Ball Sanding

[scruffwhor]

Hello fellow bowlers,

I'm new to the forum and just got back into bowling a couple months ago. I've got 3 balls drilled and tested right now.
Ever since my wife and I have started bowling together and I signed up for a league that starts May 9th, I wanna say I've been bowling about 10 games a week.

I've got into the habit of wiping my ball off after every shot and cleaning the balls after every session, sometimes 6 games. I have a bottle of Brunswick remove all and Storm reacta clean. I will be trying out the 50/50 simple green and alcohol mix soon.

OK, here's the question after that long winded intro.......

When should I sand my balls? How many games? Just base it on reaction over time??

Thanks folks.

[ArtVandelay]

That's what I do (base it on feel/reaction).

There will be manufacturer recommendations, and I'm sure other people will chime in and tell you how often you SHOULD resurface your ball, but the bottom line is how you feel about its performance.

I feel like resurfacing the ball is pretty dramatic, and there's only so many times you can do it. So if I bowl and I feel like the ball isn't reacting as it should, I make it a point to really do a solid job heating out the oil and cleaning it off. Then I try to go throw a practice session. If that doesn't fix it, I consider getting it resurfaced. But I try to leave it as a last resort.

I normally only bowl 3 games a week in league. I bet I resurface my ball every year and a half or so. Not too often. Most of the time a really good cleaning does the job.

Your results may vary.

[Zothen]

It is recommended that you resurface a ball about every 60 games and rejuvenate(Suck oil out)about every 100 games. Then again depending how many games you bowl a week may depend on how often you resurface. You can also wait til your ball becomes sluggish. I do mine every 60 games as i'm in 2 leagues and avg 6-9 games extra in practice.

Zothen

[CeKnauss]

Sometimes, you may not even have to do a full resurface. I have a few sanding pads in my bag and scuff my ball by hand if I feel I need a different motion with one of the balls I have on me. Be warned, it is against USBC regulation to do this during league play, so only try it during practice. It is, however, permissible to use a polishing machine (such as the Speed King found in many centers) as long as the machine doesn't use abrasives. (In my free time, I read rule books like that for USBC competition... I'm crazy, I know.)

I usually clean rubber marks off with rubbing alcohol. I use Energizer or Power Wash for general gunk and grime. I use Clean and Dull for those deep cleans cause it works quite well, but it takes some time to work with it.

I haven't yet had a full resurface on any of my equipment, however at the rate I've been getting new equipment, it is not something I have really needed. When I purchase used balls, I usually have it wet sanded up to something. (I don't like Brunswick box finishes. They use Rough Buff on so much equipment, but it doesn't work for me.)

[billf]

First, I go 60 games. I've been keeping track for seven years and my carry really goes down beyond that.
Second, the amount removed during sanding/resurfacing is minute and would take many years worth of doing it to have a negative affect on longevity. My Storm Victory Road had over 4,000 games on it when I gave it away and it's still going strong. My Hy-Road has 5,786 games currently with no ill effects due to sanding every 60 games.

[HughScot]

As someone who is also somewhat new to bowling let me say I usually don't go by a certain number of games. If my ball is not reacting the way I want it to I usually will give it a very through cleaning and if that doesn't fix it I'll go ahead and resurface it myself by hand. If that doesn't do it I'll give to my pro shop to rejuvenate it. Probably between 50 and 75 games.

[billf]

Science and math are fun to me, especially physics. I started keeping track of games on a ball by just making a mark on a pad in my bag. Then when I didn't like the reaction I would change balls to see if it was me. If it wasn't me, I would count the hash marks for that ball's page. I was consistently between 70-75 games with multiple balls. Figuring that by the time I could/would notice was too late I reduced the average by just over 15% (16.6% actually) to gain some margin of error.