Cleaning Balls - Machine vs Hand

I made a bucket cleaner 10 years ago that works great. I learned from someone on here about making a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and aramith ball cleaner in a spray bottle. I give them a little squirt and they look great 🤷🏻‍♂️ I’ve thought about buying a ball star cleaner on amazon but why bother lol
 
As I earlier acknowledged, I have had a BallStar since the early 90’s. It works absolutely great with a 8 ball capacity.
Nonetheless, the Clean Gleem is $200 less, shipping should be less, no tariff surcharges and is American made.

If you ever needed parts, although BallStar is known for its ruggedness & reliability, everything is subject to breakage.
Getting replacements parts, unless some distributor happens to have it which is increasingly rare, will be a real bitch.

Seems like Clean Gleem deserves your consideration if you are looking for a brand new pool ball cleaning machine.
I’m just tickled I got my BallStar long ago and it cost under a couple hundred bucks. It has served me very reliably.
 
nataddrho said:
Nobody in my generation would even know what this is, and I'm over 40. Everyone wears sneakers now.
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HA HA- I saw this at a yard sale and thought " what would I do with it - since leather shoes are past history- and for $1 I bought it thinking- great for billiard ball final buff out as well as pool cue and pool cue buff outs after cleaning and waxing. Actually works great! shoe buffer.jpg
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I do not have a ball cleaning machine. I had my balls cleaned once at a billiards store that used a machine and I didn't think it was done very good.

So when I clean my balls I use some Aramith Ball Cleaner and put a light coat on the balls. Then after I get all the balls coated I take a dry towel and wipe them off. Then I take a different dry towel and hand clean/buff them again. Seems to work fine.

My question is - would a machine clean the balls better than I do by hand? As we all know clean, polished balls will find the pockets a little better than dirty balls.

r/DCP
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You can do it by hand. I would take the time to clean the table first, with damp paper towels, or a clean washcloth. Afterwards, wipe the balls with a couple damp paper towels. You'll hear opinions that say a motorized ball cleaner is the way to go, but I don't think so. Over time, dirt and grit is naturally going to get in that motorized ball cleaner, and wear the balls down some. You don't want that. It takes me a couple minutes to clean the balls with damp paper towels.
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I do not have a ball cleaning machine. I had my balls cleaned once at a billiards store that used a machine and I didn't think it was done very good.

So when I clean my balls I use some Aramith Ball Cleaner and put a light coat on the balls. Then after I get all the balls coated I take a dry towel and wipe them off. Then I take a different dry towel and hand clean/buff them again. Seems to work fine.

My question is - would a machine clean the balls better than I do by hand? As we all know clean, polished balls will find the pockets a little better than dirty balls.

r/DCP
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Yeah, dirty balls really suck. I mean they just do. But be careful whencleaning your balls with ball cleaner, you may get an allergic reaction so I would test spots before I completely covered them in the cleaner. I wouldn't even consider putting them in a machine that could be dangerous and you may not like the outcome. Cleaning them by hand is the best way because they will never be cleaner.

Good luck :ROFLMAO:
 
I clean by hand because I enjoy it.

But I am also one of those weirdos that enjoys cleaning guns after shooting and my own maintenance on cars and motorcycles.

YMMV
 
DrCue'sProtege said:
I do not have a ball cleaning machine. I had my balls cleaned once at a billiards store that used a machine and I didn't think it was done very good.

So when I clean my balls I use some Aramith Ball Cleaner and put a light coat on the balls. Then after I get all the balls coated I take a dry towel and wipe them off. Then I take a different dry towel and hand clean/buff them again. Seems to work fine.

My question is - would a machine clean the balls better than I do by hand? As we all know clean, polished balls will find the pockets a little better than dirty balls.

r/DCP
Click to expand...
I built a pool ball cleaner from an orbital polisher and a harbor freight 5 gallon bucket and use microfiber bonnets, it cost about $50, you can get videos on YouTube on how to do it, took me an hour or so to build, I use the Arimith ball polish and a little rubbing alcohol and they come out way cleaner than by hand, I clean 8 balls at a time and run them for 3-5 minutes, you really do need to use a microfiber bonnet and towel, it's what Arimith recommends for cleaning, I couldn't justify the price of a pool ball cleaning machine, I don't know if mine cleans like a real one but it made a set of beat up coin table balls look outstanding, cleaned the balls from my league table and everyone was impressed, all in all, it is a great $50 investment and I'm sure I have wasted more money than that on pool related stuff that didn't work out 😉
 
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