What effect does Methylated spirits have on coverstocks?

Easy Tiger

Active Member
I am interested to know, what effect does Methylated spirits have on coverstocks? Does it harden the coverstock? Does it increase or decrease hook potential of the coverstock? Does it clean effectively? Is it legal to use?

Thanks
 
I wondered whether that might be the case. It would have potential ramifications for any of our international bowlers if the TBA were not in step with the USBC though.
 
Metho is too aggressive to use on a cover stock. If you keep using it, your coverstock will just start crumbling.

reasons, possibly due to the fact that metho is a solvent. If something has the power to strip paint, I don't think it has a place being on a bowling ball cover stock, lol.
 
I wouldn't use it on my gear. In the words of a friend of mine "Metho stuffs everything!"

Use an approved ball cleaner. A bottle will last for months if you're sparing with it. If funds are really short, try warm (not so warm you can't put your hands in) water and dishwashing detergent, then a quick rinse under warm running water to get the detergent out, just like your dishes.

Tape up the holes if the ball has porous material in it and either way, let it dry in a warm spot out of direct sunlight. UV light isn't terribly good for polymers if I remember some scant remnant of my high scool chemistry.
 
On that same list of banned products was WD40. Does anybody know what WD40 can do to a bowling ball?
 
On that same list of banned products was WD40. Does anybody know what WD40 can do to a bowling ball?

WD40 is a Water Displacement substance(formula 40).
As a side effect is also a lubricator and would put a more oilier substance on the ball.
 
Used WD40 on a ball as an experiment years ago - never did it again.
Rolled a game with it and it never reacted the same way twice in a row, neither spare or strike shot. Rolled a mid-130 game.
I use metho at the moment because I've run out of Isocol and don't particularly like it much either.
Will hunt for a bottle of lane cleaner and water instead.
 
Metho actually hardens the coverstock on bowling balls.....Acetone softens it....Apparently....if you put a reactive bowling ball in a bucket of acetone and leave it there you will turn it to jelly...maybe something for mythbusters to try out ehh...for a good clean i have always sworn by the dishwasher trick.....but only if the ball is in good condition with no cracks
 
Funny you should mention acetone and ketones.... that's what alot of PBA players did in the early 1970's with the short but interesting "soaker ball" era. Most notably Don McCune, used them. The Soaker ball was a plastic ball soaked in a bucket of Butanone (also known as methyl ethyl ketone - MEK) to make it softer so it could grab the lane better.
 
Used WD40 on a ball as an experiment years ago - never did it again.
Rolled a game with it and it never reacted the same way twice in a row, neither spare or strike shot. Rolled a mid-130 game.
I use metho at the moment because I've run out of Isocol and don't particularly like it much either.
Will hunt for a bottle of lane cleaner and water instead.

How is Isocol different from Metho? ( Serious question.)

How does it sit with USBC rules?
 
its like $15 max for a bottle of reactive cleaner... why risk your gear using something you clean paint brushes with???
 
I've seen so many balls killed with Metho and Isopropyl Alcohol. Both products just make balls steadily lose their pop. Sometimes you can resurface them back to life. Sometimes you can't. Just get a bottle of ball cleaner and it will last for months used correctly. Just depends on how often you bowl as to how long it lasts. (And perhaps how grotty your bowling centre is! A bath may be required if it's really bad.)

Acetone is illegal for use at any time on a bowling ball coverstock and will destroy it pretty soon anyway. Chemicals that alter the surface hardness such as MEK, mentioned above, are also illegal. MEK was banned after a bowler was found dead in his hotel room after he soaked a ball overnight in the bathroom. It's that nasty. If you needed either of these products with today's gear, get some coaching to help you hook the ball. You'll get a lot more benefit from it.

Bowling lane oil is not that thick or abundant that you need ferocious chemicals to clean a ball. The occasional warm bath with detergent and regular use of approved ball cleaner will do the trick nicely. Failing that, a resurface or oil extraction may be required.
 
As Jason say's, lane oil is not that Oily, it is designed to evaporate over time, if it didn't your Ball wouldn't come out of the Ball Return because of the build-up of oil and I've seen that happen.

willey
 
As Jason say's, lane oil is not that Oily, it is designed to evaporate over time, if it didn't your Ball wouldn't come out of the Ball Return because of the build-up of oil and I've seen that happen.

willey
one league night my ball wasnt coming back, so the tech down the back cleaned it with something (i assume metho) and sent it back (multiple times in the one night)

Enf...
 
What he cleaned it with would probably have been lane cleaner and water in a spray bottle same stuff that is used on the lanes in the oiling machines
 
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