This was recently posted on MyBowler.com and thought I would share it. Basically a primer for newer bowlers.
Surface preparation 101
Posted by Justin on Sunday, November 14, 2004 (EST)
Snow tires and bowling balls have a lot in common, really, they do!!
This game is all about the management of one intangible yet constant force… Friction. The management of friction is of the utmost importance when trying to squeeze the maximum performance out of a rather expensive, or not so expensive, bowling ball. Misconceptions abound about this topic, but instead of trying to disprove the myths, I will present the truth. How this proves/disproves or supports/debunks the myths and misconceptions, I leave to your evaluation.
The overall concept I am going to try and get across is that no matter what ball or layout you choose, the surface preparation will have the absolute most effect on the ball path. Granted you wouldn’t take a target zone at 120grit and throw on heavy oil, but it would work better than a highly polished Power groove I bet. Polish! Another misconstrued surface treatment…
There are three main surfaces that can be described… granted it is infinitely adjustable but these are the main three. Dull, smooth, and Polished. As far as specific grits and things these three terms are intended to be loose interpretations of what the surface is. There are two things used to smooth a ball further, Compound and polish. These are both very much different than one another. Compound has grit and does not leave a residue on the ball, it simply smoothes the surface further and further the longer you apply it until reaching its highest grit. Polish has no grit, and deposits something on the surface of the ball giving it the reflective sheen we all know. The fundamental difference between Compound and polish is in how it changes the motion of the ball. Compound delays hook in the front part of the lane, whereas polish reduces hook for the ENTIRETY of the lane. Polish = bad for backend, plus the super glossy surface often creates over/under.
The opposite of polishing is sanding. Uber high technology particle coverstocks need to be treated much differently than old fashioned polyester and urethane covers. Back in the day, this is so long ago I have only heard stories… though one day I did experiment with it and trust me it is NOT fun, resurfacing was done with a bevel knife. Place the ball in a spinner and drag the knife on the 8 quadrants and hope the ball stayed round. How far we have come. Eventually wet sandpaper became the standard, which is perfectly fine for polyester, urethane and reactive. But then one day somebody dumped a bunch of ceramic dust into a vat of raw coverstock and created particle covers. Uh oh, all of a sudden the ceramic particles were resurfacing the sandpaper for you. Anyone who has resurfaced a Brunswick particle ball by hand with sandpaper knows what I am talking about! So 3M and Brunswick came out with a unique finishing system called Trizact. 5 different pads that range from about 200 grit up to about 2500 grit… 3m classifies it in microns so an exact transmute is impossible. I do know the white and finest Trizact pad is 35 micron. So as other companies developed particle covers, sandpaper began to come under scrutiny for the effect it has on the particles themselves. Original Columbia TEC covers had glass beads at the particle additive. Infamous is the term TEC death! It is debatable that a lot of the early failure of TEC based coverstocks was due to the use of sandpaper. In retrospect this theory holds water. Basically sandpaper is a grit of a specified size permanently glued to a piece of paper, therefore creating grit and a rough surface that will remove material from a surface softer than itself. Woodworkers really like sandpaper. Bowlers did too for a long time. Because of this hard grit being ground against the surface of a particle ball, the particles would actually get knocked out of the coverstock, effectively reducing the resulting traction.
3m to once again save the day! Ill say this now, Scotch-Brite is a bowler’s best friend. An abrasive material that can be used wet or dry, will allow material to flow through it, be gentle to particle covers, and be backwards compatible with older technology. What more can you ask for! What happens is the Scotch-Brite allows material that has been removed from a coverstock to penetrate itself and be removed form the surface due to its sponge like quality, always leaving fresh abrasive in contact with the ball. The most important reason we use Scotch-Brite is because it does not knock particles out of a cover, it is a nice gentle abrasive able to do its job effectively while allowing the particles to stay in place. Scotch-Brite comes in several different colors, but the most common are Green (~150-180), Red (~220-280), and Grey (~ 320-400) and White (~600-800). The grit equivalents are approximate and it can vary slightly, but these are good guidelines. Most of the time when we resurface, we start with a 120 grit diamond pad then move to Red and go to gray then apply compound or polish if needed. Sometimes white is used to obtain a higher grit before polish.
One application, you can layer the grit of your surface to fine-tune the ball path. Sanding to 220 and then polishing over the top delays and reduces hook while still allowing traction. This seems counter-productive but this is a tweak to be used to really fine tune the reaction of a ball when an extra foot at the breakpoint is too much. Most of the time I'll take balls to Grey or about 400, then apply compound or polish as needed. You can also vary the direction in which you sand to create differing amounts of friction. Parallel to the track for more backend, perpendicular to the track for less backend, or centered on the bowtie for more friction over the whole lane. One quick secret trick… if you need more backend out of a polished ball, take gray Scotch-Brite and dull a little patch near the end of your flare, so the ball initially rolls on the polished part and flares into the scuffed area. Doing so will add bout 3-4 boards of backend depending on the ball and condition.
I have tried to touch on as much as I could in order to help explain surface prep, but the most important and practical information follows:
Sanding creates more friction and therefore creates an earlier bleeding of energy, reducing backend. Compounds delay friction and therefore retain more energy providing larger backend. Polish reduces hook throughout the entire lane. Any combination of Sand, Compound, and Polish can be used. I know not everyone has access to a spinner, but experimentation goes a long way in knowing what exactly different surfaces do for your reaction.
Any questions you can contact me at Justin@mybowler.com or stop in to Bowler’s World in Rochester and say Hi!
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