I have used a few cleaners in my day, but I still go back to a few tried and true methods for cleaning oil and scuff marks off my bowling balls by hand.
For dull balls or balls with some surface, I use blue paper shop towels and a small bit of acetone to totally strip and clean the ball of any dirt, oil, and scuff marks. I also use Clean and Dull if the balls do not need to be stripped. Those two have worked well for me and I have not found anything that works better at deep cleaning a ball than those. YMMV.
Now on to the polished equipment. And this is where the fun begins... I have used Alcohol, Clean and Shine, That Purple Stuff, That WoW Factor, Brunswick’s Big B ball cleaner, and other cleaners that amount to what I call “soapy waterâ€.
Alcohol was used back in my Urethane days. It would clean the surface but change the reaction over time. I stopped using it a long time ago. Clean and Shine would work well, but it would leave a haze over the ball. I hated working hard to buff it off the balls. Brunswick’s Big B cleaner was given to me by my pro shop owner as a gift for buying a few balls this year. After using it a few times, I see why he just gave it away. It’s trash. No kidding. It’s a surface cleaner at best and it will NOT remove anything that resembles a scuff mark by hand.
That Purple Stuff is not much better than the Big B cleaner, but it does a little better job of removing oil and some light scuff marks. That WoW Factor is stronger than the T.P.S. cleaner, but it stinks.
As for polishes, Black Magic Polish by hand was always my reference. However, I have recently used Brunswick Crown Factory Compound and Crown Factory Polish by hand before I purchased my new ball spinner. They are not bad by hand, but you really need the spinner for them to be effective. I also just purchased the CTD Tru-Cut 5500 polish, but I have not used it yet with the spinner.
As for the new ball spinner, I just recently purchased a ½ HP spinner from Innovative Bowling products and could not be more thrilled with the purchase. I should have done that a long time ago. It’s so new that I have only used it once to refresh and polish my Wreck-Em back to a factory finish. I used the Crown Factory Polish to finish it off and it looks and feels brand new!
As for sanding pads, I like the CTD Tru-Cut pads. They seem to last longer than the Abralon pads. My complaint with the Abralon pads are that they are no good after a few uses. Again, YMMV. LOL!
Hope this helps! Peace!
