BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: bowler100 on June 18, 2019, 09:56:04 PM
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I have noticed that this ball bleeds tons of plasticizer especially in the presence of heat. Can you draw out too much plasticizer out of this ball and cause the cover to get brittle and crack like a reactive?
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I'm no expert, but I think so. On mine, after several hot water soaks, the cover got extremely brittle with many cracks.
Did not crack all the way around like a reactive, from a finger hole around to the thumb hole. Different kind of smaller cracks. Looked like a mud puddle that had dried out in the sun. The cracked areas began to curl up on the edges. Eventually, some of those cracked areas began to flake off so I got rid of the ball.
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I have noticed that this ball bleeds tons of plasticizer especially in the presence of heat. Can you draw out too much plasticizer out of this ball and cause the cover to get brittle and crack like a reactive?
This is why it is so important to know exactly what is the safe temperature range for balls. Most vary between 125 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 as the maximum allowable by the manufacturer. Most devices that help extract oil from balls via heat have gauges that set the maximum temperature (or they should.). You should not exceed the manufacturer's maximum.
I don't know of anyone is left who worked on the design of the Epoxy coverstocks from Columbia300, but you should probably ask, if you want to continue to use this ball safely. If they cannot answer you, I would stick with 125 as the maximum. Maybe some resin chemist who reads this can give you a chemistry related answer.
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EPX's will bleed like crazy below those temperatures. One of the "scientific" test they had me do with my test ball was run warm tap water over it for 5 minutes. That test led to spending a half hour cleaning the sticky plasticizer out of the sink.
If you've baked this ball you've probably pulled out way more plasticizer than I did in the sink test.
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EPX's will bleed like crazy below those temperatures. One of the "scientific" test they had me do with my test ball was run warm tap water over it for 5 minutes. That test led to spending a half hour cleaning the sticky plasticizer out of the sink.
If you've baked this ball you've probably pulled out way more plasticizer than I did in the sink test.
That is exactly why I am concerned about the coverstock, plasticizer runs out of the cover SO EASILY and it does not even take much heat to do that.
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You actually have an EPX that hasn't disintegrated yet? Sorry but its just a matter of time before it crumbles before your eyes. When is the last time you used it?
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The ball is 15 years old. It probably reacts like a strong urethane ball by now.
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You actually have an EPX that hasn't disintegrated yet? Sorry but its just a matter of time before it crumbles before your eyes. When is the last time you used it?
ABT about a week ago on 1 to 1 pattern. I shot plus (Scratch) on that **** in qualifying. It was a hard pattern.
So the cover is almost guaranteed to fall apart? Essentially, you are saying that it is not a matter of if but when the ball breaks?
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If it hasn't fallen apart yet it won't. The balls that broke did it rather quickly.
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The ball is 15 years old. It probably reacts like a strong urethane ball by now.
It reacted like a strong urethane 15 years ago ;). It does not hook as much as a Jackal Rising or Sure Lock on the backend. On the flat, heavy patterns; it does cover a pretty similar number of boards but it does it throughout the whole lane while the Sure Lock and ESPECIALLY the Jackal Rising have a quicker motion downlane.
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If it hasn't fallen apart yet it won't. The balls that broke did it rather quickly.
That is good news for me. I love this ball on those heavy, flat patterns. It rolls smoother than anything and still continues throughout the lane better than any particle ball.
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I have noticed that this ball bleeds tons of plasticizer especially in the presence of heat. Can you draw out too much plasticizer out of this ball and cause the cover to get brittle and crack like a reactive?
This is why it is so important to know exactly what is the safe temperature range for balls. Most vary between 125 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 as the maximum allowable by the manufacturer. Most devices that help extract oil from balls via heat have gauges that set the maximum temperature (or they should.). You should not exceed the manufacturer's maximum.
I don't know of anyone is left who worked on the design of the Epoxy coverstocks from Columbia300, but you should probably ask, if you want to continue to use this ball safely. If they cannot answer you, I would stick with 125 as the maximum. Maybe some resin chemist who reads this can give you a chemistry related answer.
Motiv's warranty sets the maximum limit at 125 degrees---the number at which I set my Rejuvenator as Jeff suggests.
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Yeah most of the ones left are not the duds. Big reason Barnes and others still sometimes use it on Wolf pattern is due to being able to handle even heaviest volume up front and not going crazy when sees flying backends. On right conditions ball hits harder than about any other ball. Dull blunt super heavy hit like a sap knocking someone out.
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Maybe contact Ronald Hickland Jr at Creating the difference. They sell a product, So Fresh & So Clean Bowling Ball Life Extender, that is supposed to rejuvenate and restore the cover. He says it puts tackifiers back into the cover, not sure about plasticizers though. Check with them and see if it would work on the Epoxy cover in the EPX. If he doesn't have a product, he will know what you might be able to do to make sure your cover doesn't get brittle.