Extracting oil from a ball

[GeorgeF]

I run on a class on this, he's what I teach......

Cleaning your high performance ball regularly is not only an investment in the longevity and life of your bowling ball, it ensures your ball hits the hardest all the time.

Preventative maintenance is the best way to protect your investment, just like a car, let it run down without regular surfacing and performance decreases at a rapid rate.

There are 2 methods for cleaning your bowling ball, both are correct and work well, depending on your situation and the state of your ball, choose the appropriate one.

Regular / Daily clean
Deep / Hot water bath

Regular Clean

Preventative maintenance is the key to a cover's longevity. My recommendation is to clean your bowling equipment after every use (practice, league, or tournament session) with a quality ABC/WIBC approved cleaner. No matter which cleaner you choose to use, I urge you to follow the directions that come with the product. These companies specialize in cleaning products and have done extensive research in bringing their
products to the marketplace.

I have received many inquires regarding the use of commercial cleaners such as Spray and Wipe, Simple-Green, and Windex, to list just a few, in cleaning our equipment. Though these products are specially formulated for removing grease and oil components from surfaces, we DO NOT recommend them as a cleaning product for our equipment.

Simply clean your balls with an approved cleaner after every league and tournament play and your investment is set to last and hit harder longer!


Deep Clean (Hot Water Bath method)

This procedure helps to make sure that the ball is not subjected to any extreme temperature changes that could cause the cover to crack or separate from the core. Though the process is easy, don't rush the steps!

1. Have the ball wet sanded to about 400-grit to open the cover's
pores. (not compulsory, deep clean only)
2. Fill a tub or bucket (15L buckets work well) with hot tap water and about 2-3 teaspoons of Dawn dish detergent.
3. Wash the ball using a wash cloth or a scotch brite pad (burgundy or green) for a few minutes.
4. Remove the ball from the soapy water and rinse the tub (or bucket) clean and refill it with hot water (no soap).
5. Place the ball in the water and wash it clean with a clean cloth or new scotch brite pad. You will probably notice that a soapy film will appear in the water. This is residue that was trapped in the coverstock (much like the oil and dirt was).

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until no soapy residue remains, This make 2 or3 times to achieve, depending upon the amount of soap that was used. You don't want to use too much soap, but you need enough to cut through the oil and dirt.

7. After the soap has been completely removed from the coverstock, allow the ball to air dry at room temperature. Have the ball wet sanded with 400-grit paper and then follow the steps to bring it back to its factory finish as described by the manufacturer.

Once this procedure has been completed, make every attempt to clean the ball after each session of use (refer Regular Clean).

* NOTE* you dont have to open the pores up on the ball prior to placing it in hot water. This is for DEEP cleaning and balls that have almost died. I personally give my balls a bath every 30 games

 

[GeorgeF]

This method is also endorsed by Columbia 300 as an acceptable cleaning method

 

[weggy]

Thanks George

 

[RONALD C]

When it is sanded mate the laquer/varnish on the lanes is gone and it opens up the pores of the wood, you will find that the moisture is not all oil.

I am no expert on what the compositions of the lanes are Rob, i just know a lot about the characteristics of oil and know that there was a bit of dribble getting spoken on here.

 

[willey]

As I have worked in Bowling Centres for over 36 years I can assure you that Oil Out products will take the oil out of the wood, if it is not done than a noticable stain stays in the timber. The nature of the business requires the lanes to be Re-Surfaced as quickly as possible, so 12 hours is all that can be spared absorbing the oil, this can also done in Winter no HEAT required.

willey
p.s. Shawn there are some lovely Characters in Queensland, hey.

 

[Steven]

what harm does it do for the coverstock the hot water treatment r the resins dragged out of the coverstock can the ball lose weight can plasticizer come to the surface in the hot water how long should i keep the ball in there when doing the hot water treatment and how hot should the water be and is it recommended to bring back performance as i keep hearing 2 many different opinions and some r weird cheers soz about no punctuation

 

[Ice]

There is always controversy on this topic........always. I am by no means an expert, but what I can say is that I and many people I know have been treating our balls in exactly the way George has described for several years now and have had absolutely no damage, deterioration or problems with the balls. To add to that, I do not even worry about covering my thumb and finger holes either, unless I am preparing to use the ball before it will have a chance to properly dry out. i personally and nobody I know has ever had any problems.

P.S If you have thumb tape in you may want to take that out though or it will become harder to remove later and leave a sticky residue

 

[Easy Tiger]

what harm does it do for the coverstock the hot water treatment
None

r the resins dragged out of the coverstock
No

can the ball lose weight
Only by what comes out in terms of oil and dirt. We are talking tiny amounts of weight here. You would never notice the difference.

can plasticizer come to the surface in the hot water
I wouldn't think so, that's what Ebonite's Hook Again was meant to achieve.

how long should i keep the ball in there when doing the hot water treatment
I'd leave it in the soapy water for about 10-15 mins, scrub with some scotchbrite or similar lightly at the beginning while in the water. After 10-15 mins of sitting in the soapy water, take the ball out, empty the bucket/sink and refill with warm water, no soap. Leave for 10 mins or so or until all soapy residue is gone from the ball.

and how hot should the water be
warm to hot, but not so hot you can't touch it.

and is it recommended to bring back performance as i keep hearing 2 many different opinions and some r weird
Yes, but I wouldn't be doing every 3 games either. Ideally, to do a good thorough clean of the coverstock, you would do it every 1-2 months. The best method is to put the ball on a ball spinner, sand the coverstock with 600grit to open up the pores so the cleaning can actually get into them, then do the hot water treatment, then sand the ball again at 600 lightly, then resurface up to the required surface, and then polish if required. It is obvious that you wouldn't be doing that every 3 days, or every week.

cheers soz about no punctuation
That's ok. Hope that helps.

 

[littlejoeyrimshot]

i've done over 1000 balls in our revivor and 99% say the reaction afterward is 3-7 boards tronger. we set the temp at 130 and let the balls sweat out the oil. some are in there for 8 hours some as little as 2-3. generally we remove 1-3 ounces of oil. i know that sounds hard to believe, but we weight the balls ahead and after the reviving. only 2 balls have developed small shell stress cracks and both were older ebonite. All the others had no distress with the heat. Brunswick recommends using the revivor or rejuvenator on all their drilling sheets in each new ball box.

joe cerar
bowlers journal ball reviews
www.bpsmilwaukee.com

 

[RobbieB]

Note for Aussie readers - I assume that this would be 130F not 130C.

I would not recommend heating a ball to 130 deg. C. especially if it loses 1-3 oz of resin at 130F (about 60 deg.C).

 

[Cam S]

I run on a class on this, he's what I teach......

Cleaning your high performance ball regularly is not only an investment in the longevity and life of your bowling ball, it ensures your ball hits the hardest all the time.

Preventative maintenance is the best way to protect your investment, just like a car, let it run down without regular surfacing and performance decreases at a rapid rate.

There are 2 methods for cleaning your bowling ball, both are correct and work well, depending on your situation and the state of your ball, choose the appropriate one.

Regular / Daily clean
Deep / Hot water bath

Regular Clean

Preventative maintenance is the key to a cover's longevity. My recommendation is to clean your bowling equipment after every use (practice, league, or tournament session) with a quality ABC/WIBC approved cleaner. No matter which cleaner you choose to use, I urge you to follow the directions that come with the product. These companies specialize in cleaning products and have done extensive research in bringing their
products to the marketplace.

I have received many inquires regarding the use of commercial cleaners such as Spray and Wipe, Simple-Green, and Windex, to list just a few, in cleaning our equipment. Though these products are specially formulated for removing grease and oil components from surfaces, we DO NOT recommend them as a cleaning product for our equipment.

Simply clean your balls with an approved cleaner after every league and tournament play and your investment is set to last and hit harder longer!


Deep Clean (Hot Water Bath method)

This procedure helps to make sure that the ball is not subjected to any extreme temperature changes that could cause the cover to crack or separate from the core. Though the process is easy, don't rush the steps!

1. Have the ball wet sanded to about 400-grit to open the cover's
pores. (not compulsory, deep clean only)
2. Fill a tub or bucket (15L buckets work well) with hot tap water and about 2-3 teaspoons of Dawn dish detergent.
3. Wash the ball using a wash cloth or a scotch brite pad (burgundy or green) for a few minutes.
4. Remove the ball from the soapy water and rinse the tub (or bucket) clean and refill it with hot water (no soap).
5. Place the ball in the water and wash it clean with a clean cloth or new scotch brite pad. You will probably notice that a soapy film will appear in the water. This is residue that was trapped in the coverstock (much like the oil and dirt was).

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until no soapy residue remains, This make 2 or3 times to achieve, depending upon the amount of soap that was used. You don't want to use too much soap, but you need enough to cut through the oil and dirt.

7. After the soap has been completely removed from the coverstock, allow the ball to air dry at room temperature. Have the ball wet sanded with 400-grit paper and then follow the steps to bring it back to its factory finish as described by the manufacturer.

Once this procedure has been completed, make every attempt to clean the ball after each session of use (refer Regular Clean).

* NOTE* you dont have to open the pores up on the ball prior to placing it in hot water. This is for DEEP cleaning and balls that have almost died. I personally give my balls a bath every 30 games

I have used this method since readin this and it works great the only question i have is do you have to cover the holes or keep water out of them, will getting water in the holes affect the core of the ball and cause it to come away from the coverstock?

 

[ChrisG]

I have used this method since readin this and it works great the only question i have is do you have to cover the holes or keep water out of them, will getting water in the holes affect the core of the ball and cause it to come away from the coverstock?

Does anyone have an answer to this?

Chris G.

 

[Easy Tiger]

George F told us in a seminar at a youth tournament that no, it won't affect it. Just let it dry before you use it, and as it is a semi-porous material it dries quickly anyway.

I've done it myself and well it hasn't affected my gear, so I'd say George is right. The filler doesn't turn to mush when it gets wet..

 

[RobbieB]

i've never worried about covering the holes up, but I'd be careful with light (say less than 12lb) balls, as the filler will probably be a lot more porous. Leaving the holes pointing down while it soaks will minimise the amout of water getting into the core anyway.

Cheers, Robbie.

 

[double_d]

i've never worried about covering the holes up, but I'd be careful with light (say less than 12lb) balls, as the filler will probably be a lot more porous. Leaving the holes pointing down while it soaks will minimise the amout of water getting into the core anyway.
Cheers, Robbie.

not trying to be smart but how would the holes pointing down minimise water getting in
only if there was no chance for the air to get out i spose but all holes would have to be pointing dead striaght down