oil patterns

[Fitzy]

I was looking at an oil pattern diagram the other day and was wondering on how you interpret it (not the color coding part, but “forward oil”, “reverse oil”, “combined oil”).

Obviously it refers to where it outputs oil while the machine goes down the lane and back again. But does this really make a difference (apart from amount). I mean, oil is oil (or oils aint oils ), if you put one unit forward on the first 15ft and one unit reverse from 15ft – 30ft in reality it is only one unit of oil for the first 30ft, right? Direction would not really matter that much would it??

Any other factors to look at with oil pattern diagrams? Take the one posted on the sport series (as I have just seen it, and being that I am bowling in it, it might help to bowl better) http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1660&d=1145405564
How do you interpret the spreadsheet part of the diagram??

Thank you in advance.

 

[Phluff]

Short answer is yes it makes a huge difference.

Longer answer, take last weekends events, the AO at sunshine and the VIC150 at Keon park. Both patterns were 38ft with 50 oil per board, laid down by a Kegal Ion on HPL synthetic lanes. The VIC150 was heavy on reverse oil and light on forward while the AO was the opposite. The lanes played totally different, despite the composite graphs looking pretty much the same. I'd love to have seen the tape readings from the vic150... because that pattern would have been right on the border of 4:1 ratio, considering the oil on 7 board was buffed from 5ft to 38ft. But that's just me....

With the pattern you linked to, the spreadsheet part is just what gets programed into the machine. The overhead graph is the easiest way for you to "see" whats on the lanes, but it won't be exactly that as climate, lane surface condition and machine condition all play a part in what ends up on the lane.

But if you want a good example of what the difference between forward and reverse, look at it this way,
Forward oil is laid down the first 16ft of the lane then buffed out to 44ft. That means the oil tapers out, like down a hill. With reverse oil starting at 32ft and continues to the heads. So you'll bowl down the lane from heavier oil into light oil into the backend.
If there was NO forward oil and that was all reverse, the light blue "buffed" area would be bone dry and the oil would be lighter at the heads than at 32ft. Like bowling up a hill.

 

[Brunswick Tech]

Good post Phluff..................lane conditioning can be a complicated subject and there are quite a few other factors to take into consideration when discussing lane machines, lane conditions and lane oils.

The point to remember with oil is...................it doesn't matter if it's 3 units of oil or 50 units of oil, the friction coefficent remains the same untill the oil is depleted.
Is one drop of oil any slicker than 10 drops or 50 drops?..................Is a 25mm block of ice any slicker than a 1 metre slab of ice?
Neville

 

[willey]

Interesting Thread, it does'nt matter what is put on the lane or how much, I always found it more important how the lanes were cleaned. The theory is the Kegal is the best of the best as far as cleaning lanes is concerned, but how many times during the day were the lanes cleaned, this always has an effect on how hot the Backends play.

We all know that if you clean a Backend twice the Backends always Hook more, why is this, you can only get perfectly clean once can't you? or is there something being put on the lanes?

willey.