Cue ball cleaning
Steve B
to clean my cue ball. It's an Aramith. Water doesn't faze the chalk marks a
lot. Don't want to mess it up. What's good to clean it with?
Steve
Ron Shepard
"Steve B" <desert...@dishmail.net> wrote:
If possible, take it to a room that has a ball cleaner and borrow or
rent it for the job. One of these can clean and polish a set of
balls in a couple of minutes, and it would take you hours to do the
equivalent job by hand. You can buy special ball cleaner, but I
think something like Windex does just as good. You probably don't
want anything with wax in it. It does make the balls slick for a
few minutes, but it wears off quickly. Also, after the wax gets
into the cloth I think it tends to trap the chalk dust, which is a
bad thing. And you don't want anything abrasive, such as Comet.
That makes the ball-ball friction high, which increases object ball
throw. So basically you want just soap and water and elbow grease,
but you want to use a soap or detergent that doesn't leave a film on
the balls.
I've heard a few people here say that if you use something with
ammonia in it that it will turn the balls pinkish. I don't think
this is permanent, but you might want to avoid ammonia too. Some
Windex does have ammonia in it, so you might want to avoid that
kind. I've never noticed any pink color myself, but as I say,
several people have made this comment in the past.
$.02 -Ron Shepard
ernie
Get yourself a box of Mr. Cleaner Magic Eraser pads or the equivalent
generic versions sold by Walmart and Safeway supermakets, to name a
few. They're all an expanded melamine discovered in Germany, actually
chemically related to the melamine used for countertops and OfficeMax
furniture products, but altered in the manufacturing to emerge as a
remarkable foam pad that is super for the small-scale cleaning of pool
balls.
Just spray water on a small corner of the pad or drip or dip a few
drops of water onto it, and simply rub half of the ball then quickly
(while the lifted now-moist chalk dust is still wet) dry off that half
with a kleenex or paper towel. Then grip the cue ball (or any ball)
by the cleaned half and repeat on the dirty half.
This works wonderfully for quick and easy small-scale cleaning, and in
no way harms today's very hard balls, least of all Aramiths.
I get at least 40 cleanups out of each pad by this method, using every
square inch of the pad at different times. Used sideways (on the
edge), wetting a small area of the pad's edge, is great for cleaning
ferrules with a few spins and quickly wiping the moisture off.
Ernie
John Black
d60247...@k19g2000pro.googlegroups.com>, ernesto-s...@usa.net
says...
> Just spray water on a small corner of the pad or drip or dip a few
> drops of water onto it, and simply rub half of the ball then quickly
> (while the lifted now-moist chalk dust is still wet) dry off that half
> with a kleenex or paper towel. Then grip the cue ball (or any ball)
> by the cleaned half and repeat on the dirty half.
Ernie, just curious, what would be wrong with cleaning the entire ball
before drying it with a paper towel? Why just half?
By the way, I found out about Magic Eraser on RSB many years ago for
cleaning shafts - works great but you have to burnish with a leather pad
(generate some heat) afterward to re-seal the wood or else the shaft feels
slightly "hairy" and not slick.
John Black
ernie
> before drying it with a paper towel? Why just half?
Maybe it's just me, but whenever I tried doing the whole ball first I
kept transferring some dirt right back on parts of the ball (as a
result of continually re-gripping it).
And I know: "why not grip it with a rag instead of directly with my
fingers" and on and on. I just stated the method that I evolved which
works most expediently for me. Steve will naturally evolve whatever
holding/wiping system works best for him. Bringing the concept of
cleaning with the expanded melamine + water to his attention was my
concern. The rest is pretty unimportant in my view.
Ernie
Steve B
"ernie" <ernesto-s...@usa.net> wrote in message
news:2b84bf8d-2952-40ed...@x5g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Ernie
Did one today with the magic cleaner little white thingy. It worked great,
but same as the other guy, I kept putting chalky fingerprints back on it
when I changed hands to do the other half. Then I'd hold the scrubber in my
bottom hand, and hold the ball with my dry fingers and rub the cleaner. Dry
with paper towel, then grip the clean section with dry fingertips and
repeat. Takes several times to get them all. Didn't realize how dirty they
were.
Steve