With the assistance of the members of this forum I have successfully purchased a Ball Spinner and pads and have been changing the surfaces of my bowling balls. Now I am looking to resurface a couple of my older bowling balls and am inquiring what would be the best way to go about it.
Once again thanks in advance.
If the old balls have tracks full of scratches like in the old days when we kept one ball for a long time, you want to remove as much of the scratches as possible without removing so much depth of coverstock that you make the ball into a marble.
I usually start with a 360 grit abrasive and I use Clean and Dull as a lubricant; this helps remove some of the oil that gets embedded when a ball is this old. I use medium to almost firm hand pressure for about 60 seconds per each of 4 sides. Then I clean it with a paper towel and regular cleaner and see what I have. Most often this is enough.
Depending on the depth and number of deep scratches, I may actually use a rougher abrasive, like 180 grit, for maybe 30 - 45 seconds on each of two sides, with medium pressure. 180 grit is twice as rough as 360 grit; so you still don't want to remove too much coverstock, just enough. Most times, you will still have some of the deeper scratches still left. Good that you're doing this with an older ball, because it is something you have to learn from experience.
Once you're satisfied with the what you have, work your way up, with the next grit. At this stage you don't want to skip any, because each successive abrasive removes the scratches from the previous one. If you used 180 grit, then 220/240 grit is next; then 320/360 grit, until you get to whatever grit you decide is the base grit for this ball.
(Example: If the final surface is 500/2000, then stop at 500 grit. If your final surface is 1000/2000/4000, work your way up 180/240/360/500/1000/2000/4000.)
