Bowling ball repair a crack

Since bowling balls are made of three different layers of materials, they can react to temperature and humidity differences. If you remember your elementary school science classes, heat and humidity can cause materials to expand and contract. If you subject your bowling ball to sudden, drastic changes in the ambient temperature, those layers of materials can expand and contract at different rates, causing cracks.

However, if the damage is small or cosmetic, you may be able to save your bowling ball. Cracks can be repaired with the help of a bowling ball repair kit—or you can buy sealant, sandpaper and polish on your own. Everyone likes their bowling balls to be as pristine as they were the day they got them, especially if you are competing. Luckily, repairing cosmetic damage like small chips and scrapes is a pretty easy process.

In this step, you will sand the whole bowling ball to restore its even surface. During this process, make sure to keep the ball sprayed down with water. This will help to cut down on dust as well as make it easier for the sandpaper to stay even on the surface without jumping, skipping, or otherwise not making full contact with the surface of the ball. Lower grit sandpapers will provide more of a hook to the ball as it moves. No matter what you decide on, however, it is best to cross-sand at a ninety-degree angle to the original sanding direction to allow for more consistent play after the initial sanding is complete.

This step is going to seem obvious to anyone who has sanded before, but it bears saying. After the sanding is finished, and you have cleaned up any excess dust, you will want to apply a polish to the now-repaired ball. This will both restore the finish on the outside, allowing for consistent play with no damage to the lane, and restore that shine that bowlers love to have on their balls.

The polish can be applied either by hand or using a spinner. No matter what you choose to use, however, make sure that the entire ball gets covered in polish or it will create an imbalance in the ball. Small cracks can really throw a wrench into your game. It will cause balls to roll poorly, inaccurately, or possibly not roll at all.

For these types of repairs, you will need some materials you might not have at your home. A bowling ball repair kit can be purchased for relatively inexpensive, which will have most of the materials you will need to complete your repair. Small cracks must be sealed before any other repairs can be done to the ball. Bowling ball repair kits will come with a usually liquid sealer and an accelerator that is formulated to match and allow the repair to complete and remain together.

Mix the sealer and accelerator according to the directions, and apply it to the bowling ball. When applying the sealant mixture, make sure to completely fill the crack. In some kits, the accelerator will be applied as a spray after the sealant has been introduced to the crack rather than mixed in. No matter what, make sure to follow the directions featured with your kit of choice.

Allow the sealant to dry completely before moving on to the next step. It is also important to note that woodworking or automotive resin sealer is formulated very differently from bowling ball sealer. Like with cosmetic damages, the next step in repairing a small crack on a bowling ball is to sand the whole ball. Take great care to make sure you are still careful around the repaired crack, as sealants from some manufacturers can take as long as three or more days to set fully depending on the environment they are in.

When sanding, make sure the ball stays wet. Your bowling ball was cured at the factory, but it will continue to cure for months or years afterward. It may be that a new ball has at least ten or more years of reliable life and can benefit your game over that duration. If proper routine maintenance is performed on any bowling ball, the chances are that the ball will last five to ten years minimum with effectiveness and reliability.

Pros often donate old equipment to youth leagues. But most balls end up in the trash, and more than a few make a stop at a recycling plant first. Employees pull bowling balls by hand, dropping them down a chute or piling them with other waste to be carted away to landfills. Bowling Ball Cleaner Recipe One of the most widely-accepted solutions for a homemade bowling ball cleaner requires equal parts Simple Green, isopropyl alcohol rubbing alcohol and water.

Just mix these three into a regular spray bottle and it makes for an effective, cheap cleaner. Overall, bowling balls can be made of three different types of coverstock materials — polyester, urethane, and resin reactive urethane.