Ric Hamlin has drilled balls precisely for years, and so has my driller, who has easily done 20,000 balls in the 20+ years of business.  Ric knows who he is.  He's VERY talented.

Every once in awhile he'll miss slightly (to him 1/16" was HUGE) which is why he offered to re-do it.  I'm the one that said the 1/16" was not a big deal for me.  I'm not that precise.  If you are, then great.  As long as humans are drilling balls, there is a possibility of even the best "missing" his exact line by 1/16" from time to time. 

If you only drill one ball a day then you can spend all day being perfect, with your razor blade, etc, but if you have 10-15 to drill eventually you run the risk of being human...     

Someday I would like to visit this "perfect world" that some of you live in.

Is 128th of an inch acceptable? 

my proshop scribes my stuff but they also understand most bowlers dont like it. they ask the customer if they mind the scribe lines. the serious bowlers they know appreciate precision get the scribe lines and and recreational league bowlers get the pencil. i think the scribe lines look sweet 

If you only drill one ball a day then you can spend all day being perfect, with your razor blade, etc, but if you have 10-15 to drill eventually you run the risk of being human...     

It doesn't take all day to get a ball perfect. Whether drilling one ball a day or 10-15 balls a day, there is no excuse for being off 1/16. Razor blade or thin pencil or what ever it takes to get it right should be used to insure accuracy, regardless of how many balls the driller has to drill that day. It should also be important to the driller to be as accurate as possible to insure repeat business by the customer. If I go to a driller and he is off 1/16 or more, unless it is a rare occurrence for that to happen with him, I won't be back.

I can't bowl for another 3 weeks yet, but I have 2 balls being plugged and re drilled by a new driller now of which I am to pick up the balls next Wed., so I will see how he does. If off 1/16 or more, rest assured, I won't be back.

We use pencil in my shop. Also, the person that lays out and marks the ball drills the ball as he knows how he marked it. If one of my guys lays out and I drill, I always double check to see how he marked as to where to hit the line. I have way too many customers that cry over a small pinhead size dot on there ball, couldn't imagine how bad they would fly off the deep end on a scribes line.

The thing with using a pen or sharpie then is the ink maybe soaking in to the cover and/or migrating around do to the surface texture/pores, possibly not being able to clean it off or sand it off because the ink soaked into the pores.

Here's one
Ever notice the the yellow build up on the edge of alot of PSO's prosect/quarter scales?

Do they ever clean it off? How much could that build up throw off the line?

How often do they or span rulers get replaced? plastic expands and contracts, the measuring edge gets wear,. That could affect measurements.

First of all...oil or any other 'liquid' migrates thru the cover stock...it absorbs plain and simple
I've used ink pens in many situations and I'm fairly certain it had no effect on the reaction

I never asked if ink affected reaction.

This thread was about scribing and the appearance of the ball.

So saying ink has no effect on ball reaction has no bearing on that.

So can all ink lines can be removed.

are there inks that will soak in that you can't just wipe off?

If you use a pen with real free flowing ink will it spread and make your line wider than intended?

do pros bowl so good because they have scribed balls and bowl on blue oil sometimes?