Oil Extraction

[androooo]

Just wondering what some of you guys out there, that don't have access to the Revivor (ooooh, I WISH!!

), do to extract oil from your balls. I have tried many different techniques, from soaking in hot water and detergent, baking in the oven, as well as submerging the ball in a tub of kitty litter for a few days. I've even heard of puuting it in the dishwasher. The best method IMO is baking it in the oven. I have never had any trouble whatsoever with damage to coverstocks or core. I keep the temp about 50* . Leave it in there for about 15 mins, remove and wipe oil off the surface with a rag with a degreaser on it, and repeat until nothing else comes out of the ball. Clean up on a spinner and bingo, back to new.

Of course, some of these methods do have some danger to them, if you don't know what you are doing. As in this pic shows the results from a guy in the states.

Hmm....Tracks new ball?

And just for some fun, here is a newspaper artical from the Wall Street Journal, which descibes some tried, and most often failed attempts to extract oil from their bowling balls.
Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and Google

 

[Ashes]

I read that article and had a great chuckle and yeah...quite interesting don't ya think.

I was surprised to find this subject up as i was coming on here to ask teh same thing. What is the best way of getting the oil out of your ball??? I've heard that hot water in a bucket is the best...or leavin it in a plastic bag in the sun for an hour...but they are all risky as you may stuff your ball up... So what is the safest way to clean your ball????

 

[Andrew B]

in my experience i have found that sitting the ball in hot soapy water is the best method of removing oil from your ball.
cover the finger holes and any weight holes with a water proof tape, such as leukoplast, and then sit it on an egg ring (or similar)in your laundry tub. fill the tub with hot water, until it reaches the level of the holes. it may require some tilting, but this avoids any water seeping in through the tape, even though it is waterproof, it doesnt like hot water much.
there is not really any need to fill it up further than this because the only bit out of the water is the bit under your hand and near your axis point, and this part of the ball doesnt usually cop much oil.
then squirt in a reasonable amount of soap, or dishwashing liquid, etc. and leave it to soak for about an hour then pull it out.
if you leave it in any longer, the water goes cold and the ball soaks the oil back up.
it may require a few washes depending on how dirty the ball is.
as i said i have found this to be a safe and reliable method, but do as u wish.

 

[Andrew B]

the stars in my post is supposed to read such
thanx

 

[KANAFA!]

hey guys,
i have an Apex which i have bowled 400-500 games with. it has recently lost its agression. i have cleaned it in hot soapy water but have had no effect. i got it re-drilled to hook harder but still it did nothing. my dad was reading this topic today and read about the women using her hair drier to bring out the oil in her ball. so he said ill give it a try and it had the best effect on the ball. it got all the oil out and i had bowl with it and it now hooks like it used to. so i can still use this ball.

cyaz later!!

matty kanafa

~EBONITE,bowl to win!~

 

[Ashes]

Hmmm, very interesting.....well, i think its safe to say that i have bowled at least 500 games with my surge below and i may not get as much turn as i did when i got it, but when i got it, i was only new to all the 'turning' business and now it still turns to my liking, so cleaning it would only be a bonus for me to get more kick into the pocket. But i'll probably sock mine as long as it doesn't wreck teh ball at all.

 

[stryker]

I have tried a few methods for extracting oil from my bowling balls, from baking, soaking, leaving it on the car on a hot day,and they all seem effective but i would not stick any of the newer balls in the oven as I believe this may actually leak the resins out of the ball, as I seen what looks like oil come out of a ball that was fresh out of the box when it was placed in a warm oven for about a minute. The current practice I am using is to soak the ball in the laundry tub filled with hot water from the tap, soak it for about 15 min then add some dawn dishwashing liquid and aggitate the water, let it soak for a further 15 minutes then remove the ball and with some metho or preferably some lane wash (from your local lane mech) if he's a nice guy, continue to wipe the ball down every couple of minutes as oil will still continue to seep out while the ball cools down. I try to do this just before I resurface my ball and use the lane wash during the resurfacing process in order to remove a little more oil. I have done this a couple of time with pretty good results.
cya

 

[Brenton Davy]

Matt,

What type of "soapy water" did you use, cos if you used any soap or detergent or cleaner with lanolin in it, then it would have had a negative effect on the ball. Lanolin is a lubricant, therefore, it would have had the same affect as putting oil on to the ball, instead of removing it.

Use something like Jif Creme Cleanser and clean cloth (or clean scouring pad if you wnat to dull the ball more), soak the ball in warm water, then oncve the ball is warmed thru, pour hotter water (not boiling) over the track of the ball, til all hte oil has been leached from the ball. I do this regularly to all my equipment and have had no ill effects on any of my equipment ever.

If you need any further advice, you know where I am.

 

[left kelpie]

Hi all
I try a non acetone finger polish removaler. To be honest I dont know whether its made much difference!! Trouble is it stinks (totally) the house out, not to mention the ball itself. How do women put up with the smell (hmm-vanity i wonder)

Anyone out there tried nail polish removaler?? And has it shown an improvement??
see ya LK

 

[androooo]

I might be wrong (wouldn't be a first

), but I beleive even NON-ACETONE nail polish remover is illegal.

There is a full list available of approved cleaners which I shall provide a link to:
Acceptable and Non Acceptable ball cleaners

Please remember, that this is from the ABC/WIBC in the US....as far as I know, nothing can be used during a sancationed competition in this country, without express permission from a tournament official.


Hope this helps some people.

 

[Dj bruv on da mix]

You might want to try the company that owns the boat....EXON VALDEZ, as they had to soak a quantity of oil from a coastline in Alaska

 

[androooo]

Ahhh......Mr. Foster, I knew you wouldn't let me down, but you just gave me another idea too.

If anyone knows somebody who works at a Motor Sports complex, try and get some hands on some Oil-Dry.....you know, that crap that chuck down on the track to soak up oil, fuel and water are a decent wreck.....that works better than the kitty litter.

 

[RobbieB]

Non-acetone nail polish remover is either ethyl acetate based (penetrating sickly sweetish odor) or acetonitrile based (reasonably toxic via internal cyanogenesis). Neither are approved for use on bowling balls by ABC. Nor should either of them damage the balls, and they will remove the excess resin that has wicked to the surface (it's not oil).
Dawn dishwashing liquid in hot water does as good a job as anything else, and is a lot cheaper.
Rob.

 

[jimcross]

I know we've been through this before,Rob, with your Resin cum Plastiser,but where does the lane oil go?
Columbia's site --columbia300.com -then technology - documents - Care and Adjusting the Surface of a Bowling Ball,says,in part,'The most significant difference in to-day's coverstocks is the ability to absorbe lane oil into the pores of the ball.'
Anyhow,I've made a machine which removes whatever it is from a ball,and no,it's not some sort of a fancy oven.

 

[left kelpie]

Thanks Jim for the list. DOH!! Ok, i guess its back to the sink for my ball.
Im also interested in knowing whether anyone has tried i think its called Hook It (its at my local AMF centre) and whether it gives u a board or two more hook?
I would love to hear any thoughts on this product.
See ya LK

 

[androooo]

Neo-Tac Hook-It is a very good commercial cleaner. All Neo-Tac products I have used, and I've tried then all at one time or another, have produced very nice results, and the good thing about them, is you do not need a spinner to use them.

HOOK-IT
Will not change the surface of a bowling ball, so dull balls stay dull, and shiny stay shiny. Will get basically ANYTHING off a bowling ball.

RENEW-IT
Works just like Hook-It, but also has a polish in it. Just rub on, let it haze, then buff off. Great for polished balls, than need a touch up.

CONTROL-IT
Is a polish that will help control the backend of a bowling ball, and provide more length. When used with a spinner, a VERY HIGH polish can be acheived, but it is not needed. Control-It can be used with out a spinner, and produce god results.

LIQUID SANDPAPER
Is a cleaning fluid, that also contains a grit. great for dull bowling balls. Also fantastic for dull partical balls, as it really opens up the pores. When used with a spinner, produces a low level polished/sheen finish.


Hope this helps