Maybe somone can shed some light on this for me.

 

I took my original break out of the bag about 6 weeks ago due to lack of oila dn put it in the closet next to some other balls. Went into the closet to get something earlier this week and noticed that the break is cracked all the way around the ball. The other balls have been in this same closet (pantry closet in my apartment that is located just outside the kitchen) and have not had any problems. My LevRG, Hot Rod PSP and my roommates Red PBA Inferno are all sitting around this ball without a crack in sight. Prior to taking the ball out of the bag there were no cracks that I noticed around the fingers, pin or otherwise. I also keep my bowling bags in this closet and haven't noticed cracking on anything that has been kept in the bags for whatever that is worth.

 

Mostly I'm annoyed because a good ball will need to be replaced and money is tight, but it brings to question what factors actually caused the ball to crack.

 

So I open this to those of you with more knowledge than myself... any ideas?

jls - That's the thing, i'm rather sure the temperature doesn't change much in the closet. It's in the center of the apartment not bordering an exterior wall. And there are no base-board heating units in the closet, so it should remain fairly constant in temperature.

 

I suppose it's one of those things we'll never understand.

There are any number of purported reasons, few of which are verifed as true causes.

 

Some people recently presented some novel and not really well understood reasons:

- resting on one spot on its bottom for too long (assuming a solution would be to rotate it to prevent this)

- keeping the ball inside its original plastic sleeve (assuming this might prevent changes in humidity from affecting the ball.)

 

Personally I am unhappy that the 900Global manufacturing process chooses to make the thinnest resin shells I have ever seen, often in the range of 3/8" in thickness. Please keep in mind that I have no qualms or concerns about the performance of all ball made in this plant in San Antonio (900Global, AMF, Lane#1, Jet, Seismic and possibly one or 2 others I am forgetting). Also, I don't know that this thinness has anything to do with the cracking.

 

The only balls I have ever had crack were 2 older Track balls, one Breakpoint, and more recently, a Radical Times Up (that was replaced due to the efforts of Steve (tekneek)). All were produced in that San Antonio plant. No other brand has ever cracked while just sitting there in my basement. This includes NIB balls, drilled balls sitting in their plastic bag in a box sitting on a wooden shelf, balls sitting out in the open on a rug on my basement floor and a few NIB sitting in the box on the floor. Some old gems have been sitting there for years. My driller always bevels all holes, uses minimal Super glue, alway suses sharp drill bits and always drills slowly, using minimum 1/4" bridge between holes. 

 

So why some crack and others don't seems to be almost a crap shoot.

 

Oh that's another concern: the heat and humidity in San Antonio, TX, a few miles north of the Mexican border seems to have some unknown affect on the curing of the resin shell. This has been a concern since before the time when Ebonite bought all the resources of the original Columbia300 corporation.

 

 

Edited by charlest on 12/14/2011 at 3:03 PM

Interesting thought....and also disturbing that in a game where participation at the league and competitive level is down 75% in 30 years now has a need for balls to get to the marketplace so fast that quality needs to be sacrificed.  I still stand by my thoughts that ball companies are killing the game.
 

My theory is mostly due to those who use inserts and the glue used to hold inserts.

 

When I used inserts, 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 would crack. All of my equipment was kept indoors, in climate controlled rooms. They all cracked out from around the fingers. Many would crack all the way around the ball. Or all the way around the fingers. Some would take a year or two some would take less then a year. Non were abused, none were with the pin less then an inch from the fingers. I'm not referring to cracked bridges either.

 

Went away from inserts and have had two bowling balls in 10 years crack. Both from the thumb. I do use thumb inserts. I do make sure when gluing in the thumb insert to get the glue below the outer shell as a precaution as best as possible. I have also drilled a lot more bowling balls in the past 10 years then I did prior to going away from inserts. My brother who still uses finger inserts and drills far fewer bowling balls still has approx 1 in 6 bowling balls crack. Starting at the fingers.

 

As a consumer this speaks largely to what I believe is a problem caused by the reaction of glue to the shell of the ball. I will also add that none of my bridges have cracked since going away from inserts. Most of the bowling balls I have laying around are several years old, on a shelf not being rotated. Also not cracking. 

"1 of 1." 

My guess is that I have had about 60-80 balls drilled out in the last ten years. Only two cracked, a 900g Breakpoint and a Storm just about 10 years ago. I see a lot of 900g ball cracking listed in the forums and I like their equipment but until I picked up the Motive Raptor I limited myself to Global and Lane Master balls. I have yet to have or hear about any Lane Master balls cracking. Probably since they have no fillers in their better quality lines. Some of the current balls I use have been in the garage or bowling lockers and never get rotated so that theory is bust in my opinion. I do believe if your ball driller doesn't drill the fingers correctly that a crack can start from that area of a ball. Fingers need space and need to flare away from each other. Living in South Carolina we have temp swings of up to 80*+.  115 in the summer to 25 in the winter, balls in the garage never have an issue?

 

Reverendwaz-what part of N Minny? Originally from Hibbing myself.

From what my Pro-shop guy tells me,  the Reason bowling balls crack these days, is because ball companies dont let them cure long enough...... And once the ball is drilled, it becomes more brittle , than if it's undrilled..  

 

And he has told me, that as long as you are using said ball, it keeps the " compounds " of the bowling balls in motion, but once the ball is not used and it sitting for a long time, everything just settles at the bottom of the ball..    

 

I had two balls crack sometime during the summer when i was not bowling... one was a Tropical Heat, and one was a RotoGrip Theory..  The Tropical HEat actually started cracking(small spiderwebbing) around my switch grip sleeve 2 or 3 weeks after i got the ball... but didnt expand.   Well when it cracked, it went from the thumb hole all the way around the ball to the finger holes..  

 

The Theory, was a shock, it went from one side of the thumb hole to the other side, and actually split the Switch grip sleeve too...  Luckly none of my others have started cracking....

 

And all of my bowling balls are stored in my bed room too, so it wasnt like they are out in my garage or basement...    

Not seen one just crack in the middle. Usually starts from a hole or the pin, and goes from there. Very unusual.

 

 

"1 of 1."