So I decided to change my black widow assassin's finish to give more skid, I sanded it from 500 --> 1000 --> 2000 abralon, and a[plied the powerhouse factory finish polish. However my ball remains unpolished, can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?
Posted Apr 25, 2016, 6:06 PM UTC
If you aren't using a spinner you need to.
if you are using a spinner here's the best technique I've found, which was taught to me 15 years ago, and has always worked great. Squeeze the ball with a towel, while running the spinner, to heat up the surface of the ball before applying polish. then apply some polish to the ball, and squeeze towel on it again nice and tight to work the polish into the ball. after about 15-30 seconds clean off any excess polish with a clean corner of the towel and move on to the next side of the ball and repeat. Make sure you hit the ball from at least 4 sides just like you would with abralon.
With the right prep (pre sanding), and the right polish you can get a mirror finish out of the ball with this technique.
More info is needed. Are you using a spinner or trying to polish by hand? What are you using to apply the polish?
And when you say the ball remains unpolished, is the surface changing at all?
Unfortunately I don't have a spinner (or the money to get one - I live in England).
I polish my balls with a towel, and it usually makes a wee bit of difference but now it's not changing at all.
Where in the UK are you?
I'm a technical manager/Chief Technician with access to a ball spinner, if local I may be able to sort it out for you for free.
This guy is the real MVP.
Much appreciated, but I live in central London (near Euston/University College London) and go to Middlesex for bowling. I do have access to a ball spinner but I don't think there's anyone who sells it here, for an affordable price anyway.
Unfortunately I'm Manchester based, but hit me up with a PM if you're in the area with balls and need a resurface.
You can get ball spinners suitable for home use at around £300
I don't have a spinner either, but I use Brunswick's Royal Shine applied by hand with good results. You can see the thread where I asked about this a couple months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bowling/comments/43vtc0/applying_polish_by_hand/
A few things that have worked for me:
A lot of pressure seems to be best. I will take a microfiber cloth (these: http://amzn.to/26pzQZP) and fold it until it's about 3"x4". I'll focus on a small area at a time and really burnish it with fast passes and as much pressure as I can keep up. It takes a lot of elbow grease.
Only about a 2"x3" spot on the cloth is being used while polishing — at least for me, it seems to help to apply pressure on a smaller area, as opposed to say, taking your whole palm and trying to apply polish.
I've tried applying polish to the cloth and spreading polish on the ball and then burnishing with the microfiber, both seem to work fine.
As a final step, I'll buff in a microfiber see-saw.
You can see the results I got on my first go at polishing here: http://imgur.com/a/ZG0Nx
This was using Brunswick Royal Shine over Royal Compound.
How much polish are you using? I don't own a ball spinner, but have never needed one to get a mirror finish. I usually use a glob the size of a golf ball to load it up and just rub it in and around for about 5 minutes. What kind of towel are you using?
Didn't realise you need that much polish O.o it worked really well, thanks :DDD
Yeah haha since some gets soaked into the towel you use quite a bit.
You need heat and friction for it to work. That's why a spinner is preferable. Not using a spinner, I would just go to 4000 instead of 2000. I prefer 4000 to a polish finish anyway. Not as squirty.
You may not be using enough polish or using poor technique. Are you using a spinner for this?
No I do not own one
I would use a spinner to polish. Really no other way to get that on there.