Surface then clean or clean then surface?

[Blomer]

Perhaps a dumb question as it might not really matter but here it goes.

If you are going to use a pad to surface your ball, do you clean it fi st with a cleaner or afterwards? Or do you even clean it as using a pad will defeat the purpose of cleaning? I even heard of others using cleaner on the ball while using a pad. Make this easy for me, what's the best thing to do?

[JaxBowlingGuy]

I have always cleaned after. When you sand it's going to leave ball material on it so the cleaner will take all that off.

[RobLV1]

The two processes are mutually exclusive. Clean your bowling ball after each use, preferably as soon as you are finished bowling. Refresh the surface as needed before your next outing.

[NewToBowling]

On a side note if you are deciding it helps to sand it to a lower grit like 500 which presumably opens up the pores of the ball to ease release of oil

[Timmyb]

I clean before and after surfacing. If you wet sand, first rule of thumb is that oil and water don't mix.

[1VegasBowler]

As my PSO has told me, sand it with either the Abralon or Siaair pad(s) that are recommended by the manufacturer, so that you can open up the pores in the ball. Then you can clean it.

He also told me, that, instead of bringing my equipment to him on a frequent basis for the de-oiling, cover up the holes with duck tape, soak it in a bucket of hot tap water with Dawn detergent for about 20 minutes, and then wipe it off as soon as you get it out of the bucket. Then use your normal cleaner and then apply the polish or compound that the manufacturer had on it.

It's worked great for me on all of my equipment, and I have not seen any decrease in performance.