Polishing issue with Cyclop

coxcol15

coxcol15

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
My BCA bought a set of traditional color cyclop balls about a year ago. We take them to our local happy to get cleaned every 6 weeks or so. The first time or two, they seemed to get clean. But they're not staying shiny very long and seemingly getting worse over time. Anyone else having issues getting them to polish? It sucks that this local Hall is the only place to get them cleaned in the area and I feel it could be whatever he's using but the balls in the hall always look perfect
 
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
coxcol15 said:
My BCA bought a set of traditional color cyclop balls about a year ago. We take them to our local happy to get cleaned every 6 weeks or so. The first time or two, they seemed to get clean. But they're not staying shiny very long and seemingly getting worse over time. Anyone else having issues getting them to polish? It sucks that this local Hall is the only place to get them cleaned in the area and I feel it could be whatever he's using but the balls in the hall always look perfect
Click to expand...
Need to know what type of cleaning additve is being used. Sans that, it is all conjecture.
I have a set and they have gone through polisher many times, with no diminishing returns
 
coxcol15

coxcol15

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I understand that, just seems odd that there is a difference in results from aramith to cyclop. I'll try to figure out what he's using
 
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
coxcol15 said:
I understand that, just seems odd that there is a difference in results from aramith to cyclop. I'll try to figure out what he's using
Click to expand...

And how much/ how often too.

I presume it is a single platter? Is the polishing just put them in/ take em out, or is part of it a hand job?

Yeah, I said that.
 
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ooh and something else I've learned: after polishing, the balls need to cure for a little while. Can't play with them right away.
 
coxcol15

coxcol15

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Black-Balled said:
Ooh and something else I've learned: after polishing, the balls need to cure for a little while. Can't play with them right away.
Click to expand...

They've never been used the same day as polishing, I know that. As far as the process, i have no idea how he does them, I've never been the one to take them to him. Just seeing the results is what triggered me to ask around
 
lfigueroa

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
coxcol15 said:
My BCA bought a set of traditional color cyclop balls about a year ago. We take them to our local happy to get cleaned every 6 weeks or so. The first time or two, they seemed to get clean. But they're not staying shiny very long and seemingly getting worse over time. Anyone else having issues getting them to polish? It sucks that this local Hall is the only place to get them cleaned in the area and I feel it could be whatever he's using but the balls in the hall always look perfect
Click to expand...


I have a couple of Cyclop sets and after multiple runs in the paddy wagon they still polish up fine.

Maybe they’re not running them through the polisher long enough or not using any polishing agent when they run your set.

Lou Figueroa
 
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
coxcol15 said:
They've never been used the same day as polishing, I know that. As far as the process, i have no idea how he does them, I've never been the one to take them to him. Just seeing the results is what triggered me to ask around
Click to expand...

I imagine we are gonna be using the elimitation strategy to get figure this out.

I say snap a pic of the polisher too, if possible.
 
coxcol15

coxcol15

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Black-Balled said:
I imagine we are gonna be using the elimitation strategy to get figure this out.

I say snap a pic of the polisher too, if possible.
Click to expand...

So heres an update for you. First of all, one of my teammates was at a match last weekend at a local legion. Noticed there equipment was in great shape considering it's a pretty crappy bar. Clean table and a super shiny set of balls. Come to find out they have a polisher, but we'll come back to that.

Did a bunch of reading on cleaning methods people are using. So my buddy soaked the cyclop in warm water with a little Dawn dish soap for an hour or so. Got them out and scrubbed them with a micrfiber and got almost all the spots off but still looked crappy. Then he decided to put them in the dishwasher, with low heat and no detergent (he saw that online too), they came out clean as can be but now super dull. This was 3 hours before a match. So he scrambled and decided to call the old man at the legion. Ran over there and gave the guy 5 bucks to run them through their machine. So right before the man starts the machine, he tells my friend to not share his secret solution. A drop of water, that's it. No polish, no cleaner, nothing but a drop of water. He shows up last night to our match with the balls and they're like brand new again. Completely mind blown. The balls at the pool hall are always prestine but they can never get out cyclop to shine. And it all gets resolved with a little scrubbing follows by a drop of water in a ball polisher
 
M

Meucciplayer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think part of the problem might be ball polishing machines - i.e. being used incorrectly. The guy who sold me mine said: Never use any polishing agent inside the machine. If you need to use Aramith polisher etc., do it by hand and let the balls dry before putting them in the machine.

I think this may well be true. I have seen a lot of muck build up in some machines where this advice was unknown. And that muck will do the opposite of cleaning balls. It will smear them. The carpet/textile in the machine will sooner or later be a mucky mess and won't clean the balls.

WRT why the Cyclop balls did not clean as well as the Aramiths I just have an educated guess. The Aramiths from the pool hall have been heavily used compared to privately owned Cyclops balls, right? So one set of balls is new and the others are full of micro scratches. Which would make a difference, IMHO.
 
Bavafongoul

Bavafongoul

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Could be due to built up wax that needs to be removed and polishing only adds to the problem.
Try using Aramith restorer & then use the polish; the restorer is more abrasive so it will remove
any buildup of surface wax. Afterwards, use Aramith polish & the appearance should be better.
 
J

jrctherake

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I normally hand clean them with denatured alcohol and then use arimath cleaner/polish on then while in a single platter ball cleaner.

I usually clean / polish them once every 25 - 30 hours of play. 25 to 30 hours of play is normally 3 to 4 days if I have people over to play but if I'm running drills by myself, it usually takes 6 or 7 days to hit 30ish hours of play.
 
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In my experience, dish soap leads to dry balls...which makes them super clingy. I guess it strips the supplied finish.

No experience with the dishwasher or using water to polish my balls, but I'd think it would lead to similar stripping effects.
 
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