reply to u/Vibeuel_ at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1s7lfdu/i_hate_loving_typewriters/
He used Chapstick as a heavy grease to hold ball bearings in place to re-insert the carriage and ball bearings into a Royal Arrow.
Sorry you went through this insertion of ball bearings into a Royal in this manner. For the future attempts, there is a re-creation of a custom tool for doing this sort of operation which also includes some repair manual details: https://www.m-morren.nl/product/17071027/royal-bearing-guide-ball-feeder-tool
Lucas Dul also has a video that might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_PONcT8HHI as well as some discussion of using straws at the 21:40 mark in this video: https://virtualhermans.com/lucas-dul