Damaged or malfunctioning gear?

[Aaron Z]

Hello, I made this topic for people to come about to post questions and ask for advice about their faulty/damaged or problematic gear.
(I read through all 13 pages of the 'gear' section, and didn't find any similar topics - multiple searches also came up dud    )

So, I'll go first: The Finger Axel that I've installed on my G3 Finesse seems to be a little... rusty, I guess. It has a sticky feeling as if a sugary drink had been spilled on it and dried or something and causes my Diabolo to 'Roll-up' the string just as it begins to gain speed (In a wrap).

I'll change my string and see if that solves the problem, but by the feel of the axle, I'd assume there's something awry going on there, too.
Anyways, that's about it for me.

[Shaun]

Maybe it's rusting because you don't use it enough...?
There's a thread on rusty axles somewhere.

[William]

Change your string and get back to us. Or get some old string with some rust remover on it and do a couple of wrapped accelerations.

[Aaron Z]

That rust remover idea is pretty clever, wouldn't have thought of that. 
I've ordered a 25M Spool of Yellow Henry's string from www.juggleart.com.au which is due in tomorrow, so I'll post about how a string change goes then.

Is anyone else having gear troubles? I meant for this topic to be where anyone could come for help... 

Thanks for the help so far

[Beni]

Well I have a friend's finnesse with a finger axel which is older than mine, and I can relate — the older one seems more sticky. I think it's probably just the wear and tear. Maybe I'll sand it or something.

Beni

[Nahxela]

Steel wool is probably better than sandpaper because the sand paper might flatten out parts of your axle instead of only getting rid of the rust.

Has anybody duct taped carbon/fibreglass sticks before and had them work fine?
I'm wondering if this'll work, but it doesn't seem likely to me.

[jacky]

it depent what kind of sand paper you are using,the sand paper cannot be too tick.

[Shaun]

Wet and dry sand paper is the choice, but id still use steel wool, slightly less abrasive.

[Aaron Z]

I've gotten my new string, yay! It appears to have fixed the problem but at certain points within a wrapped position, I can feel definite strong friction between the string and axle...

But so far, so good- I'll see how things progress and try out some suggestions of axle cleaning, and post the results.

A new strange problem with my gear now, is that my string   seems to be becoming problematic; certain tricks that I used to be easily capable of performing with my old orange MB string are still OK with my new string, but all whip catches are ridiculously hard to do now!
Maybe in only 1 of 10 whip catch attempts will the string connect, and still end up in a 'left backside' position.
I'll see if the whip catch becomes easier as the string wears, also I have a theory as to why whip catches are so much more difficult now-

-: I think that it is relevant to Henry's string being laced with light wax to keep it clean and strong before use. Basically, in the first few times Henry's string is used when it is very new, the string stretches to an extent and becomes slightly thinner. The problem is that the slippery, flexible wax-like coating doesn't stretch out so well and so, when the string is slack- like when throwing a whip catch, the waxy stuff pulls and contorts the string, meaning the string doesn't move as well through the air and makes catches awkward.
 


Ta-dah!

[n3mo]

hm i've had that problem with whip catches...oldschool cotton string still seems best for me (although worse for everything else). i tend to get better results just holding the sticks at a wider angle.

[Beni]

Old one stick with the other hanging, pinch the string right at the top and slide your pinched fingers down the string to the bottom. There will be no more twists and slacks/whip catches should be easier.

Beni

[Aaron Z]

Yeah, I do that every once in a while to straighten my string, but it's only a temporary effect and can wear off just by accelerating harshly once or twice  .  I find that another quicker and more convenient method of straightening the string is to simply:

1) Take both handsticks in either hand.
2) Quickly and firmly pull both handsticks in opposite directions, so the string very quickly goes taut.
3) Give the string slack and repeat a few times until you're happy with the results.

This method is more convenient because you can quickly repeat it a few times whilst the diabolo is in midair.


Anyways, next subject! (straying from the subject here) Christmas time is closing in, and I can't think of anything I want more than a second Finesse.
I definitely want to learn 2D, but I have a few questions:

A- When learning 2D with finesses, is it easier to learn if they both have finger axles? Because if so, then it'll cost a lot more money and I'd need to buy another set of weights to keep the diabolos' balanced 

B- If I were to mix the cups of my red finesse with the most likely white cups of the 2nd finesse I may buy, will the 2 diabolos remain balanced? I've heard that mixing certain colors of cups will put the diabolo off balance because different colors of cups may have different weights 

C- Is it really worthwhile if I've already got 1 Finesse and am still only a novice at it? Maybe I should just buy a Circus...


Thanks. 

[William]

A- When learning 2D with finesses, is it easier to learn if they both have finger axles? Because if so, then it'll cost a lot more money and I'd need to buy another set of weights to keep the diabolos' balanced

I'd say get rid of the finger axle for 2D, but keep the weight kits on. Putting the long axle on will make it unstable while shuffling.

B- If I were to mix the cups of my red finesse with the most likely white cups of the 2nd finesse I may buy, will the 2 diabolos remain balanced? I've heard that mixing certain colors of cups will put the diabolo off balance because different colors of cups may have different weights

Some people have said that there is a difference in cup weight, but only around 1 gram so its no problem. I have never had any problem with unstable diabolos while mine were mixed.

C- Is it really worthwhile if I've already got 1 Finesse and am still only a novice at it? Maybe I should just buy a Circus...

Do not worry about getting a circus, Finesse are fine Search for videos by people such as Pranay, The Sharpe Brothers, Mad French Posse. And me of course.

William

PS: Mate, I'm loving your signature!

[Aaron Z]

Hehe, thanks for the help.
So, I suppose I should get 2D? Looks very enticing, and now that it's Xmas time I could get a discount second diabolo...

[Aaron Z]

Whoopee! I've ordered my second white finesse G3 from oddballs.co.uk and it, along with an evolution 1 and 3 kit were dispatched today, I've also got access to a very precise scale, so I'll compare the weights of the red and white G3 cups and see if there's really a difference.

Another thing that's been brought up before, maybe somewhere is misshapen cups, and a few resolutions.
My red G3 has severely misshapen cups to the extent that the diabolo visibly wobbles on the string, and because of this I recently tried 2 recommendations of how to fix this problem. Those 2 methods were leaving the diabolo out under the sun on a weltering hot day, and soaking the detached cups in warmish-hot water.

First, I tried the soaking method by detaching the cups from the rest of the diabolo components and leaving them to rest in reasonably hot water, just cool enough to put your hands into it without taking bloody stubs out a moment later. Unfortunately even though the cups were fairly softened immediately after removal from the water and a short period after, the softness didn't last long enough for me to completely reassemble, balance and start spinning my diabolo.

Maybe I'll try using hotter water for more time when my second diabolo arrives and gets misshapen.
Anyways, about 2 weeks afterward I attempted putting my diabolo out in a blistering Australian day, about 34^C at the time.
Anyways, after setting my diabolo down in my yard I left to watch some TV then came back about 40 minutes later, to find that my house had cast a big shadow over my diabolo and ants were crawling over and nibbling my diabolo!
2 minutes and a freshly boiling kettle of water later, the ants were gone and I got to spinning my hardly affected diabolo.

I'll definitely be re-trying these two methods in the near future, and we'll see how it goes.

[Aaron Z]

*update*: I've just today received my long awaited diabolo set from www.oddballs.co.uk and at first I was really excited and happy until I realized that they had sent my a 6g weight set rather than the 10g set I ordered, and now I believe they even gave me a G2 Finesse rather than a G3, G2's aren't even on the same freakin' page as the G3s! No idea how they screwed this up...

Anyways, before I return my false sets and get proper ones back, hopefully with juicy 'compensation' diabolos, I need to verify that the White Finesse they sent me really isn't a G3 after all.

The main difference I can see is that the Finesse they sent me has only ONE CUP ALIGNMENT RIDGE per cup, whereas my current red Finesse that I'm sure actually IS a G3, has THREE GROUPS OF CUP ALIGNMENT RIDGES on either cup.

^Does this indicate a G2?

[mellowscholar]

Yeah, I think you're right. I'm pretty sure G3s have three of those notches and G2s either have 1 or 2, I can't remember which.

[seán_]

As far as I am aware no white g3's are out yet. if they said g3 on the site and you ordered them then they are in the wrong. whether you can be bothered sending them back is a different matter.

[Aaron Z]

Yeah, thanks for the replies.

The site I ordered from ( www.oddballs.co.uk ) was supposed to send me a finger axle, a 2x10g weight set and a white G3, instead I got a finger axle, a 2x6g weight set and a dirty white G2- it seems this store can't get any variable order right so far. I wouldn't personally recommend it.

I saw actual White G3's for sale at firetoys.co.uk , which is a very trustworthy site that I'm sure can distinguish a G2 from a G3, so you may want to look into that.

I'm going to send all the items received from oddballs straight back, claim a total refund and some sort of compensation (Maybe $$$, maybe a free Diabolo!) for the ridiculous amount of inconveniences they've caused.
And after that, I'll order all the same gear from firetoys for 10$ more, I've already got a Whitey G3 reserved! 

[mellowscholar]

I've ordered a few things from oddballs and they've been okay.

[Asa (Formerly Legault)]

I was pretty stupid and decided to bring my flys with me to a friends and ended up playing on concrete and grinded on a tennis court, and now the axle sounds really, really bad.
Does anyone know a way to ressurect a fly axle? Don't say WD-40, i already tried and it sounds even worse now.

[Aaron Z]

I guess you mean the ball-bearing fly, and that you dropped it on concrete?

Well, I'd personally say to disassemble- then re-assemble the entire diabolo because I found that dropping a ball-bearing Diabolo from a good height and with enough speed can misplace/loosen and just generally screw up the internal components of the diabolo.

If you have already tried it without good results, just tighten everything inside the cups while the diabolo IS assembled, the screw-parts in the cups (connecting to the axle) can come loose after a bit of spinning following high drops and such, if that is the problem then you can increase the tightness by wrapping some plastic-bag strips, of your own size preference around the sides of the axle, that go through the cups and connect to the nuts. 

[nev]

I was pretty stupid and decided to bring my flys with me to a friends and ended up playing on concrete and grinded on a tennis court, and now the axle sounds really, really bad.
Does anyone know a way to ressurect a fly axle? Don't say WD-40, i already tried and it sounds even worse now.

The concrete or grinding on a tennis net won't hurt the axle.  If its noisy its probably just run dry of grease.  It'll still play fine like this only noisier than usual.  You need to get some bearing grease (I find the red kind with teflon in it works best) or lithium grease.  Just put a small amount in the bearings and all will be restored.

[TomMiller]

The concrete or grinding on a tennis net won't hurt the axle.  If its noisy its probably just run dry of grease.  It'll still play fine like this only noisier than usual.  You need to get some bearing grease (I find the red kind with teflon in it works best) or lithium grease.  Just put a small amount in the bearings and all will be restored.

Will that 3 in one oil or WD40 work?

[Asa (Formerly Legault)]

Wear can i find bearing grease? And how should i apply it?

[Aaron Z]

Many Yo-yo's have bearing systems and I'm sure you can find some grease meant for them on eBay that ought to work for your diabolo.
I did a few eBay searches for you and couldn't find what you're looking for; which I guess is just a simple bottle of grease.

Also, I've got no idea how to apply grease if you do manage to get it, but I'm sure sending an email to a company that manufactures bearing diabolos, or your fly in particular that they could both deal you some grease and application details.

[William]

I used some oil that came with an old yo-yo with surprisingly good results.
But I like my bearings noisy.

[Asa (Formerly Legault)]

Well I applied some of the stuff meant for bearings, and it helped some...I probably didnt apply enough or let it sink in long enough.

[Aaron Z]

I suppose if there is no negative impact on diabolo performance and only a slightly louder noise, there's no real reason to take huge measures onto fixing it, you can even use the noise as an indicator to how fast your diabolo is spinning; it usually gets louder as speed increases.

But again, if you want to get the fastest solution, contact the manufacturer.   

[tipiphil]

Will that 3 in one oil or WD40 work?

These are penetrating oils - good for squeaks and rusted bolts, but won't stay in the bearing long once it starts spinning.
Will possibly end up getting thrown onto the string!!

Wear can i find bearing grease? And how should i apply it?

Best bet for bearing grease is a motor factors, or a local garage may be able to sort you out with it.

But I like my bearings noisy.

I suppose if there is no negative impact on diabolo performance and only a slightly louder noise, there's no real reason to take huge measures onto fixing it, you can even use the noise as an indicator to how fast your diabolo is spinning; it usually gets louder as speed increases.

Noisy bearings are usually dry bearings.
Bearings that run dry will create more friction, more wear on the bearings, and in the end a break down of the bearing.
A lubricated bearing will run faster and longer than a dry one.

[Aaron Z]

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[nev]

Bicycle shops will sell the right grease for bearings (as bikes have lots of bearings on them).  To apply it just take the Fly (or any other bearing diabolo) apart and put some grease either on the axle bolt or on the inside of the bearing part itself.  Put the diabolo back together and all should be good again.