Was recently at CVS and saw a no brand “light up yo-yo with ball bearing”. With the idea that this $3 yoyo had a ball bearing of any kind amazed me. And as a yoyoer who will be anything and everything at even resembles yoyo, there I put it right on top of the cool ranch Doritos at the cash register.
When I got home I immediate opened it to find out, to no surprise, that it was not a ball bearing. Just a double axle bearing. A plastic “bearing” that runs over a plastic tube, and then over the axle. The first layer of bearing and the plastic tube don’t really slide from each other, so it’s essentially just the plastic tube sliding over the axle. Fine. Works alright as a responsive yoyo, with starburst return system.
After looking at it, seemed modable. I took the bearing from a velocity, and began figuring out how to fit it just right. I wanted to keep the light up effect, which requires a press fit piece on one side of the outer bearing, it holds an O ring that then fits into a mechanism that when turned lights the yoyo up. However, I had to get rid of the other half of that outer bearing to fit the velocity bearing in. I just cut the outer bearing leaving the O ring section. Sanded down that side, and then the O ring side, up to the O ring notch to make it fit as far in as possible. I then milled out the hole so the velocity bearing would fit just right into the outer plastic bearing. With a knife, I slowly made the hole bigger on the other half, the one without the light up mechanism. This side is much easier. Scrape a little, put together, test, scrape a little.
Eventually it should fit back together, and with some adjustments, work alright. It’s by no means a good yoyo. But it returns when you bind, and sleeps when you throw. Aslo, it lights up! And as long as you have a size (H???) or whatever is in the velocity, you can make this weird toy, in less than an hour, for 3 dollars.
Kinda cool if you want to get into the world of modding, but don’t want to mess with your $50 yoyo.