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Author Topic: Polishing urethane  (Read 13189 times)

dougb

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Polishing urethane
« on: February 10, 2010, 02:20:42 PM »
I'm new to using a spinner, but seems like it's much harder to get the nice mirror-like finish on urethane than on reactive resin.  Are there tricks that I need to know?  Someone suggested using car polish...

Thanks
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kingpin268

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2010, 11:00:38 PM »
I've been able to polish plastic balls with Beans Secret Sauce, but have had trouble with other products. It's relatively cheap for a sample bottle. I'd give it a try.
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Rev_O

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2010, 11:31:09 PM »
urethane is much harded to get that high gloss shine on. I'm not sure why, I'd bet it has something to do with surface hardness?? I know i can get pearl urethanes really shiney, but not as much on the dull solids.
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dizzyfugu

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2010, 01:35:29 AM »
Urethane is less porous than reactive material and offers less "area" for polish to cling to. You might just need to apply a bit more pressure or spin the ball a bit longer.

I would just stay away form car polish or other compounds that contain wax - it can be used on a polyester ball safely (which you want to go straight), but you effectively kill a reactive because it clogs the pores. A urethane will also lose lots of traction (Many urethane balls create their friction on the lane actually through the surface finish, and mucn less through the coverstock's porosity).
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lenstanles703

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2010, 02:00:06 AM »
Sand the ball to a finer grit and burn in the polish. Lots of pressure and keep going. Urethane is a lot harder than reactive.
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Xcessive_Evil

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2010, 02:46:29 AM »
Pretty interesting this thread comes up.  I have a Storm Natural on the way and was thinking of polishing it.  I think I'll just take it to 4000 matte first.
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dizzyfugu

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2010, 04:31:56 AM »
IMO, there is quite a difference between real "old school" urethanes and more modern balls which seem to have a urethane/resin blend, and they react differently esp. to polish. Traditional balls tend, as far as I can tell, to lose traction and slide very well on little amounts of oil. On the other hand, I found that my black Pure Hammer (a modern urethane, probably with some additives) became VERY aggressive and unpredictable when I had it polished up! With Brunswick's compound polish, it became a hook monster which was hard to keep in the pocket when the lane dried up, and with a light coat of Lanemasters' polish it would get extra length, but lose much controllability at the break point and recovery. Really strange. Most effective finish for the ball was and is 1.500 wet sanded, even on light oil. Strangely the ball does not burn out, even on dry lanes, with this finish, but it is a weird cover!
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charlest

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2010, 05:50:11 AM »
One other thing you guys need to remember when polishing urethanes is that they don''''t react like resins: going longer and snapping harder.

The more you smooth a urethane, the longer it goes, true, but also it hooks less and the backend is the smaller.

You should first sand it smoother and smoother with finer levels of abrasive. Do not skip any intermediate steps or you''''ll regret it. FWIW I''''ve found Storm''''s Xtra Shine one of the best ways to get a smoother surface on the ball. The Natural seems to shine up A LOT easier than the Hype or the Desperado. That makes me suspect it has some resin blend in it, like the older Pure Hammers that dizzy mentions.
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Edited on 2/16/2010 6:51 AM
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dizzyfugu

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2010, 05:58:46 AM »
Yup - I suppose there is also a big performance difference between old school stuff like the urethane Hammers or the Salte Blue Gargoyle, and the "modern" urethane balls like the black Pure Hammer, the Natural or the Liberator. All the latter seem to offer much more traction though the coverstock's properties than the harder, very dense traditional urethanes (Hype and Desperado?).
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BeansProShop

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #9 on: February 15, 2010, 10:37:59 PM »
The Secret Sauce is the SECRET!

The easiest way to polish Urethane balls. Sand ball to 1000/2000 and then use the Sauce..

Also,
The Liberator is the exact cover as the Original Black U-Dot...

I just drilled a Vector 1 NIB and the finished surface looked like deep sand lines when the Liberator looks dull and smooth.

Same cover, different finishing process. Took much longer to polish the Vector but it came up nice..

Beans
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charlest

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Re: Polishing urethane
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2010, 05:56:17 AM »
quote:
Yup - I suppose there is also a big performance difference between old school stuff like the urethane Hammers or the Salte Blue Gargoyle, and the "modern" urethane balls like the black Pure Hammer, the Natural or the Liberator. All the latter seem to offer much more traction though the coverstock's properties than the harder, very dense traditional urethanes (Hype and Desperado?).
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany

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Dizzy,

The Desperado is definitely NOT "old school" urethane.
1. It's a pearl urethane.
2. It contains silicone to get extra length.
3. It has an asymmetric core that helps increase the backendand the carry,if drilled correctly.

I'm not sure what you're saying about traction. I had one of the Pure Hammers and a couple of friends have the Natural. My AMF Hype has much more traction than either one of those, out of the box. I can't compare it to the Liberator but out of the box that's supposed to be so early it's almost unusable by any ball speed.

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