Was over at BBE and they had some interesting links posted for a blog post by Jeff Richgels about balls cracking and a article in the Fall 2008 edition of Pro Shop Insider written by Rich Jacobson.

Click here for The 11th Frame: The Ebonite article that tells you how to keep resin balls from cracking – and how I got it wrong

Click here for the Ebonite Article

The main points of Rich Jacobson's "Ask Ebonite.com" article were that while there are other factors in balls cracking, the main reason for it happening during long term storage were gravity and leaving a ball in a static position for a long time.

The recommendation to help reduce the chance of cracking is to rotate the ball a quarter turn every few weeks.

The second factor is open air exposure, which has to do with the curing process of the balls. While the ball surface is fully cured when it leaves the factory, They will still continue to cure for month or even years.

The recommendation to help reduce the chance of cracking is to store the ball in a ziplock bag or wrapped with plastic wrap or a plastic bag. You want as tight a fit as you can get, to insulate the ball from the outside air and store at room temperature.

While this might not stop all cracking totally, it might could help reduce it.

Thinking about it, balls do typically have a plastic bag around them when they come from the factory.

I made a joke one time about storing balls in a vacuum antigravity chamber I guess I wasn't far off!

Hmmm Ziplock has them bags with the vacuum pump I wonder

(Correct your link; it has an extra "*" at the end of the url.)

Fixed them both
It wasn't extra "*" (at least it didn't show here) the insert hyperlink added a whole extra set http://'s on both links

Am I just lucky? or is this just a stab in the dark?

As to that I don't know.

This isn't the first time I've heard of rotating sitting balls. I know ball's get flat spots if they set too long on a hard surface without moving them, I've seen that myself.

So pressure building up on a spot contributing to cracking seems reasonable.

I was always told to keep balls in their original plastic bag, in their box. I have also rotated them occasionally, keeping them from sitting on the area the holes are, so they don't get undo pressure on them in a weaker area. I also bought foam rubber from Walmart and put it at the bottom of the box so, the ball never really rests on the bottom of the box. Has kept me from having too many problems.

 First of all, I want to say that I have several balls in storage, some of which haven't even been drilled yet.

 That being said, what real good is a ball if it is in storage, and what have you really lost if a ball in storage cracks open?

 If it was all that great, shouldn't it be in your bag instead of your closet( or wherever you store them)?

 And, if it is a great piece, but you aren't using it, it either wasn't all that great, or you've found something even better that replaced it, haven't you?

 I have had balls I was using to crack in my bag, and I knew the loss. But, I have had balls crack while in storage and figured if I wasn't using it enough to even know for sure when it happened, it wasn't that big of a loss.

 As an aside, I am old enough to remember when the ONLY place that had balls in "storage" was the pro shop at the bowling center.

Yes, being the ball idiot that I am, I have read many articles about modern balls, and why they crack, and how to prevent it, including this one.

No, I know that. The term idiot is one that I chose for myself because I spent so much time and effort in learning everything I could about bowling for so long, thinking that one day it would amount to something.

 It did not.

 But, I do know a lot more about bowling than most people would ever suspect, or believe.