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Author Topic: Tack up a thumb slug?  (Read 5795 times)

Gizmo823

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Tack up a thumb slug?
« on: September 17, 2014, 02:52:32 PM »
I've got an issue.  I have a customer who is 56, very old school bowler, loves buying new stuff, but still brings his old reliables from the late 90s and early 2000s.  Over the last several years he's had a really tough time holding on to stuff.  Here's the real issue, he has 1/2 reverse in his thumb on a span of 4 1/2.  Here's the aggravating issue, all his old stuff he can hang onto, the new stuff he can't.  He won't let me change his fit at all, because, "well if I can hang onto my old stuff, you should be able to copy that."  He's a self admitted gripper, says he'll never change, and is just beside himself with irritation that he can't hang onto anything, and we all know who is to blame here . .  However, he's had numerous people drill for him, including some really big names in the industry, and nothing works. 

The most critical issue to me is that I can feel what he's feeling, and somehow his old balls he can hang onto have super tacky surfaces.  He uses slugs, but his old ones are polished, they're really shiny and really tacky, but they're also 15 year old slugs too.  I've tried all kinds of things to make the newer slugs tacky, I've tried wet sanding, polishing, etc., but nothing seems to work, just makes the slug slippery.  I know what the real problem and solution is here, but he wants nothing to do with it.  If he was having issues hanging onto his old stuff I could work with that, but he goes right back to them and has no problems, so in his mind it's a driller competence issue . .  I just have no clue what I can do to tack up a thumbhole, because usually that's the opposite direction that you want to go. 

Maybe massage some non-slip cream in there?  High gloss it and then do that?  Freakin pine tar?  Fishing here . .
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stormed1

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #16 on: September 17, 2014, 10:36:31 PM »
I HAVE EXTREMELY DRY HANDS DUE TO BEING ON DIALYSIS. i USE A SPRAY FROM sTEVE hOSKINS WHICH GIVES MY HANDS A LITTLE TACKY FEEL TO HELP ME HOLD ON TO THE BALL AND i'M AT 1/4 FORWARD. iT'S sTEVE hOSKINS hsp. i GET IT FROM gRAN pRIX BOWLING SUPPLY IN sT lOUIS
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Break Down 60x4.5x60 @3k+polish
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stormed1

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2014, 10:40:44 PM »
I HATE the caps lock button!!
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Break Down 60x4.5x60 @3k+polish
coming soon X,Desert Ops,Special Ops, Shadow Ops., Truth Pearl ,Drift

Rightycomplex

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #18 on: September 18, 2014, 05:41:48 AM »
If he has 1/2 Rev on a 4 1/2" span and you have advised him to try more forward then there's not a huge amount you can do. Maybe, take a sanding disc to it or advise him how to tape his hole so that he can get more tack. One company makes a brown sand paper like tape for people with extremely dry hands who need to hold on to the ball more.

Also with his older stuff, are they slugged with vinyl slugs. Very rare that people use vinyls anymore as they are tough to drill and super tacky so not a lot of people like the tack. That could be the difference in his stuff. In his old stuff he's feeling that tack of the vinyl and his new stuff he's feeling slick urethane. Just a thought as I have had customers like this.
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Gizmo823

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #19 on: September 18, 2014, 07:09:12 AM »
He's never used vinyl, all his old stuff has urethane slugs.  I think we made some progress last night, and not how I thought it would happen.  He finally said his old thumbs feel like craters, and the new ones are all tight.  I've just been using what my old boss had on the drill sheet for his thumb, which fits perfectly, but he doesn't like it.  I guess he really bends his thumb crazy, and a thumb that fits doesn't allow him to bend his thumb enough to get the grip on it he wants to.  He opened it up and all the sudden can hang onto it.  So apparently the texture didn't have much to do with it.  I tried his old slugs again last night and although they have a smooth surface and SOME grip, they're not near as tacky as I thought they were. 

If he has 1/2 Rev on a 4 1/2" span and you have advised him to try more forward then there's not a huge amount you can do. Maybe, take a sanding disc to it or advise him how to tape his hole so that he can get more tack. One company makes a brown sand paper like tape for people with extremely dry hands who need to hold on to the ball more.

Also with his older stuff, are they slugged with vinyl slugs. Very rare that people use vinyls anymore as they are tough to drill and super tacky so not a lot of people like the tack. That could be the difference in his stuff. In his old stuff he's feeling that tack of the vinyl and his new stuff he's feeling slick urethane. Just a thought as I have had customers like this.
What would you be if you were attached to another object by an inclined plane, wrapped helically around an axis?

Strapper_Squared

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #20 on: September 18, 2014, 08:44:22 AM »
Lots of "rosin", the little jars of grip cream, or if all else fails try some pine tar...

Haha.... 
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jodyk24

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2014, 01:43:38 PM »
Some people just do not want to make changes. I am not a big fan of reverse pitch and 1/2 reverse is a bunch. The cork insert was mentioned and that might be a cheap option for you to try. I have used them and if they become too sticky just add a piece of white tape over the cork and this changes the texture. It is a security blanket for some people. A read that a pro bowler was using cork inserts several years ago in a tournament and I thought at the time, this may set bowling back 30 years (LOL).
jodyk24
« Last Edit: September 18, 2014, 01:51:01 PM by jodyk24 »

JohnP

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Re: Tack up a thumb slug?
« Reply #22 on: September 18, 2014, 05:29:34 PM »
Are you sure his old balls that work have slugs in them or could they be sleeves?  Sleeves are all vinyl.  A sleeve doesn't have the vent hole a slug has.  --  JohnP