Supplies I have next to my spinner:
Cleaners:
- Track's Clean and Dull: strongest bowling ball cleaner outside of a brillo pad plus lighter fluid!
- Ultimate's Black Magic Rejuvenator
- Legends cleaner
- Brunswick's Remove-all
- Neo-Tac's Liquid Nitro
- Denatured alcohol & Acetone, for special purposes, like refreshing and cleaning thumb and finger inserts, cleaning glue from the surface or balls, etc
Polishes, with grit:
- Storm Xtra Shine: one of my long time favorites. You can get anywhere from a 1000 grit polish to 1500 ro 2000 to 2500 to 3000 grit HIGH gloss polish on almost any ball.
- Track's Clean and Sheen: Special stuff intended to remove sanding lines at 400-500 grit, but puts the equivalent of a compound polish on a ball at approxiamtely a 1000 grit level.
addenedum:(almost forgot)
- Track's Clean and Smooth: a 1500 grit liquid with a very light abrasive in it. The ball should be 1000 - 1200 grit or polished before using this, as it makes a very minor change. It's even better than a hand application of a grey nylon pad to haze too much polish. From the upper direction, if a ball is at 200 grit, this will bring it down a little bit.
- Ultimate's Quick Cut & Polish: Designed for similar purpose as C&Sheen, but older. Feels grittier and there's no doubt that the sanding lines are gone. Leaves the same compound polish. (Use lots of water and apply with a sponge).
- Brusnwick's Rough Buff: This is a rubbing compound equivalent but with no polish that I am aware of or has shown in my experiments. Whatever you start with, it will be smoothed out. (The Absolute Inferno starts with a 220 grit and becomes, as near as I can tell, about 1000 grit when you've finished with your Rough Buff application.) I've tried it with other balls from other manufacturers and the results vary silghtly but are usable.
- 3M Rubbing Compound, fine cut, 1500 grit: great, GREAT stuff; easily AND QUICKLY puts a high gloss polish on balls from 600 grit on up.
- 3M Finesse-It II: excellent general polish, has the least grit in it that I know of. May be grit free but I'm not sure. No silicon to block the pores, THAT I do know.
- Track's Delayed Reaction: increase length, decrease backend, works when applied by hand. Use little, be gentle.
- Neo-Tac's Control-It: same as above, results are good, but not quite as good as Delayed Reaction, for me. YMMV.
Polishes, grit-free:
- Brunswick's High Gloss Polish: since this stuff, apparently to Brunswick's credit, really does not change the grit underneath, it is the most useful and MOST PREDICTABLE polish that I have ever used.
- Legends polish; good, comes free with Legends balls (nice touch); (needs damp cloth or sponge to be applied properly)
- Track's Magic Shine (needs damp cloth or sponge to be applied properly)
- Ultimate's Black Magic: the original grit free polish. My only problem with this is you can clog the pores and reduces the overall hook to nothing. I am so cautious with this stuff lately, I almost never use it. Please take into consideration that I may be doing something wrong with it, like using it with a spinner when it should only be applied by hand. I don't know. Don't know that my experience is what will happen to you.
- 3M Finesse-It Finishing Material (see above): polishes well. May or may not be grit free. Puts nice, easily applied polish on most balls.
Other stuff:
- cotton face cloths, 40-50 of them, 10"x10", constantly re-washed; use for applying almost anything & for buffing off hazed, dried polsih, & for cleaning anything.
- old undershirts: only cloth thin enough that can get into thumb and finger inserts to clean them after sanding or polishing ball (lots of gunk gets into the holes) or just to clean them, thoroughly with acetone. Be careful not to use too much acetone as it will make them larger!
- old but clean toothbrushes: to clean holes and to clean out labels and other tiny places.
- sponges: to provide a flexible backing for sandpaper or bare nylon pads, to apply some polishes or sanding liquids.
- Bounty paper towel rolls, hanging from ceiling, in a home-made dispenser.
- 4 oz spritzing bottle of distilled water for sanding, polishing, cleaning, etc.
NOTE: This list is not meant to be an all-inclusive one. These are just what I am using as of this moment in time. Always feel free to do your own testing and use whatever "floats your boat". It's not meant to be a competition, just a list of what has worked for me.
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"None are so blind as those who will not see."
Edited on 12/21/2006 8:57 AM
Edited on 12/21/2006 6:44 PM
