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Author Topic: What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??  (Read 6314 times)

bcw1969

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What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??
« on: December 31, 2016, 07:39:16 PM »
First week of the season my 4 ball league bag looked like this Purple Ice executioner #1 Heavy, Glad Solid med/heavy, Blue gryphon Med/lite, Glad LE dry. The first week of league the lanes were medium at best..progressed very early on that night from my purple Ice(Too much) to the Glad Solid(too much), blue gryphon(just right)..the following week my center discovered oil again, so out of the bag went the Glad Le and into the bag came Purple Ice #2....used mainly the purples for the next few months. A few weeks ago I needed to pull out the Glad Solid again(not as much oil as had been) and was getting little to no reaction out of the ball--was getting much more reaction from the gryphon than the Solid, and the balls weren't set up to be that way. Hadn't felt the need to pull out the Solid since the first week(when it reacted like it always had).

My first thought was maybe an oil soaked cover, but I never put enough games on any of my balls to generate that. Put it in my homemade de-oiler, and nothing came out, followed what an online guy did step by step in constructing it so I didn't think it was a bad construct. I took the cover back down and brought it back up(jumping steps) to 2500 + heavy polish--when it had been working the way I needed it to the cover was 6,000-8,000 grit range with heavy polish + slip agent. That helped slightly but still didn't react. SO recently I decided to test to see if my tub/dehydrator de-oiler was at fault, so I constructed a sweat-box that some have done with a cardboard box and the hole with the blow dryer..it definitely got hot...but nothing came out.

Could the bad reaction/loss of reaction be a cover/core separation? if it was how could I tell? Actually it worked well Thursday....my b/g centaur at 800 grit + polish was too much that night so went to the glad solid in it's un reacting state and all...was playing up the friction straight up between the gutter and first arrow without an overreaction down lane and went 200+ the first 2 games. The Lanes were quite oily up front with extremely jumpy backends..splits abounded from most people I saw near my pair. I really want to have the reaction I was getting from the glad solid the way I used to have the cover. Glad Solids don't seem to be available anymore..and need that exact reaction I used to get from mine in the league bag.

One thought was that Bowlerscellar has 16 pounds glad pearls currently selling for $75.00 ...not a bad price at all. I hesistate because the glad pearl I bought once(from my proshop) was already drilled twice--once for a righty, and once for a lefty and my preferred drilling for the purple and glad's is diff from the other lefty's drilling--hated that ball, rolled terrible. I guess the question would be  Gladiator solid at approx. 6,000 - 8,000 grit plus heavy polish + slip agent would = the Gladiator pearl at what surface?? If I get one I am ok with trial and error method but would like to try and duplicate the reaction I used to get on the first try. Any thoughts?

Brad

 

WOWZERS

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Re: What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2016, 10:20:19 PM »
Don't know if you can get a Solid Glad to a Pearl Glad, but what I can tell you is that a ball that has been plugged 3 times before you drill it has had a substantial amount of core drilled out. Every time you drill a hole into the ball you are reshaping the core. Each time you plug a ball you are adding back different densities as well as the plug is different that the rest of the cover and core. This will make a big difference in ball reaction compared to a new Glad Pearl that you would drill up fresh.

MI 2 AZ

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Re: What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2017, 01:05:15 AM »
Brad, maybe talk to Jason at VBP to see if he has any suggestions as to what may be the cause of your problem, how to tell if the core has separated, and what current ball may be a good substitute for the Gladiator Solid?  What weight do you use?  I usually monitor eBay and if I see one, I can let you know.

I agree with Wowzers about multiple plugged/drilled balls, especially one that was both LH and RH drilled.
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bcw1969

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Re: What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2017, 08:11:26 AM »
I most likely have a bit more games on my original purple ice than I have on the glad solid, and never had a problem with the purple or a used crimson I bought until it cracked. I can only recall 2 other balls I had that ever lost reaction--my ebonite no limit and my first midnight scorcher(which was bought used) ...my pro shop was able to restore the particles on the scorcher--outside of that, as far as I am aware of I never lost reaction on anything. 

I imagine it is a tall order to try and turn a pearl into the solid...it is just I love the executioner and gladiator cores and match up really well with them. One place I know that used to sell visionary stuff(older stuff and some new) was bowlersdream, but the other day I couldn't get to the website..are they no longer, or just re-doing their website?

Brad

WOWZERS

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Re: What Happened to my Gladiator Solid??
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2017, 09:06:38 AM »
I emailed BowlersDream a few times during the summer last year and never heard anything back, didn't get a notice stating the email couldn't be delivered...nothing. I would not trust buying from them if you eventually find a way to the website.

Note: I just tried to reach the site and could not get there either. I would guess they are done.