Question about resurfacing an old ball......

[Hammer]

I have a Columbia yellow dot ball that I bought in the late 70s that is what they call a bleeder. It has never been resurfaced and has nicks and scratches and old track marks. The pro shop guy at our house told me that to get those out he would have to start with 100 grit Abralon. Then he said that the sequence of pads would go up from there and then be polished. My question is after using a 100 grit pad to start what should be the sequence of pads after that? I had new finger grips put in it recently. I found out it doesn't work good on a dry lane. When I used it on our house lane that had fresh oil it worked great.

Because I don't have an approach because of bad knees I didn't have the speed to control the hook from my Hammer reactive and urethane balls. My speed now is 6.50 to 8.00 mph. Because of this I bought a Columbia 300 plastic Lava ball. Then I needed a ball that would hook a little more then my new plastic ball but less then my urethane ball. That's where my old Columbia yellow dot ball comes in. The pro shop guy told me that he can resurface my yellow dot and polish it afterward and it would match up nice with my plastic ball. When I used the yellow dot on fresh oil it worked well with just being polished and not resurfaced. I will still get it resurfaced and polished just to get the nicks, scratches and old track marks off of it. I am glad that I didn't listen to my wife and throw the yellow dot away.

My yellow dot will now have new life after being in the dark with no use since the early 80s.

[bowl1820]

The pro shop guy at our house told me that to get those out he would have to start with 100 grit Abralon. Then he said that the sequence of pads would go up from there and then be polished. My question is after using a 100 grit pad to start what should be the sequence of pads after that?

The original way to step through the grits was to never go more than double what the previous grit was.

You typically started with (these grit numbers are in US Ansi/Cami grits) 220 then went to 400-600-1200 then compound/polish if you were wanting the high shine.

Usually you only started with 100 grit if the ball was really bad or you had cut down plugs.

If you wanted to save as much original coverstock as you could, back then you would first patch the biggest nicks and gouges (with superglue or a drop of clear plug if you had it.). Then coarse sand till most of the nicks, gouges were real small but not all the way out. You would then start stepping through the grits and the nicks would slowly disappear until you had a very smooth blemish free ball and give you a very smooth surface ( depending on what surface you want of course.)

The reason for stepping through the grits that way, was so the final grit was as close to that final grit as it could be.

[Phonetek]

Does filling the gouges with Superglue still hold true with reactive balls? I remember discussion saying that glue promotes cracking somehow or is that just when used inside the holes?

[bowl1820]

Does filling the gouges with Superglue still hold true with reactive balls? I remember discussion saying that glue promotes cracking somehow or is that just when used inside the holes?

Sure it works fine, I've personally have done it for years. Plastic, Urethane, Resin I've patched them all (when needed) with super glue and there's never been any cracking whatever where it's been done.

Superglue causing cracking around the fingers is just considered a "possible" cause, mainly Do to it producing a Thermogenic reaction (generating heat). Now I've filled in cracked bridges with alot of superglue and holes that have been all chipped out around them and never had a ball crack there afterwards.

In fact they sell a ball repair kit called "Master Bowling Ball Kwik Patch Kit" it's a bottle of superglue (cyanoacrylate) and accelerator. (I've used the accelerator when doing deep gouges).