Resurfacing true or false?

[Phonetek]

The other day when I went to that awful PSO I did ask about getting my ball resurfaced. It's an old AMF RPM Swirl with a fairly glossy finish but not polyester glossy out of the box, an early reactive resin ball. Since the guy was a jerk I don't consider him to be a reliable source by any means. I was at a good PSO today but forgot to ask. He said and I quote "Older resin balls are more difficult to resurface because there are more steps involved in doing it than newer ones." I seen on his wall he charges $70 bucks to resurface a ball. Was this way of trying to milk more money because it "takes more steps than a newer one"? Of course for that price I wouldn't bother, I'd rather put it on the house ball rack. Which maybe that was also his agenda, to make me reconsider and buy some of his overpriced warez instead of resurfacing a perfectly good ball? A ball spinner is in my future.

[bowl1820]

The other day when I went to that awful PSO I did ask about getting my ball resurfaced. It's an old AMF RPM Swirl with a fairly glossy finish but not polyester glossy out of the box, an early reactive resin ball. Since the guy was a jerk I don't consider him to be a reliable source by any means. I was at a good PSO today but forgot to ask. He said and I quote "Older resin balls are more difficult to resurface because there are more steps involved in doing it than newer ones." I seen on his wall he charges $70 bucks to resurface a ball. Was this way of trying to milk more money because it "takes more steps than a newer one"? Of course for that price I wouldn't bother, I'd rather put it on the house ball rack. Which maybe that was also his agenda, to make me reconsider and buy some of his overpriced warez instead of resurfacing a perfectly good ball? A ball spinner is in my future.


He's trying to milk more money. The AMF RPM Swirl OOB was just called "Polished".

Older balls didn't particularly have any more steps, than today's balls. The sanding procedure back then was mainly you just started at the lowest grit needed, then stepped through each following grit till you got to the surface you wanted.

Now some old balls were harder to sand do to what they were made of, so it took 5 mins. longer and/or had to use a certain abrasive. But the AMF RPM Swirl isn't one of them. I could throw it on my spinner and have it looking like a marble is just few minutes.

Here to resurface a ball is $40, that's for a resurface on the Haus machine + deoiled in the Detox machine + 2 new grips.

[Phonetek]

Unreal, what a snake huh? SMH. I know it's not a difficult thing to do. I have no problems getting the stuff and doing it myself. Right now only having 2 balls it wouldn't be worth it. I could probably make my own spinner. I have a few 1/3 & 1/4hp belt drive motors laying around pretty sure one is variable speed, it would be easy as pie to make. I'd really only need to get the proper pads, papers and polishes which are probably the primary expense. I don't know exactly what would be entailed in making a detox machine though. There are probably directions on this site somewhere LOL

[bowl1820]

Unreal, what a snake huh? SMH. I know it's not a difficult thing to do. I have no problems getting the stuff and doing it myself. Right now only having 2 balls it wouldn't be worth it. I could probably make my own spinner. I have a few 1/3 & 1/4hp belt drive motors laying around pretty sure one is variable speed, it would be easy as pie to make. I'd really only need to get the proper pads, papers and polishes which are probably the primary expense. I don't know exactly what would be entailed in making a detox machine though. There are probably directions on this site somewhere LOL

A cheap alternative (the bundles are the best price) to a spinner is the Polish Your Ball SMarT Tools:

https://www.polishyourball.com/

While I haven't used one, a couple of users on here have and have said they got decent results with it. (there are posts about it.)


https://youtu.be/e2MMIF3yDNk

[bowl1820]

While it wouldn't be impossible, The Detox machine is a ultraSonic ball cleaner making one would take some work. The simple DIY is the deoiler made from a dehydrator.

The Detox is the next generation of bowling ball de-oiling and cleaning. It uses ultra-sonic technology to penetrate the cover for the ultimate de-oiling process.


https://youtu.be/IfuRaHrpogE

[Phonetek]

The spinner is definitely easily do-able with just stuff I have laying around. It will be a little more crude than the motorized one in the video. I'd have to put the motor farther away with a guard for wet sanding but otherwise no problem. The ultra sonic bath um....no. It says 120 degrees. I do have a huge deep slow cooker that would easily fit a ball and it can be set to 120 degrees if that's the optimum temperature? Would that work and say throw a little Dawn dish liquid in it? Wifey would probably be a tad triggered using it for that but if it would work then too bad. LOL I also have a solvent tank for auto parts with a de-greaser solvent in it but that's probably too harsh and the ball would stink horribly so I wouldn't try that.

[Amyers]

The spinner is definitely easily do-able with just stuff I have laying around. It will be a little more crude than the motorized one in the video. I'd have to put the motor farther away with a guard for wet sanding but otherwise no problem. The ultra sonic bath um....no. It says 120 degrees. I do have a huge deep slow cooker that would easily fit a ball and it can be set to 120 degrees if that's the optimum temperature? Would that work and say throw a little Dawn dish liquid in it? Wifey would probably be a tad triggered using it for that but if it would work then too bad. LOL I also have a solvent tank for auto parts with a de-greaser solvent in it but that's probably too harsh and the ball would stink horribly so I wouldn't try that.

I wouldn't use a degreaser but Dawn should work fine or Simple Green. that guy you seen was a real piece of work

[1VegasBowler]

I use hot water and Dawn all of the time. It brought my Vandal Smash back to life.

[Phonetek]

I use hot water and Dawn all of the time. It brought my Vandal Smash back to life.

I decided to try it out last night but the water quickly gets cold. I had it sit until the water got luke warm then I wiped it down and scuffed it lightly with a scotch brite pad. Then I put it in another hot bath with Dawn one more time. After I wiped it down with alcohol. I won't know if what I did helped at all until I get on the lanes again. Worst case scenario it gave me something to do for an hour

[djp1080]

I used to take a plain old plastic bucket downstairs and filled it with hot tap water. Gave it a little Dawn detergent and placed the ball in that for 20 to 30 minutes. If the ball had collected some lane oil, it would sweat it out and cover the ball with bubbles of it. The ball would be slippery if I recall correctly. I'd take it out and dump out the original solution and fill it back up again for another treatment. Gave it another 20 minutes or so. By then there would be little if any oil in the ball.
These days I use my converted food dehydrator when I think the ball's reaction had decreased to the point I didn't like it anymore. The hot air treatment seems to be just as good if not better as the hot air has a temperature adjustment to it. Either way works, but the holes don't get water in them any more.
Hope this helps...

[BlueTrane2028]

I had my Cyclone resurfaced for $25.

Long term, I'll get a spinner. For now it's money well spent. Didn't take out the gouges it has, but reaction is as good as it ever was.

[vdubtx]

What's the question?

[jazzuar]

My gues is that the PSO was just trying to keep you from wasting money resurfacing a ball that with even with the best results will still perform like a 22yo bowling ball. If you are resurfacing it yourself that would be slightly better, but I’m not sure the finished product would be worth the cost of a set of abrasion pads.
The technology has changed so much just in the last few years. There are some great balls for around $100, like the Hustle or Match Up lines that come in solid, pearl or hybrid, you can certainly find the motion you are looking for.