Is this more of a characteristic of the ball or the proper layout/weighthole placement?  I love balls that flare late down the lane because they seem to give more of a margin for error when you're off on your speed.  Balls that flared very late for me were the Rebel ECX(4 1/2 pin to PAP), Nemesis(5" pin to PAP, with x-hole), Command Zone(4 1/2" pin to PAP with x-hole) and Stinger 2 Piece Pearl(various drillings).

Now even if a ball has an extremely high diff, would it still be possible to achieve a "late flare" reaction?  If so where would you have to place the X-hole?  I am asking because I've thrown a Raven Quantum and a Mass Chaos which have a high diff, but the pin was at 5 1/4 from the PAP, but it still flared early in the oil(lots of lines with alot of space in between them).  What was different about the balls I mentioned before that flared late(very tight flare lines in the oil, but still had about 2-3" of "burn lines" past the oil rings)  but had the pin in stronger positions?
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-DP3
Respect the Game

Dee,

It's more of a combination of both. As you know, I too prefer balls that flare downlane and not too early.   Higher differential balls require weaker pin placements (5 1/2-6") or the ball will flare off your hand...which explains why the Mass Chaos and Raven flared so much. The balls that flared later for you were lower differential balls (around .044) except the Zone but I suspect you may have had the extra hole on the axis.

I usually try to go with a scale unless I'm doing a specialty drill.  On high diff balls (.049+) I'll err on the long pin side (around 5 1/2" - 6") and then go with a a flare increasing hole if I need one. Since the pin to PAP is so long, I don't have to worry about flaring over extra holes so I go 2 1/4" below PAP 3" deep. Or if I want the ball to lose rotation quicker, I'll go with the weighthole 6 3/4" at 45* from the center of the grip.  I'll then slide down the scale from there:

Medium diff (.040-.048) - I'll go around 5" - 5 1/2"
Low diff (.020-.039) - Usually no shorter than 4"


The times when people request layouts, I'll adjust it a little depending on their rev count.  The pin is usually about .5" stronger than the distances above.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.  See you when you get back from school



Edited on 10/19/2005 9:40 AM