sanding and polishing ....resurfacing question

[tracy]

i am on the understanding that i have to polish the ball after sanding it but doesn't that defeat the purpose? for instance,out of the box the ball comes with a 1500 abralon finish but it's polished or am i missing something here? i want to go to a 1000 grit abralon....should i polish it after the sanding or leave it alone,i'm confused on this subject. then i read that if i do polish the ball, it will hook more.

[tracy]

i think i found the answer on another thread but could still give me your input on the subject.

[bowl1820]

It depends on what you are trying to do. If your wanting to return a ball to the O.O.B (Out of Box) condition, you may have to polish it.
Example a Hammer Epidemic has a O.O.B of 800/1000/2000/2000/w/Powerhouse Factory Finish. Here you sand it at the listed grits then finish with the polish. This would return the ball to how it came new (or pretty close at least) from the factory.
Now if your just wanting to make a surface change to better match up with a lane condition. No you dont have to polish it, you can do the surface how ever you want.
As for the ball hooking more after being polished. A polished ball retains more energy and when it hits the dry it will have a stronger change of direction (hook), but you have to remember it will also skid farther before that.
A dull ball on the other hand wont hook as hard, because its loosing energy. But it will hook earlier than the polished ball.

[DanielMareina]

The polish doesn't defeat the sanding. It delays the balls reaction till the end of the lane. If you want the ball to read the lane sooner, I suggest going to 2000 grit with no polish. 1000 grit is a very low grit for most bowling balls. I actually usually sand my 1500 grit polished bowling balls with 4000 grit when I want them to have a little more mid-lane read.

[got_a_300]

Over this past weekend we had the City Tournament and the lanes were completely
flooded with oil; more than has ever been put down on the lanes. I decided to go
into the Pro shop and use the ball spinner and sand down my DV8 Hell raiser from
its OOB finish of 500, 1,500 Siaair Micro Pad with the Rough Buff Finish all the way
down to 360 grit Siaair Micro Pad finish with no polish after watching the first squad
struggle with the oil and after they said the lanes will be oiled again between squads.

Well what I ended up with was a ball that still wouldn't hook on the shot so I tried
the Nexus f (P+F) which is a very heavy oil ball and it wouldn't hook either. With a
THS both balls have way to much hook especially the DV8 ball so it goes to show
me it doesn't really matter if you sand the ball down because sometimes they just
won't work on a particular shot. I decided to leave it at 360 and see what it would
do on our Wednesday night league but they said that they still had the same shot
out as they had for the tournament because they didn't want to have to change the
oiling machine back and forth again as this weekend is the last of the tournament.

So I struggled the first game and shot a super low game of 115 but I finally
got lined up in the 10th frame of the first game and came back with a couple of
normal games of 233 and 210 for a 558 series which isn't all that great but it gives
me some hope for this final weekends tournament that I might score a little better
than I did last week.

[tracy]

got_a_300....that's what's going on with my ball too. brand new anarchy @1500abralon and won't hook. i am thinking of going with 1000 grit abralon and polish and go from there. i know that it should have a track in it but still should hook on my conditions.

[bowl1820]

Got_a_300
360 grit! Ill bet the ball was burning up for lack of oil, Thats why it didnt hook.Thats pretty rough for todays balls. More likely instead of "heavy oil" it was just a longer pattern.

Instead of going down to 360, should have tried just going to about 1000-1500 without the rough buff.

[The Mayor]

Totally agree with bowl1820!

[got_a_300]

I agree but even the Nexus f (P+F) which is at factory OOB finish of
500 & 1,500 Siaair Micro Pad Finish would not hook over 1 or 2 boards
at the most. Several of the other guys that were throwing the new
DV8 Hell Raiser Revenge which is a killer ball at factory finish couldn't
hook them either and very few could get anything to hook.

The lane guy said the owner wanted to put out a shot that was harder
than anything anyone here has every bowled on and by golly they did.
If I'm not mistaken the lane guy said the pattern was 45 foot long with
as much oil on the outside the 10th board out to the gutter as there
normally is on the center of the lane and something like double or triple
the amount in the center of the lane from the 10th board in and without
stripping the lanes between squads just oiling them again with a flat drop
off at 45 foot with no buff area just oil to 45 foot.

[JerseyJim]

Out of curiosity, what area of the lane were you targeting? According to a couple of articles that I've read in BTM, you should had been around the 14 board.