What is going on with these lanes?

[boomer]

One thing to think about is that when bake your balls (LOL) other things happen. Even at low temperatures, we can affect the plasticizers in the resin that the balls are made of - this can affect the hardness and the porosity of the balls. This would explain why baking a ball brings it back to a certain extent, but not all the way, and it has a diminishing return. . .

[Phonetek]

One thing to think about is that when bake your balls (LOL) other things happen. Even at low temperatures, we can affect the plasticizers in the resin that the balls are made of - this can affect the hardness and the porosity of the balls. This would explain why baking a ball brings it back to a certain extent, but not all the way, and it has a diminishing return. . .

I'm by no means a chemist but I would think that the lane oil effects the plasticizer in the ball just as much if not more. Reactive resin is a derivative of urethane which is a petroleum product and obviously lane oil is a petroleum product. One is more refined than the other. One would think that mixing the two would cause more of a breakdown than mild heat to extract it. Technically, bowling with it may be what causes the breakdown of the cover stock more than actually trying to maintain it.

Again, I'm no chemist but I've seen what oil does to a plastic cup if it sets in there for any length of time. Think about what is doing to a bowling ball? Given that the modern bowling ball is plastic mixed with petroleum could be another reason why these things crack new in the box? They themselves are breaking down because of their chemical makeup even with no help from lane oil, along with the gravity theory. Just a hypothesis because I doubt any scientists have sat in a lab testing this theory vs a low evenly heated bowling ball.

I could be completely wrong, it's just a theory. Any scientists on the board that can say "Yay" or "Nay"?

[Cdolcejr]

I'm by no means a chemist but I would think that the lane oil effects the plasticizer in the ball just as much if not more. Reactive resin is a derivative of urethane which is a petroleum product and obviously lane oil is a petroleum product. One is more refined than the other. One would think that mixing the two would cause more of a breakdown than mild heat to extract it. Technically, bowling with it may be what causes the breakdown of the cover stock more than actually trying to maintain it.

Again, I'm no chemist but I've seen what oil does to a plastic cup if it sets in there for any length of time. Think about what is doing to a bowling ball? Given that the modern bowling ball is plastic mixed with petroleum could be another reason why these things crack new in the box? They themselves are breaking down because of their chemical makeup even with no help from lane oil, along with the gravity theory. Just a hypothesis because I doubt any scientists have sat in a lab testing this theory vs a low evenly heated bowling ball.

I could be completely wrong, it's just a theory. Any scientists on the board that can say "Yay" or "Nay"?

I'm definitely not a scientist, but I have also heard that balls can crack because they are cooled down too quickly by the manufacturer. For the record, I throw Pyramid equipment since 2015 or so and never had a ball crack. On the other hand, I've had 4 roto grip (3 of which cracked) and a Columbia 300 that has cracked.

As for ball maintenance, I regularly use a ball revivor and resurface/refresh. One of the balls I've been using consistently for the last 4-5 seasons still packs a lot of punch even though I'm pretty sure it has 500-1000+ games on it.

[Phonetek]

Cooling too fast is as good as reason as any. I would hope the factory has proper cooling racks or procedures in place. The same would hold true to the ball ovens. Take it out and plop it in a bucket of ice water, it would surely crack. All you can do is take the best precautions you can and hope for the best.

[Phonetek]

I'm definitely not a scientist, but I have also heard that balls can crack because they are cooled down too quickly by the manufacturer. For the record, I throw Pyramid equipment since 2015 or so and never had a ball crack. On the other hand, I've had 4 roto grip (3 of which cracked) and a Columbia 300 that has cracked.

As for ball maintenance, I regularly use a ball revivor and resurface/refresh. One of the balls I've been using consistently for the last 4-5 seasons still packs a lot of punch even though I'm pretty sure it has 500-1000+ games on it.

Sorry can't edit from mobile, had to do second post. What I forgot to say is that it does seem that some brands crack more than others. It's been discussed on here a ton. From my experience which doesn't count for much, I've had and seen more Storm and Rotos crack than others. I'm just one guy though so that's no official benchmark by any means. So far with Motiv I've been good.

[Aslan]

Balls I've had that have cracked (since 2014):

Brunswick Slingshot

Storm Frantic

900 Global "The Nuts" (undrilled, in the box)

Track 706A (undrilled, in the box)

DV8 Thug Life (undrilled, in the box)

Radical Reaxx Pearl

Hammer Scandal Pearl

Ebonite Innovate

All balls crack if they sit around long enough...EXCEPT...my old, urethane Columbia 300 Blue Knight from the 1980s. For some reason, that ball has never cracked. But, reactive resin...it's just a matter of time. They don't even need to be drilled.

To keep them from cracking??

- USE THEM
- Wipe them with some mild cleaner (alcohol/soap/ball cleaner) after each use).
- Don't leave them in your car/truck in the hot or cold weather.
- Don't do stupid things like put them in ovens or abuse them.

[boomer]

I'm by no means a chemist but I would think that the lane oil effects the plasticizer in the ball just as much if not more. Reactive resin is a derivative of urethane which is a petroleum product and obviously lane oil is a petroleum product. One is more refined than the other. One would think that mixing the two would cause more of a breakdown than mild heat to extract it. Technically, bowling with it may be what causes the breakdown of the cover stock more than actually trying to maintain it.

Again, I'm no chemist but I've seen what oil does to a plastic cup if it sets in there for any length of time. Think about what is doing to a bowling ball? Given that the modern bowling ball is plastic mixed with petroleum could be another reason why these things crack new in the box? They themselves are breaking down because of their chemical makeup even with no help from lane oil, along with the gravity theory. Just a hypothesis because I doubt any scientists have sat in a lab testing this theory vs a low evenly heated bowling ball.

I could be completely wrong, it's just a theory. Any scientists on the board that can say "Yay" or "Nay"?

I, too, am not a chemist. I'm an "applied technologist" which is a strange thing but that's what it says on the piece of paper! LOL

so there are oils and oils. not all oils do the same thing - it's amazing what comes out of the column when they refine oil or make it synthetically.

A plasticizer keeps a plastic (again, a VERY broad category including resins) . . . plastic. They keep it within a certain shore value range, shore being a measure of hardness. I used to deal with VERY soft foam plastics with extremely tight shore ranges - we used a meter with a very specific flat tip. Our balls use a pointed tip but same principle.

So the plasticizer in the ball is there to keep the ball in a consistent fashion. Stumbling for non-technical words, but that's really what it is - the plasticizer keeps the ball "soft" (which is funny since they're hard) - they don't degrade the ball.

Take the plasticizers out - you get a brittle ball. A hard ball.


not saying that's the only thing going on - just that it's **A** thing.

[Phonetek]

I, too, am not a chemist. I'm an "applied technologist" which is a strange thing but that's what it says on the piece of paper! LOL

so there are oils and oils. not all oils do the same thing - it's amazing what comes out of the column when they refine oil or make it synthetically.

A plasticizer keeps a plastic (again, a VERY broad category including resins) . . . plastic. They keep it within a certain shore value range, shore being a measure of hardness. I used to deal with VERY soft foam plastics with extremely tight shore ranges - we used a meter with a very specific flat tip. Our balls use a pointed tip but same principle.

So the plasticizer in the ball is there to keep the ball in a consistent fashion. Stumbling for non-technical words, but that's really what it is - the plasticizer keeps the ball "soft" (which is funny since they're hard) - they don't degrade the ball.

Take the plasticizers out - you get a brittle ball. A hard ball.


not saying that's the only thing going on - just that it's **A** thing.

Very interesting Boomer, see you never know when or where knowledge of unrelated things can prove useful. So the question I have is...

When you bake it, a miniscule amount of the plasticizer is extracted. Is that really enough to make it brittle? Or again after we still talking a drop eye dropper of water in a bathtub?

[Ryster]

'I don't think bowling balls absorb all that much oil.'

I don't think the sun will rise tomorrow morning, but I think that planning my life around that belief is a really bad idea!

Whatever.

[Cdolcejr]

Found a couple of really good videos that do a good job explaining lane transition, why it happens and what to do when it happens:

Following Lane Transition

Understanding Lane Oil Changes When Bowling