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Author Topic: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil  (Read 31238 times)

txbowler

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Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« on: January 29, 2010, 01:35:15 AM »
I see these terms used throughout this site and all over the bowling industry.

Can someone define them for me or point me to a glossary?

The reason I ask is, I think some bowlers interpret this differently than others.  You ask one bowler, and they believe it refers to the length of the oil pattern, where light may be 37 ft, med - 39 ft, and heavy is 41 ft or longer. Where other bowlers might think it means the volume of oil with out regard to the length of the pattern.  Or is it a combination of both?

So if the lane mechanic accidently spills the lane oil jug on the lane and oil goes all over the lane.  He grabs a cloth and spreads the oil everywhere on the lane but only to 30 ft.  There is a ton of volume but a very short pattern.  To some this is light oil because their ball will hook like crazy on the backend.  To others is this heavy oil?

 

David Lee Yskes

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2010, 10:22:30 AM »
I believe Bob Hanson probably summed it up pretty good.

If you took two patterns and placed one on older wood lanes and then place it on Pro Anvils, its going to play differently..  one might think on the Anvils, its a heavier oil pattern..  

you could take a 20ml and go 45ft and most would think its a pretty heavy oil pattern..  but go 35ft and they'll say its a light oil pattern..  

Now with mentioning that we've basically doubled the amount of oil that "we" usta use back in the old days, I think thats almost "normal" because of how the new bowling balls will tear up the lanes.  So for the bowling alleys to protect thier investment, they need to put down alot more oil..  expecially in the "heads" of the lanes.
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JohnP

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2010, 10:28:10 AM »
It really is subjective.  For me, heavy oil means I use my strongest equipment and slow down.  Medium oil means I'm in my comfort zone, normal speed and equipment.  Light oil means plastic or urethane as hard as I can throw it.  --  JohnP

Aloarjr810

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2010, 11:12:17 AM »
There was a post about this last year about feb. About how many units of oil was considered Heavy, Medium and Light. heres what I looked up back then.
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Well I remembered reading about this in some of my books and magazine, So I looked it up. So here's some of what I found.

First what is a unit of oil defined as, I found this in a 04/05 Spec. manual. (It's in the "Computerized Lane Inspection Program Manual" you can find it on bowl.com)

"A "unit" of oil is defined by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) and Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) as 0.0167 cubic centimeters of oil evenly spread over a 1 sq. ft. surface, which equates to a film of oil about 7 millionths of an inch thick."

Now in In USBowler Magazine Vol.2, No.3 Spring 2007 Page 12 Coach's Corner They have a article "Everything you wanted to know about lane conditions" In it they say,

Example: a piece of typing paper is about 400 units thick.
(.000007*400=.0028"  A 16# bond paper is .0032" thick so that's pretty close.)

"A layer of oil 100-plus units would be considered "Heavy oil" and anything less then 50 units probably would be "Light oil".

Now in from other source's Oil, Medium and Dry is looked at in terms of length.

In the book "Revolutions 2" they define it this way,

Oil (long oil) were lanes oiled 35 to 45 feet.
Med. were lanes oiled 25 to 35 feet.
Dry (very short oil) was 18 to 25 feet.

Now in In USBowler Magazine Vol.2, No.3 Spring 2007 Page 12 Coach's Corner They have a article "Everything you wanted to know about lane conditions" In it they show it as,

Long oil as 40 feet or longer
Medium oil as 35' to 45' feet or more
Short oil 35 feet or less

Now in Bowling This Month magazine they rate ball's for Oil, Medium and Dry, the current issue is showing these patterns being used.

Oily is a 44' oil (High Street)
Medium 41' oil (Main Street)
Dry 38' oil (Easy Street)

High Street, Main Street and Easy Street, These are the Kegel Navigation Recreation Series of patterns. you can see them here.
http://www.kegel.net/patternlibrary/default.asp

Now for a comment it's not how much oil on the lane, but where it's at. Pattern's can be adjusted to make short ones appear long and long ones appear short.

Heres a quote from a article called- "Lane Pattern Basics: An Overview of Blend, Taper & Application".
Click here for the article

"the overall volume of the shot probably has the least affect, as the length that the conditioner is applied can make the "volume" almost meaningless."

When it comes to Oil and Oil patterns there are many factor's that come into play about lane condition's and how to play them. The amount of oil is one of the smaller factor's involved.

I ran across this in a past issue of BTM (Bowling This Month). It was in a article about sport shots, but I think it applies with this post also.

They had a chart showing 6 patterns made of combination's of these, with ball and drilling recommendation's for them.

Pattern Length
Short (34' or shorter)
Medium (35' to 40')
Long (41' or longer)

Oil Volume
Light to Medium (20ml. or less)
Medium to Heavy (More than 20ml.)


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icewall

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2010, 11:25:27 AM »
I will agree with this:

Pattern Length
Short (34' or shorter)
Medium (35' to 40')
Long (41' or longer)

Oil Volume
Light to Medium (20ml. or less)
Medium to Heavy (More than 20ml.)

as far as describing it to someone else. I judge that purely by what ball works best. If its a ball designed and drilled to go very long and its polished, well I'm going to tell people I'm bowling on light oil.

yes many people don't know what heavy, medium, and light really are because not every bowls the same way. I use at my house a t-road pearl at 1500 grit polished and i have to keep it polished every single week... but the guy next to me is throwing the mutant cell! I've thrown middle arrow and no oil was on my ball when it came back to me, how he throws a mutant cell and it still retains energy is beyond me.... but the point is he probably would say the lanes play with more oil then id describe them as having.
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The Stroke

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2010, 11:54:55 AM »
For the majority on BR its.....

Light Oil: My ball never lays off the head pin and I never EVER tug it

Medium oil: Just about right, I strike more than I should

Heavy Oil: My 180 revs just skate through the pattern, I don't have anything that hooks.
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txbowler

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2010, 12:42:43 PM »
This is helping.

When I read that ball "A" is a true medium ball I was just wondering what a ball company meant?


Another good example is nationals.  Most bowlers I speak to about nationals refer to it as "heavy oil" or the slickest shot they have ever comes across.  Yet, for me, nationals is one of the lightest oil shots I bowl on because the pattern is usually shorter than 40 ft.

I'd love to see what would happen if nationals ever put out a 42-44 foot pattern.

charlest

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Re: Defintions of: Light Oil, Medium Oil, Heavy Oil
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2010, 02:40:15 PM »
quote:
This is helping.

When I read that ball "A" is a true medium ball I was just wondering what a ball company meant?


Another good example is nationals.  Most bowlers I speak to about nationals refer to it as "heavy oil" or the slickest shot they have ever comes across.  Yet, for me, nationals is one of the lightest oil shots I bowl on because the pattern is usually shorter than 40 ft.

I'd love to see what would happen if nationals ever put out a 42-44 foot pattern.


txbowler,

I think the above gives a decent picture of the situation. While everything is relative, experience will show you over the long haul, which is which in a more absolute fashion.

ALSO:
Rememeber there's not only left to right, there's front to rear oil patterns. The oil can be so heavy in the middle that you have to throw it slow and use a strong ball to get the ball to hook after it comes off the end of the pattern, BUT the outsides (say 1-5 on both sides) can be so dry that if you use a breakpoint in that are, you'd need the mildest of resinss to play there unless you had very high ball speed.

In the end, if I can use what is considered to be a true medium oil ball (there aremany) on the pattern, it is medium oil. If I need an oiler, like the Bounty Hunter, to have a good look, it is heavy oil. If I need a light oil ball, like the Neptune or the Avalanche Slide, it is light oil.

In all practicality, there is also medium-light (between light and medium oil) and there is medium-heavy (between medium and heavy oil).
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