I have experienced similar occurrences with an original inferno, cherry bomb and a uranium pearl. It seemed like regardless of what I tried, the balls just didn't seem to do anything once the surface was changed... The surface could be totally tracked out and they would still hook etc.. as soon as altered them (even the least bit), they seemed to just die....dull, polished, 400 grit, 1000 grit, it just didn't seem to matter. Finally, I contacted Lane#1 about this problem. As always, their customer service was top-notch. After a brief discussion, they suggested two things to try.
1) oil extraction. Use the compounds (columbia's or ebonite's), or good old fashion way of heat. Luckily I have access to a rejuvenator, so I threw the last ball (the uranium pearl) in the box. I ran it two cycles, cleaning it with the simple green/alcohol/water mixture after each. The surface actually had some "tac" after that.
2) ball roundness. They said that it was possibly the ball became "out of round" from the sanding. I wasn't 100% sold on that idea as I had sanded and polished many others before without the problem... but I figured maybe it was worth a shot. I took the ball over to our neighboring house, which happens to have a haus in their proshop. I threw the ball on there for a cycle, finished it to 600 grit, then gave it a light polish.
This combination seemed to do the trick. The reaction wasn't a strong as before I had adjusted the surface, but at least there was some back, so the ball was unable. I wish I had spoken to them before I sold my cherry bomb and my original inferno.. oh well. Since that time, I have decided to use as much "preventative" maintenance as possible to delay the need for a resurface of my Big B coverstock equipment. Religiously clean the cover after each time of use, keep sanded covers sanded (lightly hit with 800 grit on my nemesis) and keep polished covers polished (lightly polish my absolute) after every couple sets. So far, it seems to be working fairly well...
Anyway, it may be worth giving those two a shot. Hopefully it will work for you.
S^2
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