Dan, Your Winona State University Bowling team needs to get a ball spinner. Maybe some of the local bowling alleys would allow your team members to do a fifty-fifty pot on some of their larger leagues. It shouldn't take long for your team to amass enough money to pick one up. Get your coach busy on putting the arm on some of the Winona State Boosters and alumni; get the team members to kick in a few bucks.
Your team could take the spinner on out of town competitions and after getting a heads-up on lane conditions, make any surface changes necessary, prior to the tournament.
To reply to your question, I have used and use ebonite Reaction Control System, Storm's Extras 1 2 3, along with some other less popular surfacing and polishing products. They all work but in my mind are inconsistent in results, if you are looking at a two thousand finish opposed to a fifteen hundred finish good luck. Myself I would rather move up on the approach three inches or so rather than try to screw around with ball change, guesstimate, that would be 500 points shinier and would, at best, produce 3 to 6 inches of added length.
What I do is wet sand the ball for the length I want then hit the ball with Ebonite Particle Polish diluted with water 50/50 for 10 seconds on all six sides. This will put a shine on the surface but the polish will not be concentrated enough to disturb the sanded surface below the polish. If you follow this process and let the wet sanding determine the length and use polish for the cosmetic effects I think a bowler has a more consistent way of setting up his equipment for whatever condition he or she may face. Don’t get me wrong, I know there will be times when you need a ball to be like a marble to get the necessary length to make the break point. On those conditions you should use the finest grade of sandpaper available and then polish the ball to the highest shine level possible.
The main point I am trying to make is don’t let polishing compounds determine your ball surface they are way to inconsistent and impossible to consistently produce the same surface results time after time. (Last time I shook the polishing compound for 60 seconds, this time I shook it for 30 seconds) Some polishing compounds seem to separate over time. Over time some of the liquid that suspends the grit will evaporate making the consistency thicker. There are way to many variables.
My equipment always looks shined but under the polish the ball is wet sanded to the level I hope will match up well with the condition I am facing and if it doesn’t, at least I know exactly what grit finish the ball is at for future reference and what ball change may better fit the bill.
The reason I use Ebonite Particle Polish, even though I don’t own or even like particle balls, is I have had good results with it. It seems to have a longer shelf life, it resists separation and is really not much more expensive than other polishes.
Dan I know you are a good bowler and don't need someone trying to tell you how to reinvent the wheel, please take take information in the sprit it was meant.
You guys really need to find some way to get a ball spinner, CAB sanding block, some sanding disks and polish. Keep the heat on the coach. I bet your team can find a way.
Good luck, Tom
