Heavy Aramith Balls?

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DrCue'sProtege

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I almost always play with a set of Aramith SuperPro balls. I have had them for probably a dozen years or so. They have literally tons and TONS of playing time.

Is it normal for the balls to, for lack of a better term, age over the years? Could they be heavier now than they are supposed to be? Or is it my imagination that they seem heavier than what they should?

r/DCP
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I almost always play with a set of Aramith SuperPro balls. I have had them for probably a dozen years or so. They have literally tons and TONS of playing time.

Is it normal for the balls to, for lack of a better term, age over the years? Could they be heavier now than they are supposed to be? Or is it my imagination that they seem heavier than what they should?

r/DCP
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How would they get heavier?! Think!

The opposite is true! Your balls get lighter, since material gets scuffed and worn off. This is especially true of the cueball and any other ball that gets hit more frequently than the others. For example the one ball if you play rotation style pool (head of the rack).

You could get worse reaction from the balls, since they are no longer slick, but rather pitted and dull in the finish. If they are very banged up, they may not open up well when you break and may not even rack completely tight. Some people play only 9 or 10 ball and when they once in a while play straight pool or 8 ball, the ball set won't rack properly at all, even with a template. Balls 1-9 are very worn and the others are factory new. This happens with VERY worn balls. For careful home use, it's rare for balls to be this messed up.
 
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The balls have got to be lighter after years...the scales won’t lie.
But they may be deader....can balls lose their elasticity?
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I almost always play with a set of Aramith SuperPro balls. I have had them for probably a dozen years or so. They have literally tons and TONS of playing time.

Is it normal for the balls to, for lack of a better term, age over the years? Could they be heavier now than they are supposed to be? Or is it my imagination that they seem heavier than what they should?
Click to expand...

As they age, they get heavier? As they wear down, they would get heavier?

Is this a serious question? Do you have any way of measuring the weight of the balls? New, they weigh about 168 grams. As they wear, a bit less.

They have tons of playing time. What does that mean in playing time? How do you think they would gain weight?

God, the threads on here...
 
WildWing said:
As they age, they get heavier? As they wear down, they would get heavier?

Is this a serious question? Do you have any way of measuring the weight of the balls? New, they weigh about 168 grams. As they wear, a bit less.

They have tons of playing time. What does that mean in playing time? How do you think they would gain weight?

God, the threads on here...
Click to expand...

They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.

r/DCP
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.

r/DCP
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That explains why I have played so poorly all summer long. Bigger balls make for tighter pockets.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.
Click to expand...

You're crazy. Aramith balls do not gain weight. Do you still live with mommy and daddy? Is this a game for you?
 
A friend has a home GC with a set of Centennials. I'm guessing they're 25yrs old. He recently measured and weighed them and they were for all intents-n-purposes like new. A pool-hall set will definitely see more use/abuse but even those should be close to spec even after a lot of play. Aramiths are super-high quality and i don't see them changing much, if any, over time.
 
garczar said:
A friend has a home GC with a set of Centennials. I'm guessing they're 25yrs old. He recently measured and weighed them and they were for all intents-n-purposes like new. A pool-hall set will definitely see more use/abuse but even those should be close to spec even after a lot of play. Aramiths are super-high quality and i don't see them changing much, if any, over time.
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Correct. And they don't gain weight. Phenolic plastic does not take on moisture, or anything else. I honestly don't know where this crap comes from.

All the best,
WW
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.

r/DCP
Click to expand...

IF they expanded, it doesn’t mean they gained weight.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.

r/DCP
Click to expand...

Did you explain to your learned friend that the phenolic balls would be rolling on a cloth with embedded silica in it and also struck by a tip with even more embedded silica? How about the collisions between the balls?

Do you know what sandpaper is?
 
garczar said:
A friend has a home GC with a set of Centennials. I'm guessing they're 25yrs old. He recently measured and weighed them and they were for all intents-n-purposes like new. A pool-hall set will definitely see more use/abuse but even those should be close to spec even after a lot of play. Aramiths are super-high quality and i don't see them changing much, if any, over time.
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Sure they don't. Why don't you go down to your local pool hall with an ACCURATE scale and measure the cueball, comparing it to the others. (Obviously that only applies to matched sets of high quality balls). Close to spec. is nothing to be proud of. Pool ball specs, along with all other significant pool specs are ridiculously tolerant. This is because the equipment manufacturers have had too much power in pool. The range of weights can vary by as much as half an ounce! That is INSANE. It's 14 flipping grams and no tolerance requirement is given, so guess what that means? A top of the line snooker set is within 1 gram, the tolerance permitted by the rules is 3 grams! However no standard weight is given in snooker, so in that regard they are more permissive in theory.

In my experience the best Aramith sets are within 1 gram. Mine were, I haven't measured them in a while, but maybe I will (super pros). My pool hall ALSO has Super Pros, and let me tell you, those balls are not EVEN close to being as factory new. The weight varies wildly.
 
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DrCue'sProtege said:
I almost always play with a set of Aramith SuperPro balls. I have had them for probably a dozen years or so. They have literally tons and TONS of playing time.

Is it normal for the balls to, for lack of a better term, age over the years? Could they be heavier now than they are supposed to be? Or is it my imagination that they seem heavier than what they should?

r/DCP
Click to expand...
It's possible if the cue ball has gotten smaller and conceivably lighter over years of play, then relatively speaking, the object balls might indeed now be slightly heavier than the cue ball, and maybe this is what you're experiencing?
 
WildWing said:
As they age, they get heavier? As they wear down, they would get heavier?

Is this a serious question? Do you have any way of measuring the weight of the balls? New, they weigh about 168 grams. As they wear, a bit less.

They have tons of playing time. What does that mean in playing time? How do you think they would gain weight?

God, the threads on here...
Click to expand...

:rotflmao:
 
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DrCue'sProtege said:
They are made of phenolic resin. As resin wears and heats up, it has a slight micro-tendency to expand. Therefore it is possible in the laboratory.

A chemist told me this over the weekend.

r/DCP
Click to expand...

If you can tell the effect of the balls heating up while in use and causing a difference to your feel of them, you should rent yourself out to science to study your brain and muscles. Aside from that anyone with a 5th grade or so science education should realize that expansion through heating does not mean weight gain.
 
iusedtoberich said:
Its further from the center of the Earth! :grin-square::grin-square::grin-square:
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That and also it has more buoyancy in the air.

I always have a portable barometer in my case for important matches and tricky shots. Jump shots in Denver are doubly hard to judge.

(On a related note, I used to clean and calibrate mercury barometers, which explains quite a bit. But I don't remember what.)
 
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