome to the YoYoNation.com
video blog, where we will update you on the newest products and tips and tricks. The first
topic for today's episode is how to clean a bearing. We get a lot of emails and a lot of phone
calls from people saying "my bearing is slowing down" or "it's making funny noises." There're
a lot of reasons why your bearing might be doing this, but one of the best solutions,
and it works most of the time, is simply cleaning your bearing. And we're going to show you
that right now. This is everything you'll need to clean your bearing. We have pliers,
lighter fluid or mineral spirits, a glass jar, make sure it's glass and not something
else, a paper towel, a pen, a safety pin, your bearings, and YoYo Jam thin or thick
lube. The first thing you'll have to do is take
your bearing off your yo-yo, and sometimes that can be a little tough. So you'll need
some pliers like this. Not all bearings have to be taken off with pliers but they definitely
help. Make sure the pliers have a flat part, whether in front or in back. That makes it
a little easier. You can break your bearing if you squeeze too hard. It takes a little
bit of pressure but you can do it. So be careful. Once you get your bearing off your yo-yo you
will see that it has a metal shield on the side. On both sides. This is just to prevent
dirt from getting inside of the bearing. It's not super necessary, and some people think
it's better if you can take these off before you clean your bearing. And some people even
say you can leave them off that way your bearing works even better. It's up to you. We do probably
recommend you take it off to clean your bearing. You can see what it's like and if it doesn't
seem like it makes much of a difference, you can not do it next time you clean your bearing.
But if you want to try it out, all you have to do is take a pointy object like this, a
thin, pointy object, you'll find a little slit in the c-clip. Try to push this underneath
the lip of the c-lip and just push that side up, and it should just pop right out. If you
lose it it's not a problem. You probably won't even be able to get it back in. And the shield
will come right out. Do the same thing with the going to do the same thing with the other
side. When you're done with that, you're being is
going to look something like this. That's how it looks when you have the shield off,
and that's how it looks when it's on. When you're done, you're going to take your
bearing and drop it into the lighter fluid, or mineral spirits. You don't have to fill
it up too high. Just enough to cover the bearing. That one fell sideways. You want to stir it
around a little bit. You're going to leave it in here for only about ten minutes. You
don't want to leave it in there for any longer than that. Stir it around once or twice during
those ten minutes, and you're good to go. And when you're done, you just take it out.
This is where the pen comes in handy. Set that on the paper towel, let it dry. Then when you're done, take the bearing and
put it on the top of the pen or pencil, depending on the size of the bearing, and spin it like
that. Do that a couple times. That'll dry the inside much quicker. You can let it sit
for a little while longer if you want but you're pretty much done. You pretty much clean. Next what you have to do go ahead and apply
your lube. For unresponsive yo-yos you want to use Yo-Yo Jam Thin Lube. For looping yo-yos
you want to use Yo-Yo Jam Thick Lube or three in one. Three in one you can buy at any hardware
story. These two here, these guys you can get through us. With the Thin Lube you're
going to put the bearing on the yo-yo and then apply the lube. Just one small drop onto
the side of the bearing. And then you're done. If it's a looping yo-yo, you might want to
apply one on each side. One big drop. And then you're done. Looping yo-yos you will
have to use a bit more lube and you will have to clean your bearings a bit more. So keep
that in mind. All you have to do now is put the bearing
back on the yo-yo and apply your lube. Lube is very important because if you don't lube
your yo-yo, you risk your bearing running to hot and it can freeze up on you and you
won't be able to use it at all. We recommend Thin Lube for unresponsive yo-yos. That would
be your Protostar, your Freehand Zero, or anything from H Spin. You just want to apply
one drop. Your yo-yo might be a little responsive your first few throws, maybe even your first
ten or fifteen minutes, but after you start playing with it, it'll break in and it'll
be just as unresponsive as it was before. The differences you'll notice are that it'll
sleep longer, it'll sleep smoother, and it won't be as noisy. If you don't have access to any of these lubes
for some reason you can go to any hardware store and buy something called three in one.
It's sort of a cross between these too. It's not as low in viscocity as Thin Lube and not
quite as dense as the Thick Lube. And that's it! That's how to clean a bearing.
Thanks for watching our video. If you have any questions just leave that in the comments
section below and we'll answer that as soon as we can. If not we'll see you next time.