surface changes

[Tony]

Started a summer league at a different center, they use less oil and tend to dry out quicker especially outside 3rd arrow where the higher percentage of folks are bowling. I have a roto grip hustle (rig) I got for when the lanes are dryer that I haven't used much at the other house and figured it might be a good ball for this league.

Tried it in a practice session and had to keep moving left to keep it in the pocket and wasn't getting into a good roll quickly enough.
The ball comes at 1500 polished, I decided it wasn't looking like it would be of any use at the OOB condition, so I might as well try a change
and see what it can do.

Since the ball was going too long for me it seemed I would need to take off the polish and change the surface, then decide if I should put polish back on.
I first thought I would hit it with the 500, then 2000 and leave it with no polish, but wasn't sure if that would give me what I wanted so instead used to 500
to take off the polish, and then 1000 and leave it with no polish.

Since it was the first night we were just messing around, I decided to throw a game each with three different balls to see how they work.

First game Hy-road 2000 polish 180

Second game Hustle 1000 no pol 266

Third game Ebonite warrior elite 2000 polish 175

The Hy-road works great at the other center so I'm going to leave it be and not use it here, for now
The Hustle was great , keeping it just like it is.
The Warrior going to take off the polish then bring it to 3000 with no polish.

I'm going to get out another little used ball (DV8 Outcast) that's designed for med to dry lanes and try and get that one tuned into these lanes.
Outcast was 500 with royal compound/ royal shine, but I think the PSO changed it a while back, I think I'm going to take off the polish and scuff it
with a gray scotch brite pad (1500) and try it like that.

Any comments / suggestions on the proposed surface changes or changing surface in general ?

[RobLV1]

I think that your first night scores give you your answer! Some centers like polish, and some like surface. This one certainly seems to like surface.

[Amyers]

It's good that your experimenting with the surfaces. The only thing I would say to do differently is make smaller changes. Going from 1500 polished to 500/1000 is a huge change that's big enough to change the personality of the ball. I prefer to make smaller steps down if a ball is polished take it to 4k or 500 with rubbing compound if it's still to long go 3k and so on. Also one game good or bad isn't really enough to judge if your change has been successful or not.

Last week one of my buddies bought a track spare for use as a strike ball later in sets at nationals. He decided to try it out in league which as a drier shot laughed how he was going to beat my a$$ with a plastic ball and he did the first game 244-203 then lost the next 2 games 229-189 and 230-208. the conditions weren't optimal for the ball and how successful he will be at nationals with it I have no idea but with further testing he's got 6 games with the ball now and a 208 average. He averages 218 for the season. One game or even one series can be misleading. Sometimes you just throw it really good sometimes you get lucky. Point is adding that much surface on a dryer shot really shouldn't be the answer unless you misread the lane conditions initaly.

[Tony]

It's good that your experimenting with the surfaces. The only thing I would say to do differently is make smaller changes. Going from 1500 polished to 500/1000 is a huge change that's big enough to change the personality of the ball. I prefer to make smaller steps down if a ball is polished take it to 4k or 500 with rubbing compound if it's still to long go 3k and so on. Also one game good or bad isn't really enough to judge if your change has been successful or not.

Last week one of my buddies bought a track spare for use as a strike ball later in sets at nationals. He decided to try it out in league which as a drier shot laughed how he was going to beat my a$$ with a plastic ball and he did the first game 244-203 then lost the next 2 games 229-189 and 230-208. the conditions weren't optimal for the ball and how successful he will be at nationals with it I have no idea but with further testing he's got 6 games with the ball now and a 208 average. He averages 218 for the season. One game or even one series can be misleading. Sometimes you just throw it really good sometimes you get lucky. Point is adding that much surface on a dryer shot really shouldn't be the answer unless you misread the lane conditions initaly.

I'm not sure how good overall my impression of the lane is, I know they put down less oil then my regular house, confirmed by the pro shop mgr and a buddy of mine who has bowled extensively at both places, however the test will be shooting there the whole summer league. My teammate who I bowl with at the other place also shot a 700 with his Sure Lock.
I will find out as the season goes on, I am going to take the 3 balls Outcast / Hustle / Warrior to different surfaces to experiment with it.
I've typically used polished balls most often so I want to see how more surface works for me.

[Amyers]

I'm not sure how good overall my impression of the lane is, I know they put down less oil then my regular house, confirmed by the pro shop mgr and a buddy of mine who has bowled extensively at both places, however the test will be shooting there the whole summer league. My teammate who I bowl with at the other place also shot a 700 with his Sure Lock.
I will find out as the season goes on, I am going to take the 3 balls Outcast / Hustle / Warrior to different surfaces to experiment with it.
I've typically used polished balls most often so I want to see how more surface works for me.

From the early evidence very well

[Tony]

Went to the center and threw some practice games today, had the Hustle at 500/2000/1000 no polish, the Warrior Elite 500/1000/3000 no polish, and the Outcast at ?? plus polish then went over it lightly with a 1500 scratch pad.
surprisingly all 3 balls played well, they just put down fresh oil for a senior league, I think the Hustle will my ball to start with out of the bag and Warrior will be next if I need to play a little deeper, the outcast probably needs some more experimentation but it was better than it had been.
I am pretty amazed how well the dull balls played for me so far at this center. I shot all 5 pretty good games, 190 was my low game and all the rest were 200 plus, a couple were 215 plus.

[Tony]

Threw every shot tonight with the Hustle RIG , 236, 223, 201
almost switched balls in middle of game 3 but stayed with the Hustle, and finished with a few strikes to eek out a 201 game.

[Tony]

Threw a few practice games, one warm up then one each with three different balls.

Outcast 189 / left mega 10 pins on fairly good looking shots, and once left an 8/ going to change the surface on this ball

warrior elite 241 / after a couple of frames found the right spot and zoned in. / I like this ball at 3000 No polish NP/ Played 2 to 3 boards right of the hustle

Hustle RIG 219 / threw a couple of weak off balance shots or would have been a little better game / This ball works great at 1000 NP

Should be a challenge this week we play the team with the overall best combined team average so far, their anchor subbed for half the season on my Friday team, and I've also bowled against him, he hates to lose !
We'll try and put the pressure on him and see what happens, should be a fun night.

[Tony]

New surface on the outcast

500 / 2000 / 1000 no polish

This duplicates the surface on the Hustle, the outcast always seemed a little stronger , so not sure how this will work, guess we'll see.

[MICHAEL]

I like the movement of The Deadly Aim so much that I purchased another slightly used one at Gladstone Bowel Pro Shop. They are all drilled different but all 3 are pin up. I do a different surface on each of them, and then chose which one matches up that day for the surface I put on them. I too purchased a very nice water feed innovative pro shop two speed spinner a few years ago. ( paid 800 for it, and it retailed for around 1800.00 bucks) It was almost new, only a year of use. Also made my own over, out of a blog that showed how using a cheap dehydrator.

Have a nice work area to play with my 20 or so balls! Alone with the Deadly aims I carry one plastic ball, and a guest ball each time I go to league... 5 balls! It's amazing the difference You can make on a ball when you have the equipment to play with them. Its also amazing that what works one time, on a given ball, might fail miserably the next time I bowl the same alley! So many variables!!!! I now am at a point where I pretty much know for the two different locations where I currently bowl what to expect! I did buy a hammer Scandal but really didn't care for it much, even though I did try out several different combinations on the ball surface.

I now know the HUGE difference that surface makes on the over all movement of the ball as it goes through the skid, hook and roll cycle!
Will post THE DEADLY AIM that gave me the 834, soon,,, and the surface prep I did the night before. I keep records so that when something works out well, I know what it was!

[RobLV1]

I remember this thread as I went out to the garage to prepare my bowling balls for subbing in a league today after a week off after cataract surgery. The four balls I'm taking are: Storm Code Black, Storm Rocket Ship, Storm Fight (polished), and Brunswick Fanatic BTU. Here's what I did: Code Black; cleaned and noticed that the track was beginning to burn into the polish, so I used a small amount (about the size of a dime on a moist micro-fiber towel) of Powerhouse Factory Finish on two sides (putting each bow tie on top) to refresh the polish; Storm Rocket Ship, cleaned and refreshed the 3000 surface on four sides for about 6 seconds with light pressure; Storm Fight, same as Code Black; Brunswick BTU, cleaned and used 1000 abrasion for 8 seconds, medium pressure, on four sides, followed by 3000 for 5 seconds, light pressure, on four sides.

[Tony]

Another new surface on the outcast, 500 with Brunswick factory compound.
Tried the outcast in practice and it went long, didn't feel good at all.

Started out with the Hustle and shot a 266, second ball of the second game tweaked something in my shoulder ......started trying to throw an easy soft shot
so I could keep going, tried the outcast and warrior moving way left and throwing it slower, softer, not great results but was able to finish the night out.

Shot a 168, and 164 the last 2 games for a series of 598, pretty disappointing with a 266 start, but hoping to recover and bowl next week as usual
we won 3 of 4 points so still should be up with the leaders.

[Tony]

Going to try a different surface or two on the outcast before I give up, I think something like 500 to take off compound then 1000 and finally 2000 and see what happens in practice.

[Aslan]

I changed the Innovate from 1000/2000/Storm Step 2/Resin Polish to 800/1500/Storm Step 2 with no resin polish.

Evened out the ball motion a bit...didn't really see much else of a difference.