Alright, its finished. I bought a solid carbide used. I had the ball plugged up and planned on drilling it with a 315° layout. Unfortunately, the ball had a 3.5" pin, making it a little long for this type of layout. SO, I decided to go with a 180° layout instead. Put the pin under and right of the ring finger and the cg above and left of the middle finger in the track.
For me, this layout gives the ball a medium amount of length (likely due to the surface of the ball... since I currently have it finished with Ebonite Matte finish) with a very strong arc at the break point. The ball revs fairly easily w/out having to put much effort into it. Once it gets to the backends, the ball sort of "lays-off" as it enters the pocket. It doesn't roll out or seem to lose energy, but rather "flattens out." Although this seems as it might hurt the carry, It actually hits very well!
Before drilling, I was worried about flaring over the fingers (since I have a very high track and have had flare problems in the past using pin under the finger layouts). I don't seem to have any trouble with this layout. Actually, my track is a little lower than normal... possibly situating the core in this position lowers the track a little? I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, it works.
I've only used it a couple of games on a fairly easy house shot, so I'm eager to try it out on some other conditions. From what I see, I think it should work well on a variety of shots.
S^2
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The Bengals season has come to an end. Achieved the .500 mark, so all was not lost. Now we look forward to April... Come on Chris Gamble