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An interesting experience.

Posted: April 29th, 2019, 1:03 pm
by b3y0nd3r
A few months ago, I had my purple hammer drilled by my PSO. He choose a two finger/handed layout. The ball hooked so much I couldn't do a thing with it. I read up on some layouts and had him re-drill it. I had a few good games on heavy oil(practice) but the ball was once again useless with a unpredictable ball reaction during leagues. I stopped using it.

A month later I took it out in practice again. The ball was doing weird things like flattening out, then "Tiering"(the only way I can describe it). The ball would shift left go straight, then shift left again, then go straight, then hit the 7 or left gutter. I then threw it flat at the 10, it shifted left then right(?). This only happened on dry mids.

I examined the ball and where the PSO filled my old finger holes, there were hard edged rings(barely feelable to the touch). These covered 20% of the ball surface. The ball had two surfaces! A 20% 500(I think) and 80% 2000.

I took out 2000 grit pad and sanded the whole ball by hand(took about 15 mins). While I was at it, I took my Brunswick orange pearl(500 grit) and gave that a 3000 grit finish.

I took them to practice. It was 6pm and there was a decent amount of oil on the lanes. I bowled 3 with the Orange with a smoother ball reaction and got some great hits(high 170s avg). Then 3 with the Purple and also had a decent reaction with a different line (high 180s avg).

The next three with the orange again. Game 8 was hooking fairly good and game 9 the lane had the dry mid condition. The first 5 frames was with the orange, the last 5 frames with the Purple, both balls seemed to "tier".

Questions:

Is it legal to have two different surfaces on a ball?
How long does hand sanding last?
Should I use a ball spinner?
Will polish lock in the surface?

Unrelated:
Can I use car wash fluid to wash a bowling ball?

Any tips on ball surface I would be grateful for!

Thanks everyone!

Re: An interesting experience.

Posted: April 29th, 2019, 3:09 pm
by 44boyd
You have to sand the whole ball with a pad, direction in which you sand can affect performance by going with or against the track. The heavier pad you sand with (e.g. 500), the more you need to reapply after 3 games or so. 4000s last a little longer and remember lane shine diminishes ball reaction too. Spinners are nice for resurfacing, but you need to learn to do it by hand at the alley to get the reaction you’re looking for.

Re: An interesting experience.

Posted: April 30th, 2019, 9:23 am
by VLe
b3y0nd3r wrote:A month later I took it out in practice again. The ball was doing weird things like flattening out, then "Tiering"(the only way I can describe it). The ball would shift left go straight, then shift left again, then go straight, then hit the 7 or left gutter.
This sounds like you were bowling on a very burned up conditions where you were throwing an early hooking ball through the most-played lines. The ball will start hooking as soon as it hit the dry spot on the lane and then starts to skid again when it gets to the oil again. You need to move either deeper or a straighter shot (closer to the gutter) with more speed.
b3y0nd3r wrote:I took out 2000 grit pad and sanded the whole ball by hand(took about 15 mins). While I was at it, I took my Brunswick orange pearl(500 grit) and gave that a 3000 grit finish.
With abralon or similar pad 15min is too much. You can get quite even surface in just a minute or so. Especially with less-grit pad. For me I mostly use 1000grit or 2000grit. In some rare cases I grab the 500grit (usually for urethane ball). I always sand the ball with a 4-sided method when I do it by hand.
http://wiki.bowlingchat.net/wiki/index. ... dification
b3y0nd3r wrote:Questions:

Is it legal to have two different surfaces on a ball?
How long does hand sanding last?
Should I use a ball spinner?
Will polish lock in the surface?

Unrelated:
Can I use car wash fluid to wash a bowling ball?
It is not legal to have multi-grit -surface. How long the surface lasts depends on the type of surface, but it will start to shine very fast. In some cases, I have to adjust the surface between every games a little to keep the aggressiveness of the surface. Ball spinner is always better. There are different kind of polishes and some of them have some additives that can soak into the ball surface. It is not safe to use commercial polishes (a car polish for example) since they can contain additives (like silicone) that can ruin the ball surface. Of course, there are some commercial polishes that many use and are as good as the official bowling products.

You should not use car wash fluid to clean up your ball. They are not meant to clean up porous urethane-based surfaces. Car washing fluids may also include additives that can ruin the ball surface.