Bowling Ball Surface Questions

[bowlerman]

I keep hearing about bowling ball surface all the time. Can anyone tell me how I can get information on how to adjust the surface on my bowling ball or anything pertaining to ball surface adjustments?

[topdog46]

I hope this helps

Bowling Ball Surface Reaction Chart
It helped me.

[TenPin]

Cleaning

I know that cleaning the ball after every use will change the ball surface from night to night reactions on the lanes.

Also, I have learned keeping ball surface adjustments moderate or simple when you only have 1 or 2 balls is best. When you have 3 or more (first ball, not a plastic spare ball), making them lane specific is an ok thing to do. But always have an "Old Faithful" to fall back on when things get tough or frustrating.

I myself have 3 balls to choose from (all OOB). A early roll (Fury Pearl), late break (Twisted Fury), and a plastic ball for that pesky 10 pin. I tend to do alright with that combo in any house. Would love to add a couple more balls to my collection.

[robert_lane24]

i work in a pro shop and am learning to drill bowling balls. i have become pretty good at adjusting the surface of bowling balls.

Basically a bowling ball right out of the box has a certain surface. For instance the Black Widow Bite by hammer has a 4000 sanded surface out of the box. If you sand it with sand paper in a ball spinner with 2000, 1500, 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 220, or 120 it will hook sooner based on which one you use. The lower the number sand paper the sooner it will hook. When you sand you ball down to 1000 and you want to return it to its original surface you have to sand it with 1200, 1500, 2000, and 4000 on all 4 sides.

When you polish a ball it will generally hook later. If you polish the ball you generally are looking to make the bll go longer down the lane and hook later. They make polishes that have different reactions. If you have a certain brand ball its generally a good idea to use the brand polish that is made for that ball. For instance Ebonite has a Powerhouse Factory polish that is meant for ebonite balls. Brunswick has polishes for their balls and so does storm. Track is the only company under ebonite that makes specfic polishes for their balls so the powerhouse polish is good for hammer and columbia balls too.

I hope this was helpfull. if you have anymore questions you can email me @ homelessbob@ymail.com

[TenPin]

????

Ok........I don't resurface bowling balls or work at a bowling alley for a living, but let me ask you a few questions Robert and you too TopDog. Bob, when you say 120, 220, and 400 grit will make your ball hook early, are you also saying you have resurfaced balls for customers at 120, 220, and 400? Why would anyone want to sand their ball with such a low grit? And can resurfacing your ball below say 600 grit be more common than I think it is? Maybe I'm just missing something here?

[topdog46]

I have a variety of surfaces on different coverstocks

I never said to use thoughs low grits about 500 is the lowest I go, but I have a variety of surfaces on different cover stocks. I use abralon to smooth over under not to make it hook more - that is a misconception about sanding a bowling ball - it does not make it hook more just differently like earlier and smoother on over under. most the time I use 1000 and 2000 thousand abralon. But Storm and Brunswick both suggested low grits to me when I called them about getting a ball for a lanes surface I was having trouble with. The Infinite one came with a 500 grit finish also and a 500 abralon pad.