Cleaning & maintaining equipment...

S

slayer

New Member
I have been doing a bit of reading about cleaning and maintaining your ball...

I have a Raw Hammer Doom and so far i have just been wiping it after each shot with a cotton towel... and then every now and then i use a cleaning solution to give it a good clean...

is this enough to maintain it and keep it performing well?

would a microfibre towel be better? and what of polishing etc...???

cheers!
 
Microfibre towel works well as it absorbs the oil better. Cleaning it with a spray on solution after every 3 or 4 games is always going to keep it in good condition. Some like to use the ball manufacturers cleaners or I have seen Isocol used which restores the tack back to new. One of the most effective ways of cleaning a resin ball is to put it in hot soapy water but making sure you tape up the holes to avoid water getting into the ball. This is normally done every month or so and it is quite surprising to see what is left in the sink (if you use the sink that is). Hope this helps and maybe someone else can add to that.

Grant
 
somewhere in the coaching forum is a post by george explaining exactley what you need to do to maintain the performance of your reactive ball.

Most importantly though u must clean ure ball after every session of bowling perferable with a ball cleaner made by a ball manufacturer.
 
Do not use Isocol to clean reactive equipment, as it crystalizes the casing,
and the ball loses it`s reactivity.
Animal
 
Just be careful, because some cleaners eat away the coverstock.
So always read the label and make a good choice
 
Thank you Animal, I did not know about the Isocol issue. I had seen it about but must admit have never tried it before.

Grant
 
some people like too sit the ball in the sun for a short while to bring out the oil !!!
don't know if this is good or bad idea!!
 
Urethane is a thermoset resin, isocol (isopropyl alcohol) won't worry it (although and extended soak might remove enough resin to make the coverstock become brittle). Might be a problem for polyester (plastic) balls if you soak them in it.

Some isocol formulations have lanolin in them. This is bad. If you want to use isocol, see a chemist and ask for 70% rubbibg alcohol without any scents or additives. Don't soak balls in it.

Acetone, non-acetone nail polish remover, and other aggresive solvents will (over time) remove the resin from resin balls, making them brittle. Don't use them. They will actually dissolve plastic balls, the coverstock slowly and the core quickly. I actually did this as a experiment in a chem demo, dissolved the core out of a white dot with methylene chloride. Fun.

Acetone also dissolves lifters, slowly. Good way of rejuvenating or smoothing lifters, or for restoring the curved edge if you have to cut them back - just put a bit on a towel and rub it round the inside edge of the lifer with your thumb.

The hot water and detergent soak really does work to rejuvenate balls and deep-clean the coverstock. I have never bothered to tape up the holes, and have never had any problems. It is probably a good idea to tape the holes on lighter balls though as the core is more porous. Or just soak them with the holes pointing down so the air stays in.
 
i just put mine out in the sun. the oil seeps out from the coverstock in no time at all. must be careful doing tho. i wipe the ball about every 10 minutes and keep rotating along the track so i dont get inconsistency. this however only works for getting oil out of dull balls. a cleaner is needed me thinks for polished gear. it works for me.

i dont like the idea of submerging a ball in water due to the porous nature of balls. i know people say its ok but it just doesnt sit well with me.
 
Jason,
So you are happy to expose your expensive equipment to poorly-filtered radiation from a continous uncontrolled thermonuclear explosion, allowing high-energy UV and cosmic radiation to slowly destroy the chemical structure of the ball surface, but are worried about a bit of plastic getting wet?

:);)
 
i used to preheat oven to around 180 degree's C, put old faithful Seawolf in a baking tray and put him in the over, would pull it out every 10 minutes or so and wipe the oil off, put it back in again. This would continue until after the 10 minutes of cooking wouldnt produce as much oil and then my ball would be done.

I dont know if this has any detrimental affects on a ball, but its 13 years old and still going strong
 
yes rob i am. it seems to work fine. i do ensure that i change the position of the ball every few minutes so that it is consistent across the coverstock. i think you might be getting a bit carried away with the thermonuclear stuff mate lol. and besides, if the UV was so bad, then we would all be dead and no one would be able to chuck a ball down in the 1st place.

it just doesnt sit well placing a porous object in water and punting on it seeping out later. after all im trying to remove liquid, not put more in. but in saying all this, if somebody could convince me 100% tat water wont damage my gear, then i will be willing to give it a whirl. whatever will work best to keep my gear in top shape, im happy to do.
 
I have been in contact with the company that makes/distributes Isocol (the green bottle with the Gator on the front).
It does not contain lanolin!

Graeme

BTW Robbie B
I thought it was funny!
 
Handy Andy seems to make the surface tackier than Dawn for me, havent done that for a while though. I guess youd be the man to ask Robbie does Ammonia based stuff like that hurt the shell?
 
thomstar said:
some people like too sit the ball in the sun for a short while to bring out the oil !!!
don't know if this is good or bad idea!!
Click to expand...


I've been told someone down south did a study -- When bowling balls are subjected to a lot of heat, it's not just oil coming out of the ball, it's more resin based. He proved this by heating up a ball & retaining some of the moisture secreted from the ball, as well as literally scraping coverstock off another ball (same type), took the shavings & moisture to a university to get tested, showing that both substances were basically the same.
If this is true, then i wouldn't leave gear out in the sun, unless you want it to die quicker. "warm" soapy water would be the more appropriate method of deep cleaning, in my opinion.
 
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