Is it easy to screw up your ball by resurfacing it yourself?

**Blomer** · 03-30-2016, 07:25 PM

Last night someone resurefaced two of my bowling balls. Well, at least he used the pads and made them dull and then stuck on int he machine and it looked and moved like it did out of the box. He did it to my Haywire as well and got the shine out and i has new life. My question is, with me never doing this myself, is it easy to screw it up and mess up the ball beyond repair? He said it's easy to resurface the ball. Is it? What are the steps? Why type of pads should I buy? I see there are several different numbers, which are best to use?

Thanks!

**bowl1820** · 03-30-2016, 08:08 PM

Surfacing a ball yourself is easy with a little practice. You can't mess it up beyond repair, if you get the wrong surface on it, you just do it again.

What are the steps? what they are depend just on what you want to do at the time. At the most basic level you start with a course grit and go finer with each following step .

What supplies do you need? While there's many different products, the basic's are Abralon pads going from 500 up to 4000 grit and usually a bottle of polish.

Having a spinner is best, but you can do basic surfacing by hand.

A good low cost compromise is the Smart tool from Polish Your Ball.

http://www.polishyourball.com/

Here's a resource with some good info

Bowlers Grit Chart
http://home.earthlink.net/~litefroze...t_chart_v2.pdf

**fokai73** · 03-30-2016, 08:36 PM

The hand drill attachment is a good start. But it's always better to get a vertex $199 spinner or other spinners. I had mine for about 10 years and still going.

The key to sanding is knowing the grit numbers and strength, don't use so much pressure, timing, and practice on a old ball first. These are a few things to know.

Once you learn to use the spinner, you will save money on new balls lol

**Mike White** · 03-30-2016, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by Blomer

Last night someone resurefaced two of my bowling balls. Well, at least he used the pads and made them dull and then stuck on int he machine and it looked and moved like it did out of the box. He did it to my Haywire as well and got the shine out and i has new life. My question is, with me never doing this myself, is it easy to screw it up and mess up the ball beyond repair? He said it's easy to resurface the ball. Is it? What are the steps? Why type of pads should I buy? I see there are several different numbers, which are best to use?

Thanks!

I wouldn't say it is easy to screw up the ball, but I had a few people bring a ball into the shop who must have put some serious effort into doing so.

I think some of these people confused scotch pad

,

with one of these

**fokai73** · 03-30-2016, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by Mike White

I wouldn't say it is easy to screw up the ball, but I had a few people bring a ball into the shop who must have put some serious effort into doing so.

I think some of these people confused scotch pad

,

with one of these

I know it may be rude... BUT THAT RIGHT THERE IS FUNNY! HAHAHA

**Aslan** · 03-31-2016, 12:32 PM

I have.

My early generation ball dehydrator...had plastic trays...made for drying fruits and meat. It turns out, when they get heated up...they don't support the weight of a bowling ball...and direct exposure of the ball to the metal heating elements WILL melt into your ball.

I also tried to use a hand drill to polish one ball...lets just say it doesn't really work as good as an actual ball spinner....the moving metal parts of the drill tend to damage the ball...plus it gives you an uneven surfacing.

**AlexNC** · 03-31-2016, 01:31 PM

I have 2 local shops that don't charge me anything to use their spinner when I am using my own pads/polish. Its not a full resurface that I am talking about obviously, but its easier to get a better result every 10 games or so than trying by hand or using one of the gimmicky drill attachment deals.

**Aslan** · 03-31-2016, 05:03 PM

I'm hoping to find a cheap, used ball spinner on Ebay or something. The new ones are just too much money ($199-$299). I figure eventually I'll find one that a shop is selling or something.

I could probably buy the parts and put one together myself...it's not rocket science to make a motor that spins something...but I just fear I'll get 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through building it and end up getting sidetracked...then i'll have yet another project sitting in my living room partially finished.

Not to mention the lesson I learned building the bowling ball rack...what seemed like a money saving project became 2-3x as expensive as just buying one. DOHT!!