But it can also get clogged with too much polish.
Aramith Cleaner left balls with spots
- Thread starter northshoremb
- Start date
I have a Bludworth ball machine. I still apply Aramith cleaner in a bucket and hand wipe the balls with plastic gloves. Then I remove the dried cleaner with a cotton rag, without going too crazy, then drop them in the ball machine. The pads don't accumulate cleaner that way.
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Each other
Same here. Wet polish no longer goes into the machine.
Nyquil
Well-known member
It's pretty tough to do especially with Glen's recommendation of using the megs cleaner wax. Once every three months I vacuum it out (get rid of chalk particles) and take rubbing alcohol wipes and wipe the carpet down. Alcohol breaks down the residual wax.
Nyquil
Well-known member
It does make the balls slick for a few racks no doubt about that but it doesn't last long especially on a ball return table. It's really like playing with new cloth for a few racks then they get more grabby so to speak. I thought about trying a dedicated cleaner but the stuff works so well and I can get the excess out of the carpet easily with alcohol I am just gonna stick with it.
The pool hall I play BCA out of uses Meguiar's Cleaner Wax in their Diamond polisher. The balls play absolutely terrible out of the polisher. The cue ball runs excessively long, balls slide off the rail when banking and the balls don't throw. It takes more than a few racks for them to play normal. We're lucky if that happens by the time we are halfway through. Balls shouldn't be cleaned with any product that has silicone in it unless you are putting on a trick shot exhibition.
ANY Cleaner that affects "the first few racks" and then returns to "normal" is moving residue on the balls to become residue on the table. Over time, that is not a good thing. Also, it requires compensation in aim and stroke to accommodate the changing condition of the balls.
Consistency in both cleaning, and performance AFTER cleaning, should be the goal shouldn't it?
I don't know of a universal solution to this but I do know ONE solution...
At the recommendation of some here, and the manufacturer of my Clean Gleem machine, I spray a mixture of 1 cup of 91% isopropyl alcohol to 1 tablespoon of Aramith cleaner on the balls as they are in the machine. Some say that using alcohol gets the balls "too clean" and causes measurable increase in throw. What you really get is a rack of balls that plays just like the first time you took them out of the box brand new. Just like at the pool hall where balls are cleaned often, balls cleaned with this mixture in this way play CONSISTENTLY and that is my preference.
Isn't this why pro tournaments are ordinarily played on tables with new cloth, and new sets of balls right out of the box?
northshoremb
Registered
Really good point. Everytime I see a video of guys using Car wax on balls I shake my head. Yes they look shiny but balls arnt made to have car wax and play way way differently. Also like you said that wax will wear off on the cloth
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Everyone here is so focused on what is used to clean the balls that ALL of you have overlook the most IMPORTANT thing about keeping the balls clean, and playing right rack after rack! CLEAN THE DAMN CLOTH! If the cloth is kept clean, that in furn keeps the balls clean, even more so than any ball polisher can! Clean balls don't LAST on DIRTY CLOTH!!!
northshoremb
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Brand new cloth cleaned every day with Simonis X, Soft bristle handheld vacuum. Balls get dirty from hands always reracking with normal body oils as well as chalk transfer from cueball. Balls don't get dirty only from cloth
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And just exactly what do you do to remove your had oils rubbed off on the cloth?
northshoremb
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Clean with microfiber but usually microfiber ball buffer to polish
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The cloth?
northshoremb
Registered
Oh didn't know you meant cloth. Nothing I know of I just mist some water/vinegar spray and use microfiber squeegee but no idea about oils
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All that does is cause the cloth to loosen up.
What you need to do in order to clean the cloth is take a small bucket of water, pour in a cap full of wool items, fill with as hot of water you can stand to put your hands in, wear gloves if needed. Then soak a clean rag in the water, a wash cloth if you want. Then wring out the rag as tight as you can, single layer the rag on the cloth, then with your hand placed in the middle of the rag, scrub the cloth in circulation motions, turning the rag over, doing that again. Then rinse the rag out, and repeat the process until the entire surface of the cloth has been scrubbed down. The HOT water temperature of the rag will try and evaporate the water right away, and the temperature of the rag will try and shrink the cloth, because heat shrinks wool & nylon, and the woolite is non-sudsing detergent like hair shampoo, so it breaks down the hand oils and another impurities on the surface of the cloth, and the rag picks it up. When you do this, if you look at the rag you'll see your hand print on the cleaning side if the rag from picking up the oils on the surface of the cloth. Then the clean cloth will actually feel cleaner when you slide your hands over it, and the balls will actually slide better on the cloth, and help in keeping the balls nice and shiny.
northshoremb
Registered
BUT, before you clean the cloth this way, make SURE you vacuum the cloth first, and get all the chalk residual out of, and off of the cloth leaving it grit and dust free.
Nyquil
Well-known member
It's a fair point. With this said any polisher compound is bound to leave some sort of surfactant on the balls regardless of silicone composition or otherwise. I wipe my Aramiths down in a two stage process with two micro fibers over 500 gsm from the rag company. Not much of it is left imho. I see no residual deposits anywhere on my cloth, return lines, or in the main return area. (I would see hazing in the black return lines that would indicate wax build up) I have good piece of mind knowing I can actually scrub out the residual wax out of the carpet of the machine with isopropyl alcohol wipes. The aramith stuff seems really tacky and Glen warned me of this. I don't know if even alcohol can break this stuff down. Also with the inherent slickness of the product I don't need to worry about balls circling at a high RPM with no lubrication. Anyway I hope the OP gets his balls sorted that is not a cheap set he has.
Cheers
Brent